Arkansas Publisher Weekly: April 7, 2022

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Opinion Column: Throughout history, newspapers are community diaries of Arkansas

By Tom Dillard

Guest Column:

Advertising’s blast from the past

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly

By John Foust

Vol.17 | No. 14 | Thursday, April 7, 2022 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

The Eagle Democrat lands with Smith Newspapers After several weeks of uncertainty as to the future of The Eagle Democrat in Warren, it was reported on Friday that a verbal agreement has been reached to sell the newspaper to Smith Newspapers/DLS, Inc. of Fort Payne, Alabama. The deal will be finalized in the coming weeks, with no interruption in publication. Announcement of the sale was made on April 1.

Warren native and APA board member Tom White of Monticello will serve as publisher. White is also publisher of the Advance-Monticellonian, the neighboring Arkansas newspaper owned by Smith.

Danny and Pam Cook, who had owned and published the newspaper since 1998, announced in the March 23 issue of The Eagle Democrat that they were retiring on March 30 for health reasons, and also

planned the end of publication on that date if a suitable owner could not be found.

They will be assisting in the transition to the new team.

“The Cooks will be staying on in the interim to help,” said White in an interview with Arkansas Business published on Monday. “I’m involved and my staff [at the Advance-Monticellonian] is involved, and we’re not changing anything for now.”

“We are glad that a deal was worked out so that there was no cease in publication, that the paper would still come out this week,” said APA Executive Director Ashley Kemp Wimberley. “It’s the only legal newspaper in the county, so it was important for us as an industry.”

The newspaper is one of the oldest

businesses in Bradley County. 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, the Bradley County Eagle was founded, which John Crawford Jolly took over in 2014.

Three years later, Jolly combined his publication with the older Democrat News.

The newspaper has been published as The 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. In 1985, Robert L. Newton and his wife Patricia bought the newspaper.

They sold it to the Cooks in 1998.

Candidates from four races scheduled to appear at “Day of Debates” A Day of Debates, featuring Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General and Gubernatorial candidates debating, will be held on Thursday, April 21 at Little Rock Union Station, lower level. A luncheon will also be part of the day’s schedule. The event is hosted

by Arkansas Press Association and sponsored by Arkansas Farm Bureau and Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.

A debate among Lieutenant Governor

candidates at 9:00 a.m will start the day, with Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, Senator Jason Rapert, Doyle Webb, Kelly Ross Krout, Frank Gilbert, Greg Bledsoe, Chris Bequette and Judge Joseph Wood participating. The Secretary of State candidates will follow at 10:45 a.m. with a debate between Anna Beth Gorman, Eddie Joe Williams, Secretary of State John Thurston and Josh Price.

A DAY OF DEBATES AND LUNCHEON PURCHASE TICKETS

HERE Continued on Page 2

APA to host Day of Daily Record’s Burton wins APA contest Debates, candidates from four races scheduled to appear Continued from Page 1

The luncheon will be held at noon, and the afternoon’s debates resume at 1:30 p.m. with Attorney General candidates Leon Jones, Jr. and Jesse Gibson taking the stage. Lieutenant Governor Tim Griffin ceded his time at the debate to his opponents.

The day will wrap up with a Gubernatorial Debate at 2:45 p.m. between Chris Jones, Jay Martin, James “Rus” Russell III, Francis “Doc” Washburn, Supha Xayprasith-Mays and Ricky Dale Harrington, Jr. Candidates Anthony “Tony” Bland and Sarah Huckabee Sanders ceded their time at the debate to their opponents.

“Newspaper readers are among the most politically engaged, and are the demographic most likely to show up to vote,” said APA Executive Director Ashley Kemp Wimberley. “This event will be an ideal forum and opportunity to shine a statewide spotlight on the candidates and to introduce or clarify before the media what skills, values, priorities and experience they have to offer our great state.”

Congratulations to Bobby Burton of the Daily Record in Little Rock, pictured here receiving his prize money for his winning photo in the 2022 Arkansas Media Directory cover contest from APA Executive Director Ashley Kemp Wimberley. His photo, “Milky Way Barn”, was taken near Marshall.

SAVE THE DATE

Tickets are $100 each and include all four debates and luncheon. One eight-seat VIP reserved stage-front table remains available for $1250. Tickets for the event are limited, and can be ordered online at arkansaspress.org/event/APADebate

FOR THIS SUMMER’S

Working media should email ashley@ arkansaspress.org for credentialing for the event.

LET US KNOW We want to know about your new hires, retires and promotions!

Tri-State Press Convention June 23 - 25, 2022 Sheraton Downtown Memphis

Send your staffing changes to info@arkansaspress.org to be updated online and included in the Arkansas Publisher Weekly.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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April 7, 2022

A DAY OF DEBATES AND LUNCHEON Hosted by the Arkansas Press Association

Little Rock Union Station 1400 W Markham Street, Little Rock Thursday, April 21, 2022 Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General and Gubernatorial Debates and Luncheon Debates begin at 9:00 a.m.

Luncheon at noon

TICKETS $100 each for all four debates and luncheon VIP Reserved Stage-Front Table For Eight - $1250 (two available) Order online at arkansaspress.org/event/APADebate or by phone at (501) 374-1500 Working media please contact ashley@arkansaspress.org for credentialing.

Opinion Column:

Throughout history, newspapers are community diaries of Arkansas

By Tom Dillard My heart sank recently upon reading that the newspaper in Warren, The Eagle Democrat, will cease publication if a buyer is not found soon.

The newspaper began in 1913 in the village of Hermitage and moved to Warren the following year when it was taken over

by Columbia University-trained lawyer J. Crawford Jolly. Mr. Jolly and his paper succeeded when so many previous newspapers had failed -- The Sunbeam, the first newspaper in the county, started in 1857; a reformist agrarian journal named Free Thought; and Swift’s Flying Needle, an odd newspaper started by an eccentric physician.

For students of Arkansas history, the newspaper is perhaps our single most important research source. The isolated and rugged Arkansas frontier did not attract a highly literate culture, so state and local historians must rely heavily on newspapers, since the early settlers tended not to leave large collections of letters, detailed memoirs or diaries.

In today’s post-literate society, it is difficult to understand how important newspapers were to early Arkansans. Every Arkansas hamlet had at least one newspaper at some point in its history. Everyone knows about the first newspaper published in Arkansas, the Arkansas Gazette, established by William E. Woodruff in 1819, the year Arkansas became a territory. But have you ever heard of The Spyglass, published in Conway? Or, how about Searcy’s Arkansas Mule?

Then there were the German language newspapers, of which Arkansas Staats Zeitung and Arkansas Echo, both of Little Rock, were the most widely read. Among the smaller German papers was Der Logan County Anzeiger. In recent years Arkansas has also been home to two Spanish language newspapers.

About 200 Black-owned newspapers have been published in Arkansas. The Arkansas Freeman, established in 1869, only four years after the Civil War, was the

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

first Black newspaper in the state. Tabbs Gross, its highly opinionated editor, was active in creating what became the Arkansas Press Association, thus making it the first integrated professional body in the state.

One of the older Black journals in the state and more or less still in publication is The Baptist Vanguard, the official voice of Black Baptists of Arkansas, established in 1882.

Modern readers would probably be surprised if not dismayed by the vehemently partisan nature of most 19thcentury Arkansas newspapers. From the beginning, Democrats benefited from the considerable clout wielded by the Arkansas Gazette. The second newspaper created in Arkansas, The Arkansas Advocate, was established for the specific purpose of promoting the political interests of the Whig Party.

Young Albert Pike, who went on to become a prosperous lawyer, soldier and Whig leader, was an early editor of The Advocate. C.F.M. Noland, the wayward son of a prominent Virginia family who had been sent west for rehabilitation, was a fiercely partisan Whig journalist. (In 1831 he killed Gov. John Pope’s nephew in a duel.)

One early editor who eschewed politics was William M. Quesenbury, generally known as Bill Cush, who founded the Southwest Independent in Fayetteville.

Unlike most early Arkansas editors, Cush was a native Arkansan and well read. As a youth he was fascinated by the diverse journalism scene in Van Buren, where newspapers were in lively conflict with papers in nearby Fort Smith.

Cush was a man of many talents, including a provocative writing style and the ability to draw. His woodblock prints were among the early cartoons to illustrate Arkansas newspapers. He also knew how to turn out humorous copy. Here’s how Cush quoted a local farmer on recent cold weather: “I’ve been married nigh on to 40 years,

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but I slept closer to Betsy last Friday night than I ever did before in my life.”

Another unusual antebellum Arkansas editor was Elias Cornelius Boudinot, the editor of The Arkansian in Fayetteville.

Born into the Cherokee tribe in Georgia in 1835, Boudinot was educated as a lawyer before coming west during the Trail of Tears. He probably knew Fort Smith editor John F. Wheeler, who got his start in newspaper work by printing the Cherokee language newspaper The Phoenix.

Among the more memorable newspaper characters of the last century was Roberta Fulbright, the outspoken publisher of Northwest Arkansas Times and the mother of U.S. Sen. J.W. Fulbright.

Another noteworthy newspaperwoman from Northwest Arkansas was Maud Duncan, publisher of Winslow American from 1918 to 1958. Tipping the scales at less than 80 pounds, Duncan was called “the Little Printer of the Ozarks.”

The rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan after World War I divided the newspaper world as it did the other components of life in Arkansas and throughout much of the nation. In Marshall, the county seat of Searcy County, both of the local weeklies -- one Democratic and one Republican -- supported the KKK. Local Klan opponents, however, established their own newspaper, The Eagle. The masthead proclaimed: “The idea of an invisible empire in a free republic is nothing less than visible nonsense.”

Ozell Sutton became the first Black reporter for a major Arkansas daily newspaper in 1950 when the Arkansas Democrat hired him. Though he faced many obstacles, Sutton persevered in his job and succeeded in convincing the newspaper to begin referring to Blacks as Mr. or Mrs. Arkansas has had a number of alternative newspapers which deal with matters often overlooked by the mainstream Continued from Page 6

April 7, 2022

Opinion Column

Throughout history, newspapers are community diaries of Arkansas Continued from Page 4

press. Among the more widely read was the Grapevine, published in Fayetteville from 1970 to 1993. Arkansas Times magazine began in 1974 as an alternative newspaper and was briefly named Union Station Times.

Some time when you have a free afternoon, go to the library and take a look at some of our early newspapers on microfilm.

You will discover that newspapers are, as newspaper historian Michael Dougan has written, the “community diaries” of Arkansas.

APA Better Newspaper Editorial Contest now open for entries The 2022 APA Better Newspaper Editorial Contest is now open for submissions. The annual contest recognizes the best work from across the state in reporting, writing, headline-writing, design and photography.

The contest is a chance for APA member newspapers to recognize the editors, reporters, designers and photographers who worked so hard over the last year.

The deadline for submitting entries is Monday, April 25. The contest is open to employees of APA member newspapers.

Work published from Jan. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2021 may be submitted.

A new category, Best Digital Presence & Audience Engagement, has been added

this year so that member newspapers can showcase social media accounts and podcasts in addition to their websites.

Entries will be judged by a panel of journalists from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Awards will be presented at the conclusion of the 2022 Tri-State Convention at the Sheraton Downtown Memphis on June 25.

Complete rules and entry information can be found at newspapercontest.com/ Contests/ArkansasPressAssociation. aspx. If you have any questions please email Terri Cobb at terri@arkansaspress. org or call (501) 374-1500.

Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in Hot Spring County--where he reads the Malvern Daily Record. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail. com. This opinion column first appeared in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is reprinted with permission.

Walton Family Foundation funds Associated Press project The Walton Family Foundation announced this week its awarding of a $785,000 grant to the Associated Press to pay for reporters to cover water issues in the United States. The two-year grant will pay for three reporting positions.

According to the AP, the wire service will have a reporter based in Washington D.C. covering water and climate policies; a reporter based in the Western United States to focus on water issues in the Colorado River basin; and a reporter based in the Mississippi River basin who will cover issues in that region.

The AP said in its release that the Walton grant will “allow the news agency to produce additional comprehensive, all-formats journalism around water use, rights, quality and safety, as well as food production, dams, flooding and natural habitats.”

AP said it would work with local news outlets to identify specific coverage needs for local audiences.

The grant is one prong of the Walton Family Foundation’s approach to increase climate-related news coverage. The organization also plans listening sessions, research projects and additional financial commitments.

The Walton Family Foundation is led by the descendants of its founders, Sam and Helen Walton. The group supports programs in K-12 education, protecting rivers and oceans, and in northwest Arkansas and the Delta.

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April 7, 2022

Newspaper promotions at Within-County mailing rate can begin President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, which implements reforms of federal employee benefit programs and shaves more than $50 billion off the USPS balance sheet. It also extends a new opportunity for newspapers to use mail sampling to reach non-subscribers with promotional copies.

The Rural Newspaper Sustainability Act, broadening the sampling allowances for Within County newspaper mailers, was included in the PSRA with the sponsorship of Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York; and James Comer, R-Kentucky.

It lifts the existing cap on the number of nonsubscriber copies newspapers can mail at the lowest commercial rate from 10% of a newspaper’s paid within-county distribution to 50%.

National Newspaper Association Chair, Brett Wesner president of Wesner

Publications, Cordell, Oklahoma, said the RNSA was a concrete and tangible benefit that came to newspapers out of the yearslong postal reform effort.

But he said the industry was disappointed that the legislation did not accomplish more to save newspapers from dramatic price increases.

“Much of this bill was about federal budget math,” Wesner said. “That doesn’t mean it was unhelpful for us. It lifted a lot of financial pressure from the Postal Service. We expect to see some moderation in postage increases as a result. But the sampling allowance gives us an immediate opportunity to send our newspapers to nonsubscribers — particularly people who dropped their

subscriptions because of poor mail delivery — and show them what they are missing.”

Wesner said NNA Foundation would provide training on how publishers can use the sampling allowance through the Max Heath Postal Institute later this year.

Newspaper mailers not saved from dramatic postage increases The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday announced it would hike Periodicals postage rates an average of 8.5% for Periodicals on July 10, 2022, disappointing publishers who expected passage of the Postal Service Reform Act to moderate the price increases.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy this week said the price increases from the USPS Board of Governors would use the full measure of price increase available from the Postal Regulatory Commission.

He said the reason for the big increases was USPS’ continued need for cash to update its vehicle fleet, prepare networks for more packages and make up for losses in earlier years. A small moderation of .3% that USPS recognized from the reform bill was offset by rising inflation, postal officials said.

“Our industry that worked for more than a

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decade to help USPS have received very bad news this week,” National Newspaper Association Chair Brett Wesner, president of Wesner Publications, Cordell, Oklahoma, said. “It is hard to find good news in a pricing release like this, but there are some small bright spots.

One is that USPS is finally recognizing the value of our use of flats trays for newspaper containers by passing along a 3.7% increase instead of the nearly 11% for mailing sacks. Increases are never welcomed, but recognition that we are doing a lot to be more efficient is some small relief.”

Ironically, the price increase was announced on the day President Joe Biden was to sign the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, which took more than $50 billion of debt off the USPS balance sheet.

“The Board of Governors has discretion in how much increase it passes along,” Wesner said. “We recognize USPS is facing inflation problems ⁠— including fuel cost ⁠— but it also has not only the relief from PSRA but also $10 billion in CARES Act money. Right now USPS has a much stronger cash flow than many in the industry. The governors could have recognized this situation in such a perilous economy. Unhappily, they did not. Now we look forward to a recalibration of the plans to increase rates again in January.

Hopefully, the USPS’ new plans for improving operations will begin to show up by then.”

Wesner announced NNA has requested a major change in how newspaper mail is handled in mail processing, which he hopes will be reflected in the planned USPS January 2023 price increases.

INDUSTRY QUOTE “In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work in contrast, in fiction one single fact that is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That’s the only difference and it lies in the commitment of the writer. A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it. ­—Gabriel García Márquez

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April 7, 2022

Advance-Monticellonian debuts new website The Advance-Monticellonian in Monticello announced this week the debut of a new website, advancemonticellonian.com. Their previous web address, mymonticellonews.net, redirects to the new site.

“We could not be happier about this addition to our newspaper,” Managing Editor Ashley Hogg said in an article published Wednesday. “This has been a long time coming and we know we will be able to serve different parts of our community with this updated website. We welcome the community’s feedback on what you would like to see featured.”

The new website includes weekly e-editions of the AdvanceMonticellonian for those who prefer to read the paper online, as well as stand-alone news stories, breaking news, sports, obituaries, legals and advertising. The website will be updated daily, or as news breaks.

E-editions of the Advance-Monticellonian will be free to access until April 26. After that, readers will need to subscribe to the newspaper online to access the e-editions.

Certain language required on political advertising As the May 24 primary election draws closer, APA member newspapers are reminded to include the required disclaimers on all political advertising for local and statewide races.

Ark. Code Ann. §7-1-103(7)(A) states, in regard advertising placed by or for candidates running for local or State office, political action committees, ballot issues, or in regard to local issues such as taxes or millage increases: (i) All articles, statements, or communications appearing in any newspaper printed or circulated in this

state intended or calculated to influence the vote of any elector in any election and for the publication of which a consideration is paid or to be paid shall clearly contain the words “Paid Political Advertisement,” “Paid Political Ad,” or “Paid for by” the candidate, committee, or person who paid for the message. (ii) Both the persons placing and the persons publishing the articles, statements, or communications shall be responsible for including the required disclaimer.

Note that if ads are run without the required

language, the newspaper could be held at fault and may receive a fine, even if the ad copy was supplied by the candidate, PAC or their ad agency, or approved by the candidate.

Although the specifics of the disclaimers are not defined by Arkansas code, the Federal Election Commission says that required disclaimers on political advertising must be “clear and conspicuous”. A disclaimer is not considered clear and conspicuous if it is difficult to read or if its placement is easily overlooked. 12-point black type on a white background is recommended by the FEC.

Guest Column: Advertising’s blast from the past

By John Foust In order to look ahead to a new advertising idea, sometimes it helps to take a look at the past. When an advertiser has been in business for a number of years, there are plenty of possibilities.

2. Business anniversary: Of course, any business can celebrate an anniversary, even if it’s for one year in operation. An anniversary just means more when it’s an impressive number.

Let’s take a look at a few idea-starters.

Although there’s some natural overlap, it helps to examine each one separately:

Your advertiser could throw a party to celebrate the anniversary of when they opened their doors. They could invite customers to drop by for a slice of birthday cake or have a sale featuring “throwback prices” on selected products.

1. Years of experience: This is a good starting point. You can either talk about the number of years the company has been in operation, or you can emphasize the cumulative years key members have been on the team. For example, “We have been in business for 75 years,” or “Our service team has a total of 312 years of experience.”

By themselves, these facts don’t mean much – and in fact, could indicate that the company is outdated and out of touch with today’s consumers. The secret is to connect an age-related statistic to a specific benefit: “Our service team has 312 years of overall experience. This means we have encountered – and successfully diagnosed – just about every plumbing problem.”

This kind of information could become the main subject of an image ad campaign – or be shortened to be used as a tagline throughout that company’s marketing.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

3. Archives: You advertisers may have a wealth of inspiration in their files. Anything that documents the start and growth of a business can spark ideas. Photos can illustrate the construction of branch offices, the history of relationships with existing customers, or the evolution of flagship products.

You might be surprised at what you find: internal newsletters, early brochures on products that became best sellers, maybe even old copies of ads that announced special events.

4. Profile of founder(s): A conversation with – or about – the people who started the company can uncover some fascinating facts. Could one of these tidbits become the theme of an ad?

5. Then and now (what’s changed, what

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hasn’t?): Think of the “New look, same great taste” label we see on so many packaged goods.

When a company has been around for a long time, change is a consideration.

Obviously, some older things have been good enough to keep and some things are newer and better. Those things – both old and new – can be selling points.

Have the advertiser’s product lines expanded since the beginning? Are there new locations? New hours?

Does the company still have the customer service focus it had in the beginning? Is that philosophy in a frame – and can it be photographed?

It adds up to this: sometimes, a blast from the past is just what the idea process needs. (c) 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

April 7, 2022