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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.