22 September 2025
For immediate release
Big Bend Sentinel, the news publication in the destination town of Marfa since 1926, is now owned by Sentinel News Project, a new Texas nonprofit organization. The legal transfer took place on the 15th of September.
“We’re starting with a great platform: A lively independent newspaper with very loyal readers,” said Roger Black, the new president of the Sentinel. “Reporting is our key purpose: People going out, observing, recording the news, and getting it right,” said Black.
“We have ambitious plans to increase and improve the editorial content, print and digital—written and visual,” he said. “But first, we want to hear what readers want.”
In an editorial in the first issue published as a nonprofit, Black asked readers, “What would you like to see and read? What are you thinking about in terms of your life and style, as a resident—full-time or part-time—or as a visitor to the Big Bend?”
The publication was sold by documentary filmmaker Maisie Crow, who with her husband, Max Kabat, a brand marketing consultant, took over as editor and publisher in 2019. They renovated a former bar to establish the Sentinel cafe, with the newspaper office housed in the back.
“We’ve worked to build a community around the paper—our neighbors, friends, and the thousands of ‘regulars’ and visitors who love the Big Bend,” said Kabat, “With the support of the cafe and the store,” he said, “the Sentinel is succeeding.”
“Max and Maisie had the brilliant idea to buy a building in Marfa and surround the newsroom with a wonderful gathering place for readers,” Black said. “It’s a great way to introduce the publication to potential subscribers. And it’s a great way for the reporters and editors to meet people and hear what’s on their mind.”
Frequent events, lectures, along with music performances and art shows will continue in the space. The couple retains ownership of the building and will operate the Sentinel cafe and store, he said.
The team
Black is joined on the news board by Don Gardner, journalist and arborist in Austin who was a founder of the Pacific Radio station in Houston, KPFT, and by Gonzalo Garcia Barcha, writer and type designer in Mexico City, who is on the board of the Fundación Gabo, the foundation in Cartagena, Colombia started by Gabriel Garcia Marquez to promote the development of journalism and freedom of expression.
A key supporter of the project is the Lenfest institute for journalism, a national nonprofit organization that invests in sustainable business models that help local journalism serve community needs.
“We’ve been following the progress of the Sentinel and are delighted to participate in this next step,” said Jim Friedlich, Lenfest executive director. The institute has agreed to serve as the Sentinel’s fiscal sponsor. Larger contributions to the new nonprofit can be made through the Lenfest institute to ensure that they are tax deductible—until Sentinel News Project gets its official 501 (c) (3) status from the IRS.
Key staffers at the Sentinel are staying on. “It’s a talented and amazingly productive team. But it’s small, and Sentinel News Project will get them some help so that they can do even more of what they do best—reporting and writing,” Black said.
Rob D’Amico, an accomplished Texas journalist and podcaster, is the editor. Sam Karas, a writer and a river guide on the Rio Grande, is a reporter. Mary Etherington, with a background in fine art in Marfa and Martha’s Vineyard, is both a manager and a contributor. Ariele Gentiles is the copy editor.
“It’s great to join in on this change. It’s a big assignment, the Big Bend, and a unique part of the world,” said D’Amico. “I’m eager to hear what readers have to say about what we’re doing.”
Big Bend Sentinel
The Sentinel is a weekly newspaper published since 1926 in Marfa, Texas. Since September 15, 2025, it has been published by Sentinel News Project, a nonprofit organization registered in Texas. The Sentinel print edition is published weekly. Single copies are available at hotels and stores in the Big Bend. Subscriptions can be purchased online at bigbendsentinel.com/subscribe/. The website is bigbendsentinel.com.
Presidio International is a sister publication, which covers news from Presidio, which is 60 miles south of Marfa on the Rio Grande—across the border from Ojinaga, Chihuahua.
From 2010 until this month, the publication was owned by the documentary film director Maisie Crow and her husband, Max Kabat, a successful brand consultant. Crow started as a journalist, writer and photographer, and then turned to filmmaking. Her 2024 documentary, Zurawski v Texas, won awards at more than a dozen film festivals. With a mid-century home in Marfa, the couple owns the Sentinel building with its cafe and store—which help support the publication.
Previous owners were Robert and Rosario Salgado Halpern. Longtime journalists and natives of the Big Bend, they came to Marfa in 1988 to work on the Sentinel, and then bought the paper in 1994. Two years later, they acquired the International, the weekly paper in Presidio, Texas. The Halperns retired in 2010 and still reside in Marfa.
About the Big Bend
The Sentinel covers local news and sports in three counties—Presidio, Jeff Davis, and Brewster —an area 20 percent larger than the nation of Switzerland. The region, named for a 120-mile curve in the Rio Grande River on the southwest Texas border, includes Big Bend National Park, which brings more than 500,000 visitors a year, according to the National Park Service. Many find their way to Marfa, which is celebrated as a center for fine art. Ecotourism, music, food, stargazing and the beautiful wide-open spaces attract many more.
Sites include the McDonald Observatory, the 1854 army outpost, Balmorhea Springs, the Davis Mountains and the colorful towns of Alpine and Fort Davis. With a boom in large ranch sales throughout the Big Bend, second homes are being built at a healthy pace, and there are more hotels to make visitors comfortable at every level—from new luxury resorts to vacation rentals.
About Roger Black
Black is a graphic designer, known for his typography. He was a founder of the digital type foundry, Font Bureau, and is now chairman of Type Network, an agent and distributor for 100 type designers around the world.
“I started in the 20th century,” he likes to say, as chief art director of publications such as Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and Newsweek. He went on to consult on the design or launch of many news publications, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Houston Chronicle, Reforma (Mexico), Semana (Colombia), Panorama (Italy), Tages Anzeiger (Zurich), and the Straits Times (Singapore).
He was an early mover in web design, and his teams produced the first site for msnbc.com, going on to develop many news sites around the world. He wrote an influential book on web design, Web Sites that Work (Adobe Press, 1997). But his first art director job was in 1972 at LA, a weekly newspaper in Los Angeles.
Roger Black
Sentinel News Project, 209½ West El Paso Street, Marfa, Texas 79843