Texas publisher named 2023 Publisher of the Year

CHICAGO — Editor & Publisher Magazine on Monday named Leonard Woolsey as its 2023 Publisher of the Year.

Woolsey, president of Southern Newspapers Inc. and publisher of The Daily News in Galveston, Texas, learned of the honor during Editor & Publisher’s Senior Leadership Conference in Chicago.

Woolsey was among numerous reader-generated nominees evaluated by a committee of E&P’s editorial department, according to the industry publication, which is known as the “bible of the newspaper industry.”

Mike Blinder, E&P’s publisher, said the committee was impressed with Woolsey’s more than 40 years of news publishing management experience.

“What makes me personally ecstatic that our committee chose Leonard is his innate understanding and commitment to local journalism, while still knowing how important it is to keep a steady hand on the tiller of profit and loss,” Blinder said in announcing the honor.

Woolsey is a past president and now chairman of the Texas Press Association and is vice president of America’s Newspapers, an industry association.

He also serves on various boards in Galveston.

Woolsey joined The Daily News in 2014 from the Times-Georgian in Carrollton, Georgia, where he served as president and group publisher for several newspapers and magazines in the Atlanta market.

He had worked for the Paxton Media Group of Paducah, Kentucky, since 1995. He has managed newspapers in a wide variety of markets, both large and small, and insists that each newspaper focus on its local communities first.

He was named president of Southern Newspapers in 2019, while retaining the role as publisher of The Daily News, the company’s flagship.

Southern Newspapers is a Houston-based media company that owns The Daily News and 10 other papers in Texas and Oklahoma, including The Lawton Constitution.

Published since 1901, Editor & Publisher Magazine initially focused on reporting stories centered on the traditional, legacy news publishing industry.

Today, E&P reports on all aspects of news media and multimedia news publishing. E&P still prints a monthly magazine, published online, mailed to news publishing executives and distributed at news media events.