The Fort Worth Press and the IRS

The Fort Worth Press may be gone, but certainly it’s not forgotten. Although it’s been a year since a four-month attempt to resurrect the Press collapsed, the Internal Revenue Service is more interested in the paper than ever before. Specifically, the IRS is wondering why the Press didn’t withhold income tax from employee checks. Several of the paper’s former executives have been called into the IRS office to discuss the matter. So far the chief bag holder seems to be the Press’ former business manager, who personally has been assessed $21,557 in back taxes.

The Press’ young former publisher, Dean Singleton, is far away in West-field, Massachusetts, where he is now working for Joe Albritton, owner of the Washington Star. Several months ago Albritton bought the Westfield Evening News, and asked Singleton to be the paper’s publisher.

On his first day as publisher of the Evening News, Singleton said he thought Westfield would be more to his liking than Fort Worth. “I learned a lot during the four months we published the Press,” Singleton said, “including the fact that the Fort Worth Press was too big a deal for me.” Indeed it was. After building up a string of small Texas newspapers, Singleton lost them all in the Fort Worth Press debacle.