Judy Hanna has lived in Hobbs, New Mexico all of her life. She spent ten years in television news as a newswoman, and has owned a highly successful marketing/consulting firm for more than 20 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Masters Degree in Education Administration. She has received numerous honors, including being named Governor’s Awards – Outstanding New Mexico Women, Outstanding Lea County Women, Jefferson Award Winner for the State of New Mexico for Outstanding Community Service, Outstanding Young Women of America, State Fire Marshall’s Office, Martin Luther King, Jr. award, special awards from U. S. Senator, Jeff Bingaman and U.S. Senator, Pete Domenici, and a host of other awards. She received outstanding awards from Associated Press for six years in a row for her television news reports. She has also secured more than $18 million dollars for area schools, municipalities, and non profit organizations over the years as a Corporate, State, and Federal Grant writer. Her husband, Larry Hanna is an attorney including being the County Attorney, Town Attorney for Tatum, and a City Attorney for Eunice, New Mexico. He is also Chairman of the Board of New Mexico Junior College, and was named Outstanding Citizen of Hobbs a few years ago. She had a dream many years ago which was to own a newspaper that was based in goodness and respect for the kindnesses and heartwarming stories about other people. Buying an existing newspaper was simply too expensive, so she began to create a vision of what a newspaper might offer that others overlooked. The first idea for a positive newspaper was sparked by an overwhelming response from the people of Lea County. That response was, “we are so depressed when we read newspapers, and the majority of the news is negative, and the positive news is about people who live far away – people we don’t know.” The second highest response from the people was, “there are many communities in Lea County, but the outlying communities from the Hub City of Hobbs are faceless in the media.” And, finally, the next overwhelming response to a need for another newspaper was, “we will support a new, positive, newspaper that focuses on the people, and the attributes of the area.” So…..it is because of the people of Lea County that Lea County Tribune is now, after only a year and several months, the most popular newspaper in Lea County. Its popularity is based in the fact that this newspaper focuses on the people of Lea County, the attributes of the area, and takes the time to pay attention to what people want to see for a change.
