Houston-based media company makes leadership changes

Southern Newspapers Inc. that owns The Paris News and 11 other papers in Texas and Oklahoma, has announced changes to its leadership team.

Effective new year, company president Dolph Tillotson will be made chairman of the board. His former post of president will be taken by Galveston Daily News publisher Leonard Woolsey. However, Woolsey will also continue as Daily News publisher.

As chairman, Tillotson will work with the company’s owners and board of directors and its executive team to set broad policies, priorities and goals.

“Dolph Tillotson has left an indelible mark on Southern Newspapers during his 32-year tenure,” company owner Lissa Walls Cribb said. “As publisher of The Galveston County Daily News from 1987 to 2011, he was recognized as a leader by his community and the newspaper industry. His leadership continued as president of Southern beginning in 2014.”

“Leonard Woolsey is uniquely qualified to serve as president of Southern Newspapers,” Cribb added. “His passion for community journalism, his creativity and enthusiasm, his commitment to his colleagues make him the ideal candidate to lead Southern.”

“I am honored to join a very short list of highly talented people to lead Southern Newspapers since its beginnings — and Dolph rewrote the book. Working with both him and Lissa Walls Cribb is, without a doubt, the highest honor one could wish for in this business,” Woolsey said.

Southern Newspapers Inc. is a privately owned enterprise and was founded in 1951 by B. Carmage Walls.