Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Overview

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal is a daily broadsheet newspaper serving Lubbock and the surrounding South Plains region of West Texas, owned by Gannett. In 2008, an A-J investigation into the wrongful 1985 rape conviction of Texas Tech student Tim Cole helped prompt a change in Texas law permitting posthumous pardons; Cole received the state's first on March 1, 2010.

History

The paper began as the weekly Lubbock Avalanche, founded May 4, 1900, by John James Dillard and Thad Tubbs. It became a daily (except Mondays) in 1922 and added a morning edition the following year. In 1926, Charles A. Guy and Dorrance Roderick, owners of the rival Lubbock Daily Journal, purchased the Avalanche, and the two papers were formally combined under the Avalanche-Journal name on June 29, 1959. After a massive tornado devastated downtown Lubbock, including the Avalanche-Journal building, on May 11, 1970, staff dictated reports to sister paper the Amarillo Globe-News, which printed and distributed an eight-page edition the next morning before local printing resumed by May 14. Morris Communications sold its newspapers, including the Avalanche-Journal, to GateHouse Media in 2017; GateHouse later merged with Gannett. In July 2025, Gannett announced it would close the paper's local press in September 2025, shifting print production to a facility in Juarez, Mexico.

Location and contact info

Address
Lubbock, TX
Website
https://www.lubbockonline.com