Today Newspapers, covering suburbs southwest of Dallas, closes its doors

by PegNews wire

Today Newspapers, formerly known as the Suburban chain, folded for good on Wednesday.

The family of newspapers, which were content partners with Pegasus News, included Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, Lancaster, and Grand Prairie.

Mike Orren got this email:

A sad note to pass along.

Today we received word that Today Newspapers is closing its doors. We almost made it to our 50th anniversary covering the Best Southwest communities.

My hero Ted Allen has been covering Duncanville sports for more than four decades and as for myself, my relationship with the publishing group spans 25 years as photographer, automotive editor and webmaster.

I wish all of my former co-workers the best of luck.

David Goodspeed

The Web site stripped all of the news stories a little after midnight. This history of the paper was also deleted:

Today Newspapers, Inc. (formerly named Suburban Publishers) was established in 1960. The first issue of the Duncanville Suburban was published on Aug. 5, 1960. The company operated as a single entity until 1968 when expansion via starting or buying newspapers in the five neighboring communities began. In 1985, the company was sold by the original owners, Royce and Lillian Brown, to Bluebonnet Media, headed by Ted Rickenbacker. The new owners sold the company to Sutherland Media in December 1987. After a difficult year in 1988, caused by the Texas economy and too rapid expansion Sutherland filed for federal protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Act. The company was operated by The Dallas Times Herald until it was sold to Richard H. Collins in December 1991. In January 1992, the new identity of the newspapers group was launched and the next phase of the company's history began. In 1995 Mr. Collins purchased the monthly tabloid Bingo Bonanza. It is located at the DeSoto office. The Best Southwest Real Estate magazine was established in April 2003. It is a monthly glossy magazine published for the real estate industry. It is located in the DeSoto office. On May 1, 2006, Ad Director Kim Petty and then Managing Editor Robin Gooch purchased the newspapers from Collins and in September, 2007, Petty became sole owner of Today Newspapers, Inc. The newspapers in the Today Newspapers, Inc. family includes Cedar Hill Today, DeSoto Today, Duncanville Today, Grand Prairie Today and Lancaster Today. In February, 2008, Today Newspapers, Inc. moved to their current location at 1314 S. Main St. in Duncanville.

Meanwhile, the July 2 entry on the company's blog says:

"R.I.P. Today Newspapers, formerly Suburban Publishers, Inc."

Sad.

Posted by T.G.

Staff
Verified User
Anonymous

ebpope, says:

Can't help but wonder if the Larry Lewis fiasco of paying for subscriptions for all LISD students' families contributed to the demise. RIP to a great paper.

EB Pope Lancaster

Anonymous

5 months ago
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qdbrown, says:

I'm the son of the late Royce Brown, former publisher of the Suburban. In fact I was named after my father's popular column called Little 'd'.

I remember the 70's &80's. This was a good time for local newspapers. My father even help me start my newspaper in Duncanville back in the late 80's called the duncanvillite that ultimately demised to competition favoring my father's original so I was not a big fan of the publication after that point, and went on to new endeavors which included an initial degree plan at North Texas in Journalism writing for the Daily as my father did in the 1950's, I put my name in their books in the 1990's as a writer.

So when I heard my father's old publication faltering, I was actually excited because I never really saw it as the pure local newspaper that was bent on news after my father retired, and although my father made so many political enemies which I faced going to local schools, practically tortured for it, he really believed in telling the story, and story wrote itself. He hated bias, he loved the underdog, and had a talent for writing in a way that he could make anything interesting. Once I had a guy who I met selling subscriptions for my publication who told me that in his life he never met a person who could make the sand pile in his frontyard a wonderful story, but that is news in a small town, which not always has a corrupt politicain or bank scandal going on, that each week something has to run, and it best be intersting and feel like news, and that was my father's talent.

Once the new owners came in, they ran it like a business than a newspaper. That's what made it impure. That's why I see so many other publications sinking is that they are mere businesses with objectives that put the dollar sign before the news, and it showed as it does with most other news outlets. Then when blogging became a hit, it wasn't because of anything special, but a very basic way to communicate to your local readers about stuff they were interested in. It is dynamic, and have a spirit that many can relate to. Not a few local stories blocked heavy with advertising that tends to have more promotional deals just to get businesses into the spirit of creating ad budgets. This is all great, and a good business plan, but makes for stories that either suffer being marginal or biased to get specific support. It loses that direct contact with the reader who slowly gets bored with this sloppy journalism.

That is why I am happy to see the death of the current newspaper model. I know many fear what will happen if you do not have a press organization watching out for everyone, and I totally agree. It's just that most news outlets these days are not watching out for us. I say good ridence.

I have heard in the grapevine that some locals are buying the Duncanville Suburban name and are working to revive the paper. I wish them well, and hope they try to actually tell some good stories, and become a mecca of local news.