Moser receives Mayborn Community Leadership Award

AUSTIN—Texas Press Association, an organization of more than 400 paid-circulation newspapers, has named Jim Moser the 2017 recipient of the prestigious Frank W. Mayborn Award for Community Leadership. 

The presentation was made at Inn of the Mountain Gods in Ruidoso, New Mexico, during the association’s annual Summer Leadership Retreat on June 17.

Presenting the award was Charles Moser, longtime editor and publisher of the Brenham Banner-Press and a previous recipient of the award presented annually to a publisher or newspaper executive who has displayed outstanding and exemplary leadership to the community. Outgoing TPA President Randy Keck noted that Charles and Jim Moser are the first father and son recipients in the history of the Mayborn award.

The award comes with a $3,000 scholarship to a Texas college or university of Moser’s choice, to be used to further the education of a full-time student journalist.

Moser is president and owner of Moser Community Media, LLC, which began operation in 2005. He is a second-generation newspaper operator. His father, Charles Moser, served as publisher of the Brenham Banner-Press for 41 years, retiring from that position in December, 2009.

Jim Moser began his newspaper career in Brenham, working as a newspaper carrier, inserter and pressman’s helper. He later joined the advertising staff of the Austin American-Statesman as an intern while attending the University of Texas, and remained a part of the retail advertising staff for a short time after graduation.

In 1992, Moser returned to community newspapers as the classified advertising manager of the Waxahachie Daily Light. Two years later, he moved to the Taylor Daily Press to accept the position of advertising manager and later served as advertising director of the Fort Bend Herald-Coaster.

In 2000, Moser moved to McKinney, Texas, where he would serve as assistant publisher and ultimately, publisher of the community’s daily newspaper, The McKinney Courier-Gazette.

In 2005, he left McKinney to start his own newspaper company, acquiring the Cuero Record, Yorktown News-View and Jackson County Herald-Tribune in Edna, Texas. Later that year he started Moser Community Media, LLC, to serve as the management company to oversee those operations and others. The group now includes a total of 30 newspapers in Texas including the Aransas Pass Progress, Ingleside Index, Cuero Record, The Yorktown News View, Jackson County Herald-Tribune, San Marcos Daily Record, Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post, The Highlander, Burnet Bulletin, Dripping Springs Century-News, Wimberley View, The Clifton Record, Meridian Tribune, The Marlin Democrat, Rosebud News, Robertson County News, Franklin Advocate, The Cameron Herald, Thorndale Champion, The Mexia News, Groesbeck Journal, The Fairfield Recorder, Atlanta Citizens Journal, The Cass County Sun, Bowie County Citizens Tribune, The Pittsburg Gazette, The Steel Country Bee, The Graham Leader, Breckenridge American and Jacksboro Herald-Gazette.

Moser and his wife, Suzette, reside in Brenham with their daughter, Sarah, and son, Charlie. Moser has served as president of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, the Edna Rotary Club and chaired the Board of Trustees for the Jackson County Hospital District. He also has served as a director for the McKinney Chamber of Commerce, McKinney’s Holy Family School and Helping Hands. 

In addition, Moser and his family are active with Hands to Honduras, a Rotary-based charity that builds schools and funds clean water projects in the rural areas of the northern coast of Honduras.

Currently, Moser serves on the board of directors for Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park Association and is an elder on the Session of Brenham Presbyterian Church. He is an appointed director of Texas Press Association and chairs the association’s Legislative Advisory Committee.

History of the Award

Sue Mayborn, publisher of the Temple Daily Telegram and Killeen Daily Herald, established the award in 1992 with the now-defunct Texas Daily Newspaper Association to honor the commendable leadership and service demonstrated by her late husband, Frank W. Mayborn, for his community service and involvement throughout his career as a newspaper executive.

Mayborn was first and foremost a newspaperman and a communications executive who pioneered in the radio and television industries. However, he held another pursuit on par with his profession, that of community leadership and service.

The Frank W. Mayborn Award for Community Leadership honors other newspaper men and women who have a firm commitment to community service and who are devoting the same zeal to that cause as Mayborn did during his long career. 

Because one of the areas in which Mayborn was most active was in service to education, the recipient of the Mayborn Award not only is recognized publicly by peers, but also by a scholarship in his/her honor, which will be presented to an outstanding senior journalism student at a Texas college or university.