By DIEGO CORTEZ | Mercedes Enterprise

The Mercedes Enterprise has been recognized as a top newspaper in Texas for its community news.

At the Texas Press Association’s Awards Luncheon, The Mercedes Enterprise was selected first for Best Online Live News Coverage; second place, News Photography; and fourth, for General Excellence, News Photography, Feature Photography, Page Design, Sports Coverage and Sports Photography.

Quickly into the presentation Texas Press Association President Leonard Woolsey announced the Mercedes Enterprise  for fourth place for feature photography.

“I switched my phone to messenger and notified C. A. Hinojosa that we had won fourth place,” and he responded with, ‘we’ll take it.’”

The Mercedes Enterprise would be announced six more times, and the suspense thickened as the ceremony carried on until the paper was announced as a first place winner, Garcia said.

“When we took over The Mercedes Enterprise back in 2017 we had hopes of doing great things,” said C.A. Hinojosa, The Mercedes Enterprise Owner. “This is a clear indication that great things are happening.”

Garcia said, The Mercedes Enterprise is now known as one of the best newspapers in the State of Texas. And now the bar has been set with higher expectations than it already had coming back from the TPA Awards Luncheon. 

The last known recognition, The Mercedes Enterprise was given was to Robert Hinds for news photography. Since then, there had been no record of the Mercedes Enterprise participation the annual Texas Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. 

“Signing up for this year was part of a two year plan since I took over as editor,” Garcia said. “We had missed the deadline to compete in the 2021 contest, so we waited and put forth a great effort to present the news professionally for the 2022 contest.”

The Mercedes Enterprise had not competed in the TPA Better Newspaper Contest in more than 20 years, Garcia said.

Garcia is the current editor of the weekly publication where he does it all from gathering the news, reporting the news using multimedia with print, video and photography before beginning the design of the newspaper and editing. 

“I looked over all of the work we did and submitted our best to the contest officials in early February and in May we were alerted we had won, but the announcement of the contest winners would not be revealed until the end of the Texas Press Association’s Annual Convention. I waited a very long time for this and put in a lot of hard work and hours covering the city of Mercedes to make sure the newspaper had strong news clips to go up against the newspapers across the State of Texas in the contest.”

The Mercedes Enterprise is the oldest operating business in Mercedes with 114 years of active services to the community.

“It was exciting to hear the Mercedes Enterprise’s name get called as a winner in the newspaper contest so many times,” Garcia said. “I entered the Enterprise in 10 categories and I felt in my heart we would win first in at least one, and we did. I’m very happy to have been recognized by my journalism peers for my work submitted into the contest categories. For first place it was a real team effort from the Publisher Dr. Barbara Baggerly Hinojosa, Owner C.A. Hinojosa and myself to produce and broadcast a live political debate online.”

Awards were presented on July 29 at the TPA Convention & Trade Show, held at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Convention Center in San Marcos, TX.

The Mercedes Enterprise competed in the Texas Newspapers Division 6 with other newspapers around the state who print weekly and are a similar size.

“The Mercedes Enterprise made a huge splash at the Awards Luncheon,” Garcia said. “The paper had not been involved with the convention nor entered the newspaper contest in 20 years or more. Our last, award as far as I know, was a first place finish for news photography taken back sometime between 1985 and 1995 by Robert Hinds, the newspaper’s past publisher and editor. I am definitely looking forward to next year’s convention and newspaper contest. The bar has been set higher now that the Enterprise has been recognized as one of the best newspapers in the State.”

The judges of the contest were the West Virginia Press Association and offered comments in three of the categories in which the Mercedes Enterprise placed. 

For first place in Online Live Coverage, the judges wrote, “Bold move to present live debate. Well done and good print and online support.” 

For second place in News Photography the judges wrote, “These photos show determination and skill of the photographer.”

For fourth place in General Excellence, the judges wrote, “Good use of photos and solid local news.” 

This year’s contest featured 18 categories and participating newspapers were invited to submit entries from work published between Sept. 1, 2020 and Dec. 31, 2021. 

This year, 80 newspapers submitted 850 entries in the contest. Competitions were divided into divisions in which newspapers competed against publications of similar circulation. Fifty-three weekly newspapers competed in divisions 5 through 9, submitting 494 entries.

The Mercedes Enterprise is the second oldest newspaper South of San Antonio, only second to the Brownsville Herald. It has been in print since 1908. The Enterprise prints weekly on Wednesday, and reports community and State news.

Garcia has been editor of the newspaper since 2020, however he was appointed managing editor in 2007 by then publisher Robert Hinds and was an interim editor for a stint in 2008 after the passing of Robert Hinds in July 2008. 

Garcia holds a Master’s Degree in New Media Journalism from Full Sail University. 

As a journalism student at Michigan State University he was recognized between 2002 and 2003 for outstanding works in journalism at the Michigan State University School of Journalism Annual Symposium. In 2004 he was appointed editor of the Lansing Community College student newspaper, The Lookout. As a reporter for Aim Media at the Valley Morning Star, Garcia was recognized by the Associated Press Managing Editors for Best Video News Report longer than two minutes in 2016. In 2017, best newspaper at the Valley Morning Star; 2018 second place Team Effort. In 2019 the TPME awarded Garcia honorable mention for best online multimedia package news report.

Garcia was a student at Mercedes Kennedy Elementary, he attended  Brownsville Hanna High and is a former student reporter of the University of Brownsville UTRGV The Collegian student newspaper, and a former daily sports reporter for The Monitor.