Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Stinnett sells Muleshoe Journal

Michelle Seeber

The owner of the Muleshoe Journal has sold the newspaper for an undisclosed amount to Chris Bradford of Dimmitt, Texas.

Former owner Scot Stinnett of Fort Sumner said he closed the sale on Monday after “discussing it off and on for the last three or four years.”

Stinnett still owns two other publications — the Clovis Livestock Market News and the DeBaca County News.

In addition, he is employed as advertising director by Joe’s Boot Shop in Clovis.

Stinnett said he sold the paper because of the distance between newspapers and because of his job at the boot shop.

“It was 90 miles between newspapers,” he said. “We lived part time in Muleshoe, but to operate a small-town newspaper, you really need to live there full time.

“We were getting pretty strung out, and I just felt like we needed to make a move,” Stinnett said.

Stinnett bought the paper in January 1994 from L.B. Hall, he said. The Muleshoe paper is in its 85th year of publication.

New owner Bradford also owns the Castro County News in Texas, which covers Dimmitt, Nazareth and Hart, and the Olton Enterprise in Olton, Texas.

“We just decided to expand,” Bradford said. “We (he and his wife, Joye) came to the Panhandle about three years ago and just loved it. We plan to keep expanding.”

Bradford said he has five employees at the newspaper in Muleshoe.

“I’ve got lots of good people working for me,” he said. “Anyone who wants to stay has a job.”

Bradford said he had no immediate plans for major changes at the Muleshoe Journal.