Arkansas Publisher Weekly: May 12, 2022

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Journalist to speak to grads at PCCUA Stuttgart

Guest Column:

Congrats to our colleagues

By Scott Loftis

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly Vol.17 | No. 19 | Thursday, May 12, 2022 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

ADG wins top honors at Great Plains Journalism Awards The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette took home top honors in six categories at the Great Plains Journalism Awards luncheon at the Tulsa Press Club on Friday, May 6.

The newspaper won first place in the categories of Editorial Portfolio, News Column Portfolio, Best Website Design, Page Design, Spot News Photography and Great Plains Website of the Year.

In all, 14 Democrat-Gazette staff were commended as winners or finalists at the contest.

Page design editor Stan Denman took first place for Page Design and senior photo editor Staton Breidenthal earned top honors for Spot News Photography.

Editorial page editor David Barham won for Editorial Portfolio and longtime Democrat-Gazette columnist John Brummett won for News Column Portfolio.

Senior online editor Maggie McNeary and deputy online editor Josh Snyder won Great Plains Website of the Year for the Democrat-Gazette’s website, arkansasonline.com. In addition the category of Best Website Design: Project was won for the newspaper’s vaccine

information page, arkansasonline.com/ vaccineinfo/. Team members on that project include McNeary, audience engagement editor Nyssa Kruse, producers Brian Smith and David Wilson and former assistant managing editor Barry Arthur, who is now parent company WEHCO Media’s director of audience technology.

Other Democrat-Gazette staff named as finalists in this year’s contest are Phillip Martin, Staci Vandagriff, Terry Austin and Thomas Metthe.

In addition, retired Democrat-Gazette special projects editor Lawrence “Sonny” Albarado became a new member of the Great Plains Journalism

Hall of Fame as one of the hall’s second class of inductees. Other inductees were Jeannette Cooperman with St. Louis Magazine, David Fritze of Oklahoma Watch, Jim Goodwin with The Oklahoma Eagle, Wayne Greene of Public Service Company of Oklahoma and formerly with Tulsa World and Sam Jones with RSUTV. The Great Plains Journalism Awards promote the highest standards of journalism and are presented annually by the Tulsa Press Club and Benevolent Association. The eight-state competition includes publications in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Room block deadline for Bylines, Blues & BBQ approaching Registration is now open for next month’s Tri-State Press Convention, “Bylines, Blues & BBQ”, to be held June 23-25 in Memphis. The event will bring together members of the Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee press associations for three days of networking and industry discussion. Those wishing to take advantage of the reserved room block at the Memphis Sheraton Downtown should

secure that reservation by May 27.

Educational sessions planned for the convention include “Brand Your Business with a Five-Star Service Strategy” presented by Kelly Wirges of ProMax Consulting, “Rethinking the Ways We Write Headlines” presented by Bill Ostendorf of Creative Circle Media, “Photojournalism via Smartphone”

presented by Mark Humphrey of the Associated Press, “Technology for Newspaper Media” presented by Russell Viers, “Evolving Business Models in a Digital World” presented by Dave Gould of Main Street Media and “Local Legal Initiative” presented by Paul McAdoo.

Visit tristatepressorg.wordpress.com to register for the convention and for Continued on Page 2

Room block deadline for Bylines, Blues & BBQ approaching

SAVE THE DATE

FOR THIS SUMMER’S

Continued on Page 3

more information on accommodations at Memphis Sheraton Downtown and the planned agenda.

The 2022 Tri-State Press Convention is sponsored by these partners: Headliner: The Daily Memphian Front Page: Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Gannett Breaking News: Arkansas Newspaper Foundation, CherryRoad Media, Entergy Arkansas, Magic Valley Publishing, MPA Education Foundation, Tennessee Press Association Foundation, WEHCO Media.

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May 12, 2022

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Journalist to speak to grads at PCCUA-Stuttgart Commercial and who is a former editor and reporter at the Stuttgart Daily Leader, will address the class of 2022 during graduation exercises tonight in the College’s main lobby on the Stuttgart campus.

Journalist Eplunus Colvin of Stuttgart is set to deliver this year’s commencement address to the graduates of Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas Stuttgart and DeWitt campuses.

Colvin, who writes for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Pine Bluff

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Colvin holds a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Arkansas at Little Rock in radio, television, and film with a minor in journalism, but first chose a career in professional basketball, completing a season in the FIBA Europe and the global International Basketball Federation.

Her journalism career includes stints in television broadcasting, working as a television program planner and media manager, as a media specialist, a production assistant for a hit reality show, and multimedia sales account executive.

In Stuttgart, she has worked closely with advertisers to create effective advertising campaigns through print and digital media resources including newspaper, social media, and website advertising.

In 2018 she was named chief editor and reporter of the former Stuttgart Daily Leader, making history as the newspaper’s first Black editor. There, she produced engaging community news coverage and introduced live streaming to cover

community events and city government.

During her time with the Stuttgart Daily Leader, she was awarded the GateHouse Inner Circle for Journalism with Impact.

She also received Arkansas Press Association Better Newspaper Contest awards in categories including headline writing, single feature photograph, coverage of politics/election, coverage of business/agriculture, feature story, news story and overall excellence. After the Daily Leader ceased publication in 2019 Colvin founded In The Loop Stuttgart, a non-profit online news platform, through which she provided community coverage.

She also partnered with the DeWitt-Era Enterprise and composed Stuttgart news pages in its publication as a source for continuing to provide Stuttgart residents with printed community news.

Colvin currently is the executive producer of The Pine Bluff Commercial’s web series, “The Newsroom,” where local leaders are interviewed. Her writing has been featured in over 75 news and magazine publications including USA Today, Government Technology Magazine, The Columbus Dispatch, The Miami NewsRecord and the Mexico Ledger.

Flippin newspaper office moves east The Mountaineer Echo in Flippin has announced the move to a new location.

The newspaper office is moving about a mile east from its current location to 904 East Main Street, the former location of Mountaineer Gear and Outfitters. CherryRoad Media, which publishes The Mountaineer Echo, recently purchased the building.

The move will take place gradually over the month of May. No disruption to the publication schedule is expected, and the phone number will stay the same.

@ArkansasPressAssociation

@ARPressAssoc

LET’S GET SOCIAL We want to know about your new hires, retires and promotions!

In a newspaper article announcing the move, Editor Robert Lyons said, “The Mountaineer Echo’s mission is to be there for the communities we serve. Also, the newspaper will continue to be a watchdog if something happens in the communities and keep everyone up to date on City Councils from Bull Shoals, Flippin and Yellville, local school boards and Quorum Court. The community is the most important thing the newspaper covers.”

Said Lyons, “The newspaper will let everyone know, as timely as possible, the things going on within the community.”

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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May 12, 2022

Increase Your Revenue Through Recycling

By Bob Sillick

Newspapers need to deliver superior news and information products to their communities and take advantage of every revenue-generating opportunity – and waste recycling is often overlooked.

Maximizing recycling revenues starts with an education in the process, and the professional guidance of CellMark Recycling has enlightened many printing operations.

Such was the eye-opening experience of Phil Kane, the retired corporate supply chain manager for McClatchy when he first met Richard Prins, CellMark sales executive, approximately 12 years ago when Kane was working from the Miami Herald building. Kane’s education continued by working with Prins.

Kane readily admits he knew almost nothing about newspaper waste recycling at the time. The Herald was paying a considerable amount for trash removal and received almost nothing in return. With Prins’ insights, Kane quickly understood there was a major revenue opportunity to pursue.

“Since newspaper people tend to be conservative and very independent, making money from newspaper waste was a new concept,” said Kane. “Then again, that conservative stance meant people were interested in any revenuegenerating ideas. Once Richard educated me, CellMark became the catalyst for major financial improvement.”

The dramatic turnaround was the clincher for McClatchy to start using CellMark to increase recycling revenue and reduce

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

dramatically waste removal costs for 20 or more newspapers.

“What is most gratifying about my relationship with CellMark is it made my work much easier,” added Kane. “The company doesn’t just remove the waste generated from our printing operations, but also less-obvious recycling capabilities, such as litho plates, cores and cleanouts.”

Prins couldn’t educate Kane and other printing operations pros without the knowledge and experience he gained from being in the business since 1988.

Prins emphasizes CellMark’s commitment to customer service is the difference between newspaper waste costing money and generating revenues.

That commitment extends to helping newspapers shutter or consolidate their printing operations and quickly move to a third-party printer.

“CellMark often provides the equipment newspapers need to be more efficient with their waste removal and maximize the revenue they receive from it,” said Prins.

“We at CellMark understand newspapers must have their waste removed within 48 hours or their operations could stop.”

He explained CellMark’s customer service includes creating backup plans, so waste can be removed during the holidays, for example, when fewer trucks and drivers are available. It also provides every customer with a monthly report, from which papers can track the tons of waste being removed and receive their payments

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almost immediately.

Prins’ efforts at educating Kane and others at McClatchy have benefited other papers.

Gary Young, former VP of production for The Advocate in Baton Rouge, which prints all of Gannett’s southern Louisiana papers, received his recycling education while working at a McClatchy operation a few years ago.

Young took his knowledge with him when he joined The Advocate. He discovered the paper was spending $40,000 for waste removal. Tom Reilly, a 42-year veteran of the newspaper industry and a current CellMark representative, was instrumental in helping Young.

“To manage our waste efficiently, Tom worked with our operations staff to reduce costs and add the necessary equipment,” said Young. “With Tom and CellMark’s assistance, we were able to convert our $40,000 waste-removal cost into a significant revenue stream.”

Prins explained CellMark’s approach to newspaper waste removal works so well because it doesn’t have “clients”; the newspapers are its partners.

“We don’t charge newspapers to remove their waste. They are our suppliers of materials that can be converted to revenues,” said Prins. “Newspapers receive a double benefit: they receive those revenues, and their operations are more efficient. As our partners, CellMark willingly invests in the equipment they need because their budgets are so restricted.”

May 12, 2022

Slimp offers community newspapers New openopportunity for cost-effective redesign source design system from The By Kevin Slimp speaking at the Nebraska Press It’s a process that’s affordable to every Washington Post Since Association Convention last week, my paper, allows me to help a lot of community thoughts have often revolved around newspapers, and is a win-win for your the topic of newspaper redesigns. While paper and me. now available Press Release | The Washington Post Today, The Washington Post announces it has launched an open-source design system, making the fundamental code that powers The Post and its features available publicly for the first time.

The Washington Post Design System (WPDS) is a growing library of design tokens and interactive components purpose-built for The Post’s site. WPDS enables designers and developers at The Post to ship reader-facing digital products that are modular, elegant, and accessible while maintaining visual consistency at scale.

The design system not only accelerates the pace of collaboration between newsroom and engineering partners but also keeps the platform nimble, current and competitive. The design system enables The Post to pivot products as fast as the ever-changing news cycle.

“Just as we believe in transparency with our journalism, we’re thrilled to bring that same transparency to our engineering, product and design practices so others can benefit from our learnings and learn from our patterns for rapid development,” said Arturo Silva, engineering lead.

I was with my friends in Nebraska, I had more than a dozen requests to visit member papers about redesigning their publications.

Trust me, I’d love to redesign every community paper in the country. Still, a redesign is a big project and not practical for many small papers (often one or two people) to bring in a consultant to redesign their pages. That’s when it dawned on me. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of virtual consulting for newspapers – and this could be the perfect way to help community papers redesign their publications without breaking the bank.

If your paper needs a design update (and most do), I want to help. Send me a message by email and we’ll make plans for you to send a copy (or copies) of your pages to me. I’ll spend time going through each page, then meet with you (or you and your staff) to review my findings and suggestions.

Just send me an email message with the following information: ● Average page count ● Total copies printed of each issue Please send information about each title if you have more than one newspaper you’d like me to critique. I’ll return your message within 48 hours with details, including your cost to complete the process described above.

Thank you – and thanks for continuing to support newspaperacademy.com. After six years, our numbers continue to grow each month.

Kevin Slimp is former director of The University of Tennessee Newspaper Institute and founder of NewspaperAcademy.com. Contact him at kevin@kevinslimp.com

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Design Lead Brian Alfaro added, “The Washington Post design system has revolutionized how we work at The Post. The introduction of our system has brought us closer together as a team in a time where remote and distance has become the norm. We hope by sharing our design system others can learn and feel empowered.”

The Design System library launches with nine components with plans to expand to 70 in the coming months. Additional documentation will be added on an ongoing basis, with weekly release notes and deeper dives into how The Post engineering team processes and refines aspects of the site.

WPDS can be found here.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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Guest Column: Congrats to our colleagues

By Scott Loftis I make no secret of the fact that I believe in journalism that is aggressive, objective and accurate, in ascending order of importance.

That’s the kind of journalism we strive to practice at Carroll County Newspapers.

Sometimes that makes us unpopular in some circles, and that’s OK. Part of our job is to shine a light into dark corners, to make sure that public business is conducted in public and to tell stories that need to be told — regardless of who doesn’t like it. In fact, my favorite stories are those that someone doesn’t want us to tell.

I believe that should be the mission of all newspapers. And when I see another newspaper practice that kind of journalism, it gives me a sense of pride in our profession and our mission.

As I write this, that sense of pride is overflowing for our colleagues in a neighboring county who have demonstrated that even a “community weekly” can do great things for its readers

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

and its community.

The Madison County Record in Huntsville was recently awarded the 2021 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism.

The award was presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. The Record was honored for what the foundation described as an “unflinching investigation ... into attempts by the Huntsville, Arkansas, school board to cover up sexual assault allegations by junior high school basketball players.”

Other finalists for the award included The Washington Post and Miami Herald/ ProPublica.

“The reporting by the community weekly with a circulation of just 4,000 and only five staff members found that the local school board members sought to conceal not only the assault allegations but also their decision to reduce the recommended punishment for some students and to throw out punishment for others,” the foundation said.

Ellen Kreth, the Record’s owner and

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publisher, and general manager Shannon Hahn wrote the series with help from summer reporter Celia Kreth.

“Our goal was to hold the people in power accountable for the way they handled this,” Ellen Kreth told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “This was not a story that we sought out. When it came to us — we can’t go to bed at night and put your head on a pillow and say ‘I didn’t do what I should have done.’ ” In other words, the Record couldn’t ignore the story, although there’s no doubt that some influential people in Madison County would have preferred that it did. Instead, the Record stayed true to its readers and to its mission. It shined a light into a dark corner and it told the truth.

Congratulations to the Madison County Record for some well-deserved recognition and for a powerful reminder of what good journalism is all about.

Scott Loftis is managing editor for Carroll County Newspapers. His email address is SLoftis@cherryroad.com.

May 12, 2022