Today’s Issue Kicks Off Record’s 103rd Year!

With this issue of the newspaper, The Fayette County Record celebrates the beginning of its 103rd year of continuous publication.

Join us in celebrating with an open house/party at the newspaper office Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Fayette County Record was published infrequently by various ownership groups as far back as the 1800s; however, the Record as it is known today was founded in 1922 by L.J. Sulak and Fran S. Bambuch. It was published in a frame building a little east of the courthouse square.

With the exception of a brief period before the Depression, the newspaper has always been published twice a week. L.J. Sulak, the founder of the paper, was on the board of regents for the University of Texas from 1928 to 1934. He also served in the Texas Senate from 1932 to 1946. Sulak passed away on Sept. 10, 1967. He was editor of The Record from 1922 to 1955 and then from 1960 to 1965.

In October 1974, a new home for The Record was built at 127 S. Washington, the location where the newspaper is still located.

In 1976, the Richard L. Barton Sr. family purchased The Record. Barton Sr. became the publisher/editor, their son Richard Barton Jr. was the general manager and his wife Nonnie was the bookkeeper and composition room manager. The Bartons formed a corporation, which is now owned and managed by the Barton family.

On Nov. 5, 1986, The Record became the only newspaper in La Grange when The Record purchased the La Grange Journal subscription list. After the death of Richard Barton Jr. in 2006, Larry Jackson was hired as editor/publisher. In 2012, longtime local teacher Regina Keilers, the daughter of Richard Barton Sr. and Nelda Barton, returned to The Record full time and was named publisher on Jan. 1, 2013. At that time Larry Jackson retired and Jeff Wick was named editor. In recent years, The Record has added a host of digital offerings, a thriving website and social media presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

This year the newspaper started a free three-times-aweek email newsletter with thousands of subscribers.

The newspaper now is printed at The Bryan-College Station Eagle and is trucked back to La Grange every Monday and Thursday morning for labeling and distribution.

With an average paid circulation per issue now standing at 4,854, the Record is the 23rd largest paper in the entire state of Texas.