About Us

The Van Horn Advocate has been published continuously since 1910. The Advocate was purchased by Robert Morales in September 2012 from former owners, Larry Simpson and Dawn Simpson.

The newspaper’s name has fluctuated over the years between The Van Horn Advocate and Van Horn Advocate. During Mr. Simpson’s ownership, it was Van Horn Advocate. The new editor, Robert Morales, changed the name back to The Van Horn Advocate.

The Advocate has served as the newspaper of record for Van Horn and Culberson County since 1910. Although archives of old newspapers exist and are bound in books by year, the original newspaper archives dating back to the early days were burned in a fire, according to Mr. Simpson.

A few cosmetic changes have been made to the newspaper by the new owner. The nameplate has a new font that simulates the nameplate used in the 1940s. The name of the font is Arabic Typesetting.

The newspaper is now designed and laid out in Adobe InDesign, the industry standard. The most significant change to the newspaper is the addition of color (4-color process). During Mr. Simpson’s tenure as editor, the Advocate was printed by The Monahans News (35 years). The new printer is Signature Offset in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The editor strives to maintain a middle-of-the-road editorial policy. In other words, the political viewpoint is displayed only in the opinion page through letters to the editor or op-ed pieces written by a guest columnist. We welcome all viewpoints; however, the writer must adhere to the newspaper’s editorial policies. The editor reserves the right to not print an editorial piece. In addition, the editor also reserves the right to edit an editorial piece for grammar, spelling, punctuation, as well as removing any content that could be potentially libelous.

We publish weekly on Thursdays.

About the editor: Robert Morales was born in Van Horn and graduated from Van Horn High School. He attended the University of Texas at Austin where he earned a Bachelor of Journalism in 1989. He worked as a writer for The Laredo Morning Times, and served as a public relations practitioner for The City of Laredo, Enron, Dr Pepper-Seven Up, Inc., JP Morgan Chase and in private practice. He returned to Van Horn in 1998. About the Advertising Executive: Lisa Morton is well-known in Van Horn, having worked many years in the insurance industry, and later at the Van Horn Post Office. She is the primary liaison between the newspaper and advertisers, large and small. In addition, she creates certain camera-ready ads in Adobe Illustrator.


Publisher and Editor:

Gilda Morales [email protected]

GM/Advertising Executive:

Lisa Morton [email protected]

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