PAUL KEANE

By Maggie McDaniel

Paul Keane, publisher of the Wayne County News, has been in the newspaper business for a total of 35 years, but perhaps he is best known in Waynesboro, Mississippi, as the voice of sports in Wayne County.

“I used to do radio way back, and the radio station here in Waynesboro only covered football for one school,” Keane said. “We had been looking for a long time for software to do web broadcasting of Wayne Academy football and basketball, softball and baseball playoffs for both the academy and Wayne County High

School.”

Carey Meitzler, the “Voice of the Maroon Tide” in Picayune, Mississippi, knew that Keane was looking, and he called several years ago.

“I think I’ve found what you’re looking for,” he told Keane.

“He told me about Teamline,” Keane said, “a telephone and

Internet service that provides the software for live play-by-play from anywhere in the world.”

Keane called Teamline to learn about the software that they offered and then signed the paperwork.

“We pay them a fee, we then sell all the local ads, and we gain revenue,” he said. “Most importantly, we serve our community.

“We do all the football games for Wayne Academy and the playoff games in basketball, softball and baseball for the academy and Wayne

County High School.

“I told Tommy Campbell of the Choctaw Sun-Advocate in Gilbertown, Alabama, about what we were doing, and when the radio station in his town went dark, he began live streaming radio.”

Keane’s initiative demonstrates that it takes a lot to be a good journalist. You have to know and practice the five Ws and a great deal more.

In fact, he says journalism students need to “get out there and get experience and build up contacts and do things for free for the experience while there are no bills to pay. “

“Diversify your skills, and be ready for the next big thing like

Twitter or Instagram,” Keane said.

Keane does a little bit of everything for the newspaper. His job includes the smallest things like cash management to the bigger things like designing web pages for the paper’s website, photographing pictures for stories, editing videos and traveling to cover games.

During football season, the paper produces a 30-minute preview show, a 30-minute Friday night highlights show and a weekly video

“Plays of the Week” show.

All of them have full-scale commercials in them that are sold, and the shows include varsity, junior varsity and middle school football highlights and previews, along with cheerleader, band, dance team and other features. The shows air all week long on the newspaper’s website at www.thewaynecountynews.com.

Keane was raised in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. At age eight, he started delivering the Dallas Times Herald with the help of his mother.

Eight years later, a coach told Keane he was too short and too skinny to play football. So he covered the football team for the Mesquite Daily News.

After high school, he attended the University of Texas for two and a half years before transferring to Southwest Texas State (now Texas State University) and worked for both the school newspaper and the San Marcos Daily Record as a sports editor.

When he was graduated, he worked for the San Marcos newspaper before moving to San Angelo, Texas, to work for the San Angelo Standard-Times before returning to the Mesquite Daily News.

Keane was a sports editor and writer for 25 years, eventually moving to Alabama and into management. Then he settled in Waynesboro and has been at the Wayne County weekly newspaper for 10 years.

On Jan. 1, 2014, the Wayne County News celebrated 124 years of publishing.

Keane works everyday doing many tasks and covering what is going on in the town. It is important for Keane and his staff to cover Waynesboro instead of world news that can be found anywhere.

Marshall Wood, a former mayor of the town, described “the staggering amount of time Paul appeared to be working. As time progressed, it became obvious, through the quality of his publication, that all those hours he appeared to be working, he was.

“As a community, we have been very fortunate to have him here.”

He is viewed as a public figure in his town. People expect him to fix things, and at times it is hard to do so.

Keane jokes that his wife will not go to Wal-Mart with him because customers often corner him to talk about something in the newspaper. He thinks it is a good and bad thing that people care about the news and are willing to approach him.

When he was graduated from college, newspapers were number one among the media.

Now there is so much more.

Perhaps Mayor Richard Johnson described Keane most concisely: “You cannot ask for anybody to do any better of a job.

“I mean he really cares for the community. I cannot praise him enough.”

The author is a junior, broadcasting journalism major from Columbus, Georgia.

Photo by Chris Keane/Wayne County News