Arkansas Publisher Weekly: April 30, 2020

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News Media Alliance hosts audience development webinar on May 13

Guest Column:

Community support pages an important source of revenue

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly

By Peter Wagner

Vol. 15 | No. 18 | Thursday, April 30, 2020 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

Arkansas newspapers keep finding innovative projects Arkansas Publisher Weekly.

As the coronavirus pandemic enters its third month, resilient Arkansas newspapers continue to approach their response to the crisis with innovative and unique ways to serve the community.

This week, Paxton Media Group newspapers throughout Arkansas promoted an advertising matching grant program valued at $250,000. According to an article in the Jonesboro Sun, the program will “help local businesses get back to full strength by subsidizing their marketing through matching grants.”

APA Executive Director Ashley Wimberley applauded newspapers that are answering the call to serve readership and advertisers and remain relevant in their communities. “While we may not be able to assemble in person at this time to share our best practices and revenue-generating ideas, we at the APA want to make sure to convey this information through our newsletter,” Wimberley said. “Since March, we’ve learned about some excellent strategies for raising money and boosting readership, and we encourage APA members to continue to let us know what they’re doing in the midst of this crisis.” Wimberley urges APA members with ideas to share to email her at ashley@ arkansaspress.org with details. Those practices will be profiled in future editions of

All locally owned and operated businesses are eligible for an ad matching grant, which can be used for Paxton newspapers’ print edition and special section advertising between now and June 30. Grants range from $200 in value to $5,000 in value. The company noted that means a business that spends $200 in advertising and receives a grant, the actual value of the advertising will be $400.

Promotional ad about the grant program in the Jonesboro Sun .

“We realize this is a critical time for our business community, and we wanted to subsidize their marketing through this grant,” said Reece Terry, Paxton group publisher in the article about the grant

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ANF sets plans for summer internship opportunites The Arkansas Newspaper Foundation this year will fund paid summer internships for two interns at Arkansas community newspapers. The foundation is providing $3,000 per intern to cover the entire cost of an intern for the summer. All Arkansas newspapers are eligible to apply for the program, and newspapers will be selected to participate on a first-come, first served basis. “Over several years, the Foundation has covered half the cost of an intern at four different newspapers, but given the current economic climate the ANF board has decided to focus on fully funding internships

at two newspapers,” said Rusty Fraser, publisher of the Stone County Leader and president of the ANF board. “We are eager to help support quality journalism in Arkansas and provide two student journalists with a fantastic opportunity to receive a fully-funded internship to learn the newspaper business and provide needed help this summer.” In 2019, ANF placed interns at the Carroll County News, Sheridan Headlight, Malvern Daily Record and Nashville News-Leader. Journalism professors from Arkansas State University, Arkansas Tech, the University

of Arkansas at Little Rock, H e n d e r s o n State University and the University of Central Arkansas have been contacted about the competitive grants. For more information about the application process for both newspapers and student journalists, email Terri Cobb at terri@arkansaspress.org.


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