The Kingsville Record and the Texas A&M-Kingsville South Texan student newspaper are making news of their own as the two have launched an historic collaboration.
The two newspapers have tentatively agreed to share relevant stories and work on joint projects that will benefit the community.
The new partnership between the storied Kingsville Record and the award-winning South Texan promises to incorporate more university events and news in The Kingsville Record and in turn, more community events and government meeting coverage will appear in The South Texan.
In addition, the two newspaper entities have reached a pending joint selling agreement allowing The Record to sell advertising into The South Texan and vice versa, proving additional exposure to local and area businesses.
“The world of journalism is constantly changing, but the importance of the role journalists play in their communities has not. To maximize our resources and to provide more real-world experience for our students, this groundbreaking collaboration between our student newspaper, The South Texan, and The Kingsville Record not only benefits the university, but the community as well. The community will now have access to print news twice a week,” Nicole Perez Morris, lecturer and faculty adviser of The South Texan, said.
Students gaining more hands-on experience is an immeasurable benefit.
โI look forward to the development of a unique relationship between The Kingsville Record and The South Texan that will offer our students more opportunities to gain experience outside of the classroom,” said Chair of the Art, Communication & Theatre Department Todd Lucas.
The collaboration is truly groundbreaking.
“This is a major agreement and accomplishment,” said Kingsville Record Editor and Publisher Terry Fitzwater. “I have checked with a couple of statewide newspaper associations and discovered this type of joint selling and news sharing arrangement with a local newspaper and student newspaper has never happened before. There have been elements, but nothing of this magnitude. I am excited to be a part of making Texas newspaper publishing history. Furthermore, it is time for the community to fully embrace the University, its resources and its talents in order for our community to evolve and prosper.”
Student journalists appreciate the opportunity to have their articles published in The Record.
“The South Texan editors, reporters and I are looking forward to this collaboration,” The South Texan Editor-in-Chief Aryssa Enriquez said. “Reporting on the university and now the community allows journalism majors and student interested in journalism to expand their portfolios and experience.”
The first manifestation of this groundbreaking collaboration can be found in this week’s edition of The South Texan and Kingsville Record as both papers participated in selling a Welcome Javalinas! edition. The edition is in all newsstand copies of The Kingsville Record this week and was distributed across the university campus late last week as students began arriving.