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Guest Editorial:
Citizens deserve better than sinister moving in darkness
Guest Column:
Is an 8” frying pan holding you back? “Ad-Libs” column by: John Foust
Arkansas Press Association
Publisher Weekly Vol.17 | No. 12 | Thursday, March 25, 2022 | Serving Press and State Since 1873
Cooks to retire from Warren Eagle Democrat March 30 The 137-year-old Warren Eagle Democrat has been owned by Danny and Pam Cook since 1998. But, while they’d love nothing more than to see the weekly community newspaper continue to publish, they can no longer continue to be the ones to run it. This week the Cooks announced that, come March 30, they will retire. The couple owns both the newspaper and Cook’s Heating and Air. “My doctor told me that for my health, I need to let some of my work go, to pick which business I want to run, but not keep trying to do both,” explains Danny, 71, who has worked at the paper for more than half a century. “With a newspaper, you have to show up. You can’t call in sick if there’s no one to replace you; you have to meet the deadlines. Publishing follows its own schedule, not yours,” he explains. With my other business, if I can’t make it out on calls, I can call on one of my other HVAC buddies to cover for me.” Danny says that often community newspapers are family businesses, where the next generation picks up the reins when it is time. He said their two grown daughters don’t live locally and have made good lives for their families with their own careers, so aren’t interested in moving back to Warren to get into the newspaper business. Larger trend A Poynter article last week discussed this increasingly common problem of small weekly newspapers with no succession plans needing to sell or close. It’s a familiar problem to Mike Hodges, executive director of the Texas Press Association, who spoke to Poynter for the article. According to Hodges, the lack of succession plans and the Continued on Page 2
Danny and Pam Cook in front of the Warren Eagle Democrat.
Cooks to retire from Warren Eagle Democrat March 30 Continued from Page 1
perception that community newspapers are doomed is a bigger threat to his state’s newspaper industry than are downshifting economics. He says aging owners frequently call about shutting down papers for lack of buyers. In the article, Jim Iovino, director of NewStart, an online master’s degree and certificate program for newspaper publishers, says, “Everyone’s so focused on creating something new, going the startup route. What they don’t understand is it’s going to take them three to five years, probably, if not more, to get to the same level where these newspapers currently are in their community with the trust factor. “I think a large part of the succession issue is this constant narrative that newspapers are dying. And people hear that over and over and over again, and you start to believe it: ‘Oh well, that must be true. I’ve heard that numerous times so that’s probably not something that I want to invest in.’” Like the Eagle Democrat, these newspapers often have been published for more than a century. “Any business would love to have that sort of longevity, that brand awareness within a community,” Iovino said. “To start something new, you’re starting from zero. You can do it, but you’re going to take all of your time and effort trying to build that instead of where you could spend it if you purchase a newspaper.” Support in Warren “The newspaper is still turning a profit,” says Pam, 70, who also has put decades of her life into the publication and currently manages the books and “whatever else needs doing that no one else wants to do,” as she puts it with a wry laugh. “It’s still profitable, and it definitely has the potential to be even more profitable for someone who has more energy to put in it than we do. The business includes the weekly newspaper plus the Bradley-Cleveland Shopper. Pam says the Eagle Democrat’s subscription base is 3,900, a strong number for the rural area. “We have a loyal readership of folks who absolutely depend on the newspaper for their local news,” she says, adding that theirs is the only legal newspaper in the county.
Arkansas Publisher Weekly
Advertising support hasn’t dwindled as much in Warren as it has in some communities. She says two holiday editions in December were particularly strong with advertisers. One edition had 78 ads from local businesses and the other had 100. As publisher, Danny’s been selling the ads, but he says there’s strong potential in the community for someone who can focus more on that aspect and bring fresh energy to increase the advertising base. The couple has had interest in the newspaper from potential buyers. “We have had several people call about it, and several very motivated,” she says. “We’d of course love for it ideally to be taken over by someone from our Bradley and Cleveland counties area who is invested in this part of the state and wants to help it thrive.” Eagle Democrat’s history The origins of the newspaper stretch back to E.A. Bradley’s Bradley County News, first published in 1885, which later became the Warren Democrat News. In 1913, John Crawford Jolly founded the Bradley County Eagle. Four years later, Jolly combined his publication with the older Democrat News. The newspaper has been published as the Warren Eagle Democrat since 1917. Following Jolly’s death, J.E. Victor and Judge DuVal L. Purkins purchased the Eagle Democrat. By 1946, Purkins was sole owner. That year he sold it to W.L. Love, James R. Moseley and Oscar K. Littlefield. Then in 1985, Robert L. Newton and his wife Patricia bought the newspaper. They sold it to the Cooks in 1998. Danny has worked for the newspaper since 1968 –– straight out of high school –– working that first year on a Heidelberg Windmill hot-type letterpress before the newspaper transitioned to offset printing in 1969. Pam joined the Eagle Democrat as a typesetter in 1969, worked there 10 years, then returned to help run the business when the couple became owners. Sad farewell The couple plan to publish their last issue as the owners on March 30. Besides the Cooks, the Eagle Democrat has four employees. One of them, Deborah Rawls,
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started 41 years ago as a typesetter and now designs and paginates the two publications. Pam says Rawls has held off on retiring until they do, but is also ready to retire. Danny says the decision to retire after more than half a century at the newspaper was something he struggled with for a long time. “It’s been very, very hard to come to this decision. We’ve put our blood, sweat and tears into the Eagle Democrat. But we have to do what is right for us,” he says. “[Pam’s] health isn’t good, either. We just can’t keep doing this.” Pam says, “It’s taken a long time for us to make peace with the decision to let it go. We are finally reconciled to that.”
INDUSTRY QUOTE “There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. By carefully chronicling the current events of contemporary life, it shows us of what every little importance such events really are. By invariably discussing the unnecessary, it makes us understand what things are requisite for culture, and what are not.
— Oscar Wilde
LET US KNOW We want to know about your new hires, retires and promotions! Send your staffing changes to info@arkansaspress.org to be updated online and included in the Arkansas Publisher Weekly. March 25, 2022
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Guest Editorial: Citizens deserve better than sinister moving in darkness “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis “All the public needs to know is our decision.” Helena-West Helena City Councilman Wanda Crockett Last week was Sunshine Week when transparency, open meetings laws, and the importance of a free press are celebrated around the country. And no better example could be found for the importance of Arkansas’s strong Freedom of Information Act than the conduct of the Helena-West Helena City Council last week. The conduct of officers leading up to and during the arrest of Warren and Mary Stephens is of substantial public interest and the confidence of the citizenry is undermined when city officials, several of whom had potential conflicts of interest, make it clear they do not want the public to know what is going on, particularly when it came to the determination to override the decision of the Acting Police Chief and Mayor to fire two of those officers. Regardless of which side of the debate about the officers you currently sit on, all of us should be alarmed at the conduct of our elected officials to hide as much as possible from public view and from the City Council’s brash disregard for solid objections to its closed session from both this publication and from KJIW-FM radio,
and some of their own conflicts of interest. Their conduct has ensured that no one has confidence in any action they take. It’s like the sinister moves of the serpent in the garden. It can’t possibly be in our best interest. In fact the stench coming out of City Hall is so foul, even Pepe Le Pew would complain about the aroma. The quote above from Councilwoman Crockett reminds us of the propaganda coming out of the mouths of despots around the world who do their best to keep their subjects from knowing the truth and taking steps to determine what the citizens should know and when they should know it. Some of what we heard from the mouths of our elected officials was so contrary to reality that it would have made Vladimir Putin proud. Thank God for the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act making it possible for organizations like ours to force the release of some records such as the video of the only bodycam working and on during that arrest. And we are thankful that City Attorney Andre Valley made the decision to release that video in accordance with the law even if we believe even more records should have been released. We could just imagine the pressure he was under as City Council members with common church memberships and social and fraternal associations pushed for him to tip the scales in their favor. He has a difficult job representing a two-headed monster with heads that hate each other. It is time for the citizens of this community to decide whether or not they want
government that works for them or government that works for the City Council and the few that are connected to them. At the root of this entire controversy is a dispute between Councilman Franklin and the Stephens family that began when he lost a custody battle for his niece to the father of the child, Warren Stephens. That’s a conflict of interest by almost any definition of the word. But instead of recusing from the situation, guess who asked for the Executive Session for the purpose of overruling the Mayor? Councilman Franklin. Then, the majority of the City Council stood in lockstep with him and facilitated his effort to throw his rock and hide his hand. This is government of, by, and for the powerful at the expense of the average Joe. And we can’t forget how they love to continue to pay themselves more and more to do it. Some City Councilmen are now making almost as much for two meetings a month where they do nothing but bash the Mayor as some people are making to work a fulltime job that pays minimum wage. And they want to move like a thief in the night to do it. In the words of the song “Aquarius” by the band Fifth Dimension. “Let the sunshine in.”
Andrew Bagley is the co-publisher of the Helena World, and Rick Kennedy is the editor. The bodycam footage released to the World was posted on social media and has now been shared over 3100 times, with over 5900 comments.
King joins The Batesville Daily Guard, Sun Times staff as sports editor It was announced this week that Jason King has joined The Batesville Daily Guard and The Sun Times in Heber Springs as the new sports editor and reporter for both publications. King, who grew up in the Floyd/Antioch area of western White County, is a graduate of Beebe High School, and also attended Arkansas State University-Beebe. He has previously worked as a freelance reporter, covering auto racing at Beebe Speedway. His writing has appeared in various racing publications, including Dirt Late Model magazine and the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) newsletter. He has also served as a race announcer for the now-defunct AMP Late Model Series. According to the announcement, King plans to bring more local outdoor content to the sports section, covering activities such as mountain-biking and kayaking in addition to the Batesville Motor Speedway and traditional high school and college athletics. “I’m excited to be a part of the team,” King said in the announcement. “Batesville is a historic town with a thriving local community, including sports, and I am looking forward to giving all the great schools and teams in the area the coverage they deserve.”
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Press Argus-Courier switches to weekly publication schedule Gannett-owned Press Argus-Courier in Van Buren announced that it will be published and delivered on Fridays only, effective March 25. The newspaper had been publishing twice weekly, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, prior to this change. The Press Argus-Courier was owned by Stephens Media before being bought by GateHouse Media in February 2015. GateHouse Media merged with Gannett in 2019.
Son of former APA executive director dies Timothy Joel Schick, son of the late former Arkansas Press Association Executive Director Dennis Schick and his wife, former APA Administrative Assistant Jan Schick, passed away at his home on Thursday, March 3 at the age of 51. He had been battling health issues related to Covid-19 since December 2020. He was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and lived with his family in Round Rock, Texas before they moved to North Little Rock, Arkansas. While in high school at North Little Rock Northeast, he was involved in theater and the Lakewood United Methodist Church youth group, and volunteered for the Ozark Mission Project.
JM Associates, a television production company. Shooting, editing and producing for JM allowed him to travel all over the country and to locations such as Africa, Madagascar, Australia and Brazil.
Schick studied journalism and photography at the University of Central Arkansas and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Early in his career he worked at the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. After a stint at Jones Production, he spent the last 21 years at
He is survived by his mother, siblings Leslie Gorrell (Doug) and Greg Schick (Christa), four nieces and a nephew, and beloved pets. The family will host a celebration of Tim’s life on Friday April 1, at St. James United Methodist Church in Little Rock, at 11 a.m.
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Little Rock journalist found dead at his home wire editor, according to a DemocratGazette article reporting his death. A native of Leachville in Mississippi County, Steed and his three brothers were once featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not for having been born on the same date – October 27 – two, three and four years apart.
Little Rock journalist Stephen Steed died at his home on Monday, March 21. He was 62. Steed had been employed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2016, and had just been promoted to business
Steed studied journalism at the University of Arkansas and served as an intern at the Arkansas Gazette. He was later hired at the Gazette full time and worked the state desk and at the Fayetteville bureau until 1991. He wrote for USA Today, Spectrum Weekly and the Arkansas Times as well, and was a reporter for Donrey Media Group from 1995-1999. Steed served as the information director for the Arkansas House of Representatives from 19992009, then worked a few non-journalism jobs before returning to the DemocratGazette as the agriculture reporter in 2016. According to the Democrat-Gazette, Steed
was known as a careful reporter. “Stephen was honest in his work. Accuracy and fairness in his reporting were important to him,” Business Editor Jim Kordsmeier said in the article. “He had a tendency to catch editors off guard, turning in his work well before deadline, hardly a comma out of place.” Steed had been facing health challenges in recent years, and was awaiting surgery.
“We were stunned to hear of Stephen’s passing,” Managing Editor Alyson Hoge said. “His legacy will be that he was a great agriculture reporter who understood the issues faced by farmers.” Steed is preceded in death by his parents, Billy and Twila Steed, and brother Philip Steed. He is survived by his sister Rebekah Steed Roddy of Jonesboro, brother Mark Steed of Jonesboro, and brother Jonathan Steed of Oklahoma City, three nephews, three nieces, and their families. Arrangements will be announced at a later date.
Donations sought to help journalists in Ukraine As Russian attacks continue across Ukraine, the safety of journalists reporting from the front lines is being threatened. Protective equipment is in short supply, particularly bullet-resistant vests and helmets. You can help keep at-risk journalists reporting from Ukraine safe by donating to Reporters Sans Frontierés/Reporters Without Borders. Your donations will help ensure reporters have the protective equipment, shelter and stable internet they need to continue their important work in Ukraine. For more information or to donate, visit donate.rsf.org/us/donate/
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Guest Column: Is an 8” frying pan holding you back? “Ad-Libs” column by John Foust There’s a story about an old man who was fishing from a pier. He was catching more fish than anyone else, so a crowd gathered to learn his secret. His behavior was unlike anything they had ever seen. Each time he caught a fish, he pulled a tape measure out of his pocket and took a measurement. He put the small fish into his cooler and tossed the big ones back into the ocean. When one of the onlookers asked about his strange technique, he explained that he kept only the fish that were 8 inches long. “Why are you doing that?” he was asked. He said, “Because my frying pan is 8 inches wide.” Imagine that. The old fellow was throwing away the fish that didn’t fit his 8-inch frying pan. It didn’t occur to him that he could get a bigger frying pan or cut large fish into smaller pieces. We may laugh at this silly example, but there’s a bit of that old fisherman in all of us. It’s human nature to resist change. It’s no surprise that we have a tendency to discard ideas that don’t fit the way we’ve always done things. We all have 8-inch frying pans in our minds, and sometimes
Arkansas Publisher Weekly
it takes discipline to break down those barriers. Pablo Picasso once said, “Every act of creation is, first of all, an act of destruction.” While there is some debate about what this famous artist actually meant, I think it’s safe to say he was talking about the need to let go of former — often stubborn — inclinations to do things in certain ways. Eight-inch frying pans have no place in a creative profession like advertising. If we discard the ideas that don’t fit the way we’ve always done things, we restrict our thinking and limit our potential. When that happens, we end up in a creative rut — and our advertisers get short-changed. Abraham Maslow, the noted psychologist and philosopher, said, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” That’s another way of saying, “Stop throwing away the big ideas. Instead, get rid of that old, 8-inch frying pan.” To refocus our thinking, it helps to recognize negative reactions we may have toward new ideas. When a new concept comes to mind — and our initial
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reaction is to measure it and throw it back — we should stop ourselves in our tracks. That’s it. Just stop. This reminds me of the old saying, “The mind is like a parachute. It only works when it’s open.” Once we open the door to possibilities, new ideas — big ideas — will be more welcome. There is a lot to gain. In the right environment, the seeds of unrestricted creative thinking can blossom into great advertising. If you want to measure something, measure campaign results. When you have great advertising, you’ll have great results. And when you have great results, you’ll create loyal advertisers. Copyright 2022 by John Foust. All rights reserved. John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training. Email for information: john@johnfoust.com
March 25, 2022