We’re 99!

The Fayette County Record Begins 99th Year of Continuous Publication With Today’s Issue

Well, we’re in sight of the century mark.

The Fayette County Record officially begins its 99th year of continuous publication with this edition.

That’s over 10,000 editions!

And in a newspaper era dominated by consolidation and cutbacks, the Record still has two issues a week – every Tuesday and Friday – just like when it started 99 years ago.

In 1976 the Richard L. Barton Sr. family purchased The Record, and family members are still the owners to this day, making it one of the few standalone family-owned community papers left in Texas.

Most are now owned by larger corporations/chains.

The Record’s current paid circulation per issue over the past 12 months has averaged 5,278, (that’s up 47 per issue from the year before) making it one of the biggest community newspapers in the state.

Here’s more of our history:

Newspapers calling themselves The Fayette County Record were published as early as the 1870s in La Grange.

In those frontier times, keeping the business going proved to be a difficult task.

But on Nov. 3, 1922, L.J. Sulak and Frank S. Baumbach founded the version of the newspaper that would finally stick around for good.

It began as a stock company with 50 stockholders. Volume 1, Number I was published on Nov. 3, 1922. At one time the paper printed three times a week but in the Depression returned to a twice-weekly.

Johnnie Sulak, L.J.’s son, took over the newspaper upon the death of his father. Bonner and Virginia McMillion purchased The Record on Sept. 1, 1965, and formed the Fayette Publishing Company. In October 1974 the newspaper moved to its present location at 127 S. Washington in La Grange.

As mentioned before, the Barton family bought the newspaper in 1976 and on Nov. 5, 1986, the Record became the only newspaper in La Grange when Barton purchased the La Grange Journal’s subscription list before it closed. In 2001 the newspaper went to fully computerized design, which is now sent to Bryan for printing.

Barton Sr. died in June 2003. His son, Richard L. Barton Jr., took over as owner and publisher. He died in Nov. 2006 after which Larry Jackson was hired as editor and publisher in Feb. 2007.

In January 2012, upon Jackson’s retirement, Regina Keilers, the daughter of Barton Sr., took over as publisher and Jeff Wick became editor.