John J. Dwyer

In the spring of 1992, John J. Dwyer and his wife Grace founded The Dallas/Fort Worth Heritage newspaper. A full color monthly publication similar in appearance to USA Today, The Heritage, was designed to fill perhaps the only void remaining in the Metroplex newspaper pantheon--news and events of interest to the area's vast Christian community.

The inaugural issue of The Heritage contained sixteen pages and drew a readership of perhaps 5,000 people. However, the newspaper wove together an array of the generation's finest and most compelling writers and thinkers, including Dallas Morning News columnist William Murchison, theologians R. C. Sproul and Tony Evans, author and educator George Grant, news commentator and broadcaster Kerby Anderson, and best-selling author Elisabeth Elliot, as well as Dwyer himself.

The Heritage also pioneered innovative features such as full color photography and graphics, an expansive web site, a cluster of informative daily radio programs, and an aggressive, uncompromising brand of investigative news reporting unprecedented for contemporary news publications holding an orthodox Christian world view.

By the time the Dwyers sold The Heritage upon the release of its January, 2000 issue, the paper had grown to a circulation of around 50,000 copies per month, a readership of around 80,000 per month, and a monthly "hit" total of over 150,000 on its web site.

Dwyer's journalism career began during his high school days, when he served in a variety of roles, including news and sports reporter, for The Duncan Banner, a daily newspaper in Oklahoma. He was the youngest sports editor in the newspaper's history by the time he attended the University of Oklahoma on a journalism scholarship, graduating in 1978 with a bachelor of arts and sciences degree in journalism.

Dwyer also worked as a radio announcer and play-by-play football and basketball announcer for several radio stations. He won the coveted position of sports director for the University of Oklahoma's 100,000 watt KGOU-FM radio station, which at the time featured a sports staff of fifteen, many of whom have since gone on to top roles around the country in radio and television news and sports reporting. And for seven years, he provided live, on-air reports to America's largest radio networks of University of Oklahoma college football games.

While earning his masters degree at Dallas Theological Seminary, Dwyer worked part time on the sports staff of The Dallas Times Herald, which at the time owned one of the five largest circulations of any daily newspaper in Texas.