AZLE — Longtime newspaper publisher Kim Ware retires from the Tri-County Reporter Dec. 19. Ware served as publisher for the Azle News and The Springtown Epigraph — and their successor, the Tri-County Reporter — for more than a decade. In all, she has worked for the newspapers for more than 25 years.
Ware was born in Fort Worth to teenaged parents. Ware and her sister Johnna Bridges had to work hard growing up and learned self-dependence at an early age. In addition to working, their parents also invested in real estate, and they paid their daughters to clean, paint and fix up properties. Ware’s family said her priorities include God, her children, her granddaughters and the community.
“She's strong,” Bridges said of her sister. “She's always been strong. She's been through the hardest times, and she has a way of taking the hard times and turning them around to find something good in it, to make it worth it.”
After having two children in a prior marriage, Kim met her now-husband, Mark Ware, in the late 1980s. Before ever becoming a Ware, Kim volunteered with and led a wide variety of youth sports organizations. In 1988, she was involved in her children’s little league team in White Settlement where she made a mutual connection through Mark Ware’s sister.
“She had already had a little boy and a little girl, who I fell in love with and ended up adopting shortly after we were married,” Mark Ware said. “She was just a beautiful young lady and very independent.”
Once the pair married in January 1989, she and her kids moved to Azle. Along with being heavily involved in community and volunteer work, Ware worked for an air conditioning and heating company at the time.
When daughter Kristen became a cheerleader for Azle High School, Kim Ware got involved by becoming the school’s cheerleader sponsor, which meant serving as coach but also publishing the football program — including selling ads. When Kristen graduated, Kim stayed on in the position for several years.
Former Azle News and Springtown Epigraph publisher, Bob Buckel, was impressed with all that Ware was doing in the community. Buckel reached out to Mark and Kim Ware to see if she’d be interested in a job. Kim Ware began working at The Springtown Epigraph in 1999 and soon began selling ads for The Azle News as well, eventually becoming advertising director for both papers. In that time, Buckel said she had become one of the “best advertising salespeople in Texas.”
After Buckel’s retirement from the newspaper, she was named publisher of both newspapers in 2012 and remained in that position as they transitioned to Tri-County Reporter. Under former owner Roberts Publishing, Kim Ware traveled and lived between Azle, Springtown and Hereford, managing the newspapers in those towns.
The Azle News and Springtown Epigraph were purchased by Hyde Media Group in 2021. Ware oversaw the merger and consolidation of the Springtown Epigraph and Azle News in 2023 while also acting as Hyde Media president.
Kim Ware has also served on the Lakeside City Council, has been board president for the Azle Area Chamber of Commerce and Springtown Area Chamber of Commerce, Azle Economic Development Board and served as president of the North & East Texas Press Association. She currently serves on the board for the Azle Area Ministerial Alliance. She has received numerous commendations, including The Texas Press Association’s Frank W. Mayborn Award for Community Leadership and the AAMA’s Lew and Sandy Shaffer Award.
She was named Azle Area Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year in February.
However, Kim Ware’s work behind the scenes may be more notable than the official positions she’s held. For decades, she has quietly raised countless funds and spearheaded community events such Sting Fling, Follow The Flag, Azle’s National Day of Prayer, Christmas on Main Street and the Optimist Club of Azle’s Christmas Bike Giveaway, and, more recently, a gala to raise funds and awareness for the Eagle Mountain Pregnancy Help Center.
After Kim Ware’s retirement Dec. 19, she looks forward to traveling, checking some items off her and her husband’s bucket list, spending more time with her granddaughter and with her sister.
“She's been looking forward to this for some time,” Mark Ware said. “I’m very proud that she's reached that point to be able to move into that next phase of her life.”
Hyde Media Chief Operations Officer Sam Houston will take over her duties for the time being while TCR sales representative Lora Paschal has been promoted to sales manager over Hyde Media.
“Kim has been a source of strength for Hyde Media and a constant source of information and support for me,” Houston said. “She will definitely be missed.”