About Us

MISSION STATEMENT

1. The Moore County News*Press is the chronicle of life in Dumas and all of Moore county. Our objective is to provide quality service to: Our readers; Individual and corporate advertisers; Civic groups, schools, churches and all others who use our newspaper as a source of publicity; and Printing Customer

2. The golden rule by which we operate is this: We strive to give our clients the type of service we would like to receive.

3. We do not profess to be perfect. We will, occasionally, make mistakes, although we will strive constantly to eliminate them. We understand that the way in which we handle complaints from our readers and advertisers is often more important than whatever error we may have committed. If there is some question as to the way in which a dispute between the newspaper and a client is to be resolved, we will try to err on the side of the client.

4. We strive to practice "refrigerator journalism". We want people clipping items out of our newspaper for scrapbooks. The more names and faces in each issue of The News*Press the better!

5. At the same time, we will not shy away from the tough issues which face our community. We will strive to uncover those stories which our readers expect to readóand need to readóin order to be fully informed about their community.

6.The primary emphasis of our newspaper is local: Dumas, Sunray, Cactus, Etter and Moore county.

7. Our editorial page will service as the public forum for our community. At least one editorial weekly will have local focus. One column weekly will be written locally. Our letters to the editor column will be open to all and we will do whatever we can to ensure that all letters written to us are published in The Moore County News*Press. On the editorial page, we will point out what is bad and wrong with equal fervor, along with possible solutions to correct those problems we identify. We will actively campaign to make Moore county a better place to live.

8. Above all, our aim is to "get it into the paper". If an item interests our readers, it interests us.

THE NEWS-PRESS HISTORY

The founders of The Moore County News came down from Guymon, Okla., in 1927, to start a newspaper in a community that through the years had witnessed more than one paper appear, flourish briefly, then silently fold.

Since that first issue, on June 17, 1927, the newspaper has undergone some changes, including the name, but has published without interruption.

Ralph Miller and Amos DeWolfe are identified as the founders. Miller was the son of Giles E. Miller, longtime Guymon publisher, and DeWolfe was Giles Miller's son-in-law. Another family member, Miss Fern Miller, was listed as editor.

The newspaper, from the beginning, was a cheerleader for Moore County and Dumas. But, before 1927 was out, DeWolfe had returned to Guymon. The only name on the masthead, then, was Miller.

Miller brought W. W. "Hick" Halcomb on the scene a couple of years later. He wrote a column, "World's Greatest Hick," and later became a Texas legislator and Washington administrator. But, the Great Depression claimed many jobs. Halcomb's place on the newspaper staff was one such victim, and he left in 1933.

Miss Fern Miller moved to Guymon, Oklahoma, and married Ed Colson. In the 1930s, they migrated to Rogers, Arkansas. The Colsons later moved back to Texas, living in Higgins. Mrs. Colson lived out the latter years of her life in a home at Canadian.

In 1936, The News apparently underwent a change in ownership, little noted in the newspaper's columns. Fred C. Wortham, formerly of Dimmitt, was the new editor-publisher, in association with N. D. Bartlett and T. E. Johnson.

In an effort to improve the newspaper's finances, Wortham went to a daily publication, an experiment that was short-lived.

In 1937, Wortham moved on and a new name appeared on the masthead and would remain there for 18 years. W. R. "Bill" Rutherford had been in advertising and promoting cooking schools in Amarillo before coming to Dumas to publish the newspaper.

Early on, Rutherford and a Dumas banker, Cecil Baer, teamed up to put The Moore County News on an even financial footing.

In the late 1930s a printer joined the organization and would play a role in later years in the newspaper business of Dumas and Moore County. Gene Sanders went to work in 1939 for Rutherford and remained responsible for the mechanical end of the business until the mid-1950s.

A young newsman, Daniel E. "Gene" Alford, joined the staff in 1950 and five years later, he ; worked out a deal with Rutherford and Baer to buy The Moore County News. His partner was Howard Jacob.

Under the direction of the pair, The News outgrew the old quarters and a new building was constructed at Eighth and Meredith. Soon thereafter, Alford left and Jacob took over active management.

In the meantime, the former printer, Gene Sanders, had founded The North Plains Press in 1960 and the publication became a competition for The News. Jacob moved publication up to five days a week, with a new name, The Moore County Daily News. The daily never quite got off the ground and two newspapers in the community proved to be one too many.

A veteran newsman and publisher, Dick Reavis, arrived in Dumas in 1964, buying controlling interest in The Daily News on October 1. Sixty days later, he acquired The Press, also, and by the end of the year, The Moore County News-Press, had been converted to semi-weekly operation. Old press and linotype equipment went out the door in favor of the more modern offset printing and, to accommodate the changing operation a few years later, in 1974, a new building was constructed just across the alley, at Seventh and Meredith.

Slightly less than 19 years after purchasing the newspaper, Dick Reavis and his family sold their interests to Houston-based Southern Newspapers, Inc., and the paper was purchased by Lancaster Management Group in September 2000.

Another publication, North Plains Agriculture, was founded in March 1989, to serve the agricultural interests in a broad area of the Texas Panhandle counties. Today, the product is known as Tri-State Ag quarterly magazine, which covers a portion of three states -- Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

While personnel and technology changes have occurred through the years, the basic philosophy of The Moore County News-Press has not changed since 1927, to produce a community newspaper about people and happenings in Moore county.