3 5
Special prosecutor says Pope County officials violated FOIA
Guest Column:
Meet them where they are By John Foust
Arkansas Press Association
Publisher Weekly Vol. 15 | No. 4 | Thursday, January 23, 2020 | Serving Press and State Since 1873
Accustomed to sprints, Brown adjusts to publishing in the long run in new role at Little Rock’s Daily Record Wes Brown is a champion marathon runner who spent much of his professional career in a sprint. He’d sprint to the Capitol for an impromptu news conference or to the phone for a corporate earnings call. After that, it was a sprint to finish an article by deadline.
venture to that of a marathon. He will take a big-picture look at the product and find ways to methodically improve. Brown, a native of Hope, has won more than 250 road races and was Oklahoma’s runner of the year in 1991. That same year, he finished third among American participants in the Boston Marathon. He’s won Fort Worth’s Cowtown Marathon four times.
The last few months, though, have been a welcome change for the longtime business and politics reporter. Brown’s the new publisher of The Daily Record. It’s a decidedly slower pace than in previous jobs at Talk Business and Politics, Stephens Media and in corporate public relations for Alltel. “For someone like me who’s been a deadline junkie for most of my life, it’s kind of a shift,” said Brown, who took over the nearly century-old Pulaski County publication in November.
Wes Brown
The Daily Record is a trusted repository of
It’s easy for Brown to compare his new
public information, featuring court records, legal notices and real estate transaction. Its core constituency is the central Arkansas legal and real estate community.
He was a captain of Arkansas State University’s cross country team and was roommates at ASU with Al Joyner, husband of the late Florence GriffithJoyner. In high school, Brown worked at the Hope Star. His first full-time newspaper job was at the Tulsa World, where he was part of that newspaper’s award-winning team that covered the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He later moved to Wall Street, Continued on Page 2
Election set to modernize method for amending bylaws Arkansas Press Association members will be asked starting Friday to adopt a change to the association’s constitution to streamline the method for approving future amendments to APA’s governing documents. The proposed amendment mailed to the designated voter at each APA member newspaper would change the way amendments are ratified. The APA Board of Directors approved the amendment for
election in its December meeting. Voting by mail will be available to members until March 2.
the current constitution makes it nearly impossible to enact these needed improvements.”
“APA has a constitution and bylaws that have not been modified since 2006,” said APA Executive Director Ashley Wimberley. “We all know how much our industry has changed over the last 14 years, and our association’s structure must change as well in order to meet the needs of our membership. Unfortunately,
Continued on Page 2