Steiert inducted into PPA Hall of Fame

Veteran Hereford journalist Jim Steiert was inducted into the Panhandle Press Association Hall of Fame during the organization’s 114th annual convention in Canyon on July 14.

Now in his 5st year as a working journalist as a contributing writer on news and the outdoors for The Hereford Brand, Steiert is a 1969 graduate of Hart High School and a 1973 graduate of West Texas State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism and served as Editor of the WTSU student newspaper ‘The Prairie’.

He worked as news editor of the Castro County News from 1973-1975 before coming to he Hereford Brand in 1975, originally as sports editor. He quickly transitioned to the news desk where he served as farm and outdoor editor in addition to numerous news writing duties. He became managing editor of the Hereford Brand in 1980. During his early years at The Brand he also corresponded for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Amarillo Globe News, KGNC radio and KVII TV and freelanced for the Texas Farmer-Stockman.

Steiert left The Brand to become associate editor of Texas Farmer-Stockmanmagazine,an historic agriculture publication in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, a post he held for 10 years, pursuing agriculture and wildlife-related news stories all over Texas, and continued to write for the Farmer-Stockman magazine throughout its publication, later writing for Irrigation Age and Dryland No-Till farm magazines.

Steiert then worked at West Texas Rural Telephone Cooperative for 27 years, 20 of those in public relations editing and publishing the company’s Co-Op Connection magazine.

He has freelanced for numerous outdoor magazines including Texas Parks and Wildlife, Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, Texas Sportsman, and Wildfowl. He has also contributed to Texas Co-Op Power magazine.

When his friend Mauri Montgomery became publisher of the Hereford Brand, he once again assisted with news stories and resumed his outdoor column for The Brand.

Through subsequent Hereford Brand management, he was a contributing writer of local news and feature stories.

Hereford came close to losing its newspaper in 2019, but Jeff and Angela Blackmon assumed ownership as publishers and saved the local institution. Jim agreed to write several stories for the first edition under the Blackmons and he and wife Kerrie have become regular contributors of columns and news content since that time. His outdoor articles and columns appear weekly in The Brand. He is a frequent writer on water issues and serves as the Environmental Representative on the Region O (Llano Estacado) Regional Water Planning Group, a post he was appointed to by the state legislature.

Steiert has won numerous PPA awards for column writing, news writing, editorials and community service. Jim also received a first-place column writing award from the National Newspaper Association. He is also a long-time member of the Texas Outdoor Writers Association and has won many TOWA Craftsmanship awards for outdoor columns, outdoor news, outdoor photos and features appearing in the Hereford Brand, among other publications. His book ‘Playas, Jewels of the Plains’ was the recipient of TOWA’s first Outdoor Book of the Year Award. Additionally, he is a certified Texas Master Naturalist.

He frequently provides news items to numerous Panhandle newspapers and media.

Steiert met his wife, Kerrie Womble Steiert, while they were both working at The Brand in the 1970s and early 1980s. Kerrie served at that time as Women’s Editor, and having resumed her column writing for The Brand, remains a consistent winner of PPA column writing awards.

They are the parents of a daughter, Jaime Steiert Mc-Glothlin, a Methodist minister and accomplished writer in her own right, in Mexia, Texas, the wife of Andy McGlothlin, and they are the proud grandparents of Olivia, 13, and Gaelen, 7.