Media News

Dallas Morning News buyout eliminates many of paper's most familiar names

The Dallas Morning News is about to experience a big change.

Courtesy photo

Nearly 40 employees of the Dallas Morning News will leave in a buyout, and those departures include some of the newspaper's longest-running and best-known names.

The list includes writers such as Brooks Egerton, Randy Lee Loftis and Todd Gillman, as well as columnist Steve Blow. There are also a number of longtime editors who've been the behind-the-scenes bedrock, such as business editor Dennis Fulton, features/food editor Cathy Barber and metro editor Steve Harris.

The newspaper offered a buyout to 167 employees "whose age and years of service [at the DMN] total at least 60 years," from across a range of publications that included DMN, Al Dia, NeighborsGo, FD, Briefing and GuideLive.com.

Editor Mike Wilson described the buyouts as part of an effort to make the newsroom more digitally minded, saying that the staffers who left would be replaced with "outstanding digital journalists."

The list of candidates includes photographer Michael Ainsworth, Oak Cliff reporter Roy Appleton, features/food editor Cathy Barber, columnist Steve Blow, copy editor Amy Burt, classical music critic Scott Cantrell, writer Brooks Egerton, business editor Dennis Fulton, Washington bureau chief Todd Gillman, metro editor Steve Harris, education reporter Tawnell Hobbs, former Austin bureau chief Christy Hoppe, municipal government reporter Wendy Hundley, writer Gary Jacobson, health reporter Sherry Jacobson, reporter Diane Jennings, Irma Jones, editorial writer Rodger Jones;

writer/columnist Jim Landers, environmental writer Randy Lee Loftis, airlines reporter Terry Maxon, copy editor Mike Kondracki, editor Lowery Metts, copy editor Carolyn Poh, editor Lois Reed, assistant sports editor Dave Renbarger, Al Dia writer Julian Resendiz, copy editor Ed Sargent, hunting columnist Ray Sasser, graphics editor Tom Setzer, designer Layne Smith, reference librarian Darlene Spangenberger, Austin bureau deputy chief Terry Stutz, office manager Sharon Terrell, financial writer Pamela Yip, photographer John Zak, plus recent retirees who were grandfathered in including columnist Bob Miller and gardening editor Mariana Green.

According to a staffer, those on the list were given 45 days to change their minds; some may decide to stay.

The newspaper's personality stands to change significantly with their departure.

In a recent digital-lingo-filled interview with Columbia Journalism Review, Wilson said that the staff would need to be better at building audience online, stating, "We are all salespeople now." He described categories such as education and the Cowboys as "verticals," and used the verb "curate."

In a request for a statement on the buyouts, Wilson said he was busy and would respond later.

According to the Dallas Business Journal, those who take the buyout will leave the company around September 11 on a staggered basis.

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RIP, Kay

Kay Granger, trailblazing Texas Congressional leader, dies at 83

House Republican Leadership Speaks To The Media After Conference Meeting

Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Kay Granger, first Republican woman from Texas to serve in the House, has died at age 83.

DALLAS (AP) — Kay Granger, the first Republican woman from Texas to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and who served for nearly three decades, died Sunday at the age of 83, her son J.D. Granger said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X that throughout her career, Granger "broke barriers for women in public service.” He added that she “was a dear friend who will be greatly missed.”

Granger, who began her career as a high school teacher and a businesswoman, accomplished many firsts as a politician. She was the first woman elected mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, and the first Republican woman to chair one of the most powerful committees in Congress, the House Appropriations Committee.

First elected to the House in 1996, she served for nearly three decades but did not seek reelection in 2024 and experienced worsening “health challenges” in her final months in Congress, according to a statement her office released in December 2024. Granger, who didn’t cast a vote in Washington after July 2024, didn’t specify or elaborate on those health challenges but said in the statement that frequent travel to Washington had become “both difficult and unpredictable" since early September of that year.

Granger graduated from Texas Wesleyan University in 1965 and considered a career in fashion design but followed her mother into teaching. She worked in the Birdville school district for nine years, teaching English literature and journalism, according to a profile compiled for the publication “Women in Congress, 1917-2006.”

A divorce would lead to a career change. To earn more money, Granger worked from home selling insurance. Her mother, Alliene Mullendore, who moved in with Granger after a stroke, helped keep an eye on the kids. Granger eventually built a successful insurance business that she managed for more than two decades.

“I was a high school teacher with three children, a 2-year-old and 6-month-old twins, and my husband left," Granger told The Hill in a 2008 profile. “It's the reason I talk so much to working mothers ... you just fight your way through the day.”

Granger got her political start serving on Fort Worth's zoning commission and then won office to the city council. She went on to win election as the city's first female mayor, serving from 1991 to 1995.

Fort Worth Stock Show Grand Entry Gala Mayor Betsy Price, Ed Bass, Congresswoman Kay Granger Former Mayor Betsy Price, Ed Bass, and Congresswoman Kay Granger at an event in Fort Worth. Photo by Krista Bohr

Granger’s “Code: Blue” programs included citizen patrol initiatives that halved the rampant crime rate and partnerships with the private sector that drew major businesses to the city. Her resuscitation of Fort Worth’s flagging economic fortunes drew national attention.

In 1996, she was recruited by both parties to run for the House under their banner, and she won as a Republican.

Upon entering Congress, she was named to an advisory board that consulted then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich. She also received seats on three committees: Budget, House Oversight, and Transportation and Infrastructure. She resigned those assignments as part of accepting a seat on the Appropriations Committee.

On the committee, she focused on defense spending, including championing the production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in Fort Worth.

When Republicans took charge of the House in 2023, Granger became the committee's chair, where she sought to enact steeper non-defense spending cuts than the top-line numbers House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden agreed to as part of avoiding an economically disastrous government default.

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