Get to know your crew at the largest rural weekly paper in Texas
There are 14 people working at the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post, who are committed to telling the story of Fredericksburg.
In celebration of National Newspaper Week, readers will get a glimpse into the lives of the workers who all agree that their job is a labor of love that revolves around their shared love of the community.
“I’m a fourth-generation publisher, so there is ink in my blood. I view what we do as a community service, which was instilled in me by my parents and grandparents at a young age,” said Ken Esten Cooke, publisher of the Standard. “Every story in the paper is important to someone, so I appreciate that we can serve by providing news and publicity.”
News reporters
The news staff of four writes 100plus stories for every issue of the paper. Everything the public reads has been read in print, online and on social media has been edited by at least two individuals on staff.
Sherrie Geistweidt, who has been proofreading the Standard for 49
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“Newspapers are the recorded history of our community. If we’re not here to do this, who will? It’s up to us to carry the traditions forward.”
— Sherrie Geistweidt, 49-year employee years, started working at the newspaper when she was 16 years old. She was on the staff of the Fredericksburg High School Campus Comet, when it became a stand-alone printed newspaper in the late 1970s, under journalism instructor Cathy Collier, who later served as managing editor of the Standard.
Geistweidt, like Cooke, believes in the integrity of the printed word.
“Newspapers are the recorded history of our community,” Geistweidt said. “If we’re not here to do this, who will? It’s up to us to carry the traditions forward. We are the ones who tell the community it’s not Lady Bird Park, it’s called Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park.”
Like Geistweidt, Sports Editor Cary Burgess got into journalism early.
“My grandparents on my dad’s side had an old typewriter that they let me use as a young child. I used to make up my own sports stories, news and weather reports and type them up for fun,” he said. “My family always used newspapers and I would write datelines and make up stories, pretending to be a reporter. As an adult, all of my passions have come together and I have had a career in journalism that spans from being a newspaper reporter to radio personality and television weatherman. I’m living out all of my passions in journalism.”
For Christine Granados, managing editor, it was the code of ethics that drew her to journalism in her youth.
“I started working for the daily newspaper in El Paso, right out of high school. In fact, Gannett paid part of my way through college,” she said. “What appealed to me was the code of ethics that journalists follow. These guidelines are like the 10 Commandments for journalists — seek the truth and report it, do no harm, be accountable and transparent and act independently.”
The newest reporter on staff, Michael Rush, said she likes being a lifelong student and learning new things every day.
“My biggest motivation is the passion I get to experience second-hand from my sources, whether they are educators, business owners or researchers,” she said. “Through my work, I have the opportunity to share their stories and passions with the wider community.”
Advertising team
The newspaper advertising team has the pulse of the community, because they visit with business owners on a daily basis. The staff of three handles over 300 advertisements on a weekly basis. This does not include the advertisements in all 12 special sections that are published or the specialty magazine Rock and Vine.
Advertising Manager Cindy Clark said she has been reading the paper since 1986 when her parents moved to the area.
“When I had the opportunity to move to Fredericksburg from the Austin area and was looking for a new profession I could be content with and add value to, I saw a position open at the Standard and I wrote a letter to the publisher with my resume,” Clark said. “It has been a great opportunity to work for an integral part of the community and be in ‘the know’.”
She supervises two ad sales representatives Michelle Adams and Kimberly Giles.
Cooke, who has been publisher of the paper since 2012, said: “What keeps me motivated through this industry’s many challenges is that I believe there will always be the need for accurate information for the community, which we can provide. I also love helping small businesses, whether it’s through a feature story or coming up with an advertising package that works for them.
“There’s still a trust and legitimacy that comes with print — and it’s still a trusted medium when compared to social media,” he said. “I still believe good journalism helps inform the public. We’re often the only media at meetings where people are deciding how to spend our tax dollars, so our readers know they’ll be informed of what’s happening.”
Production/graphics team
A team of two graphic designers, Barney Kane and Riley Taber, put all the stories and advertisements together in the format readers see on the newsstands. And the two-man production team, Steven Cornehl and Jakob Newbaum, lead a crew of five part-timers who collate and deliver the print edition to homes in the city.
“I come face-to-face with many members of our community,” said Neubaum. “Seeing their smiles to get their products, or the light in their eyes as they tell me why they subscribe, will lead me to say that the joy and happiness we seem to bring these folks are two of the largest impacts I see (of our work).”
The front of house guardians of Dede Threadgill, Lissa Epperson and Karen Novak offer the public their first glimpse of the news operation. They are “jacks of all trades,” helping customers with news and advertising questions, subscriptions and payments as well guiding them to their state representative’s office or giving them the phone number to Pioneer Memorial Library.
New news era
Since the start of the millenium, the paper has had to diversify the way they get its message to readers.
The paper also publishes a fiveday- a-week email newsletter at 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. It has grown from 500 subscribers to 16,000-plus.
The company also posts regularly on social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Those impressions and accounts are trending upward.
On Facebook in September, the Standard reached over 77,800 accounts up from 27,000 in August.
While on Instagram, 11,800 accounts were reached in September and 6,400 were engaged in August.
Since Rush’s start, the Standard started posting on LinkedIn and has seen a rise of 1,300 impressions.
Burgess and Rush continue to live stream and break news online, which keep readers engaged and informed.
Football and homecoming social media posts saw 14,000 and 18,000, respectively.
It’s all in the name
The newspaper’s humble beginnings started in Willow City in 1888 as the Gillespie County News, then moved to Fredericksburg. In the 1900s, the name was changed to the Fredericksburg Standard and it had a companion German language newspaper called Fredericksburg Wochenblatt (weekly sheet), which ceased publication in 1945. Art Kowert was publisher from 1940 until his death in 2003. He was succeeded by Terry Collier, who published the Standard-Radio Post until 2012.
William Dietel, who was editor of the Standard in 1920, started a new publication called the Radio Post in 1922, and like many communities at the time, Fredericksburg was a twonewspaper town, which continued until the mid-1980s.
In 1984, the Standard purchased the Radio Post and it became the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post. In 2012, the newspaper was bought by Moser Community Media and Cooke was named the publisher and editor of the operation.
