Arkansas Publisher Weekly: May 26, 2022

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Pat Jones, who spent 46 years at the helm of the Batesville Daily Guard, dies at 86 Guest Column: A good idea is worth the wait

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly

By John Foust

Vol.17 | No. 21 | Thursday, May 26, 2022 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

Register now for the Tri-State Press Convention First convention since 2019 plans vibrant program, networking opportunities About the Tri-State Press Convention speakers

Tri-State Press Convention June 23 - 25, 2022 • Memphis TN

Registration is ongoing for the Tri-State Press Convention, planned for June 23-25 in Memphis, Tennessee. This will be the first in-person summer convention for APA members since 2019.

The convention includes educational programming, a roundtable discussion, a Friday night “Bylines, Blues & BBQ” party featuring 926 Stax Music Academy Alumni Band, a trade show, a silent auction and plenty of opportunities to visit and network with colleagues and friends from the memberships of the Arkansas Press Association, Mississippi Press Association and Tennessee Press Association.

The awards ceremony for the Better Newspaper Editorial Awards will close the convention on Saturday.

Those wishing to take advantage of the reserved room block at the Memphis Sheraton Downtown should secure that reservation by tomorrow at tristatepressorg.wordpress.com/ accommodations/. Visit tristatepressorg. wordpress.com to register for the convention.

Kelly Wirges has been assisting companies in increasing sales and revenue in all facets of business for over two decades. In her career she has enjoyed positions in sales, marketing and management and has been a partner at an advertising agency focusing on small business development. In 1993, she founded ProMax Training & Consulting, Inc. ProMax develops practical, customized solutions that help companies retain, develop and align talent with business strategies. She has authored over 50 training programs, has customized materials for hundreds of companies, and has helped over 200,000 ProMax alumni increase their success.

Says Wirges, “Creating and developing your brand is more than simply providing exceptional customer service and quality content. To achieve a substantial competitive advantage, you need to have a 5-Star Strategy.” Her program, “Brand Your Business with a Five-Star Service Strategy”, will be Friday, June 24, at 8:30 a.m.

Russell Viers is a technology, software, and training expert in the publishing world.

Since 1997 he has helped newspapers and magazines adapt to changes in the industry. From film to pixels, paste-up to pagination, print to electronic media, he is always on the leading edge of the technology, empowering his customers to reap the benefits of transition instead of incurring the expense of falling behind the technological curve. He is an Adobe Certified Instructor in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.

For his session, Viers says, “My goal for this session is to cram in as many of my favorite features, tips, tricks, and techniques as possible in 90 minutes.

Not flashy stuff you’ll never use, but real techniques I use in my work on a daily basis. We’ll dance through InDesign, Illustrator, and the Adobe Photoshop ecosystem, including Lightroom and Bridge/Camera Raw. Bring a big notepad and hold on for the ride. The plan is that you leave this room armed with tools to save you time and improve quality.”

Viers’s presentation is Friday, June 24 at 10:15 a.m.

In a concurrent session also at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, Associated Press photographer Mark Humphrey will give tips and tricks Continued on Page 2

Register now for the 2022 Tri-State Press Convention Continued from Page 1

for using the camera you have in your pocket – the one on your smartphone – in photojournalism.

Rex Nelson, Senior Editor and a columnist at the Arkansas DemocratGazette, is well-known in the Arkansas journalism and political scene.

At age 23 he was the youngest editor in the state when he was named editor of the Daily Siftings Herald in Arkadelphia. He served as Washington Bureau Chief for the Arkansas Democrat from 1986-1989, was editor of Arkansas Business, and in 1992 became the first Political Editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a position he held until 1996. A member of the Arkansas Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, he is also the author of Rex Nelson’s Southern-Fried, a longrunning blog described as “ruminations on barbecue, politicking, football, froggigging, trotlining, blues-playing, horse racing, boxing, bird hunting, movie watching, crappie eating and other major issues of the day.” Nelson will speak at the Opening Luncheon at noon on Friday.

Bill Ostendorf, previously the managing editor at The Providence Journal, is president and founder of Creative Circle Media Solutions, a network of talent he has been building for more than 35 years. He has worked with hundreds of media companies on three continents as a trainer or management consultant and has led redesigns of 750 publications and more than 500 websites.

He also built a custom web CMS software specifically for smaller newspapers and hosts more than 250 family-owned newspaper’s websites. The company has a full range of media software, including classified, election, branded content, celebrations, print production and circulation modules.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

Ostendorf will lead a session on one of the best and easiest ways to significantly increase your readership in print or online – rethinking the way we write headlines – on Friday at 2:30 p.m. “We’re not able to cover as much nor write as many stories as we used to,” says Ostendorf. “So we have to make sure that more of the stories we do write get read. That’s one of the biggest keys to stabilizing and growing our audience.”

Dave Gould and his wife Ellen have been the owners of Main Street Media of Tennessee since May 2013. The company owns 13 community newspapers along with magazines, websites, e-newsletters, podcasts and a live video network across Middle Tennessee. Prior to his current role, Gould spent 23 years with Gannett, the last 11 as vice president/ advertising for the Tennessean. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the College of William and Mary.

Because of the pandemic, the pace at which digital transformation is occurring in our daily lives has sped up significantly.

From online shopping to take-out food to how we consume media, change has happened quickly and will continue unabated for the foreseeable future. Gould will speak about how one small local media company is working to transition its business model to survive and take advantage of opportunities in the new media world on Friday at 2:30 p.m.

Paul McAdoo is a Local Legal Initiative staff attorney based in Tennessee.

He joined the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press from Adams and Reese LLP in Nashville, where he worked on a variety of complex litigation issues, including with media clients.

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Before joining Adams and Reese, Paul worked at another Nashville firm, Aaron & Sanders PLLC, an intellectual property boutique. His work in Tennessee included amicus briefs on behalf of media coalitions in the Tennessee Supreme Court and Tennessee Court of Appeals.

Paul began his legal career at Thomas & LoCicero PL in Tampa, Florida, where his practice primarily included media law, First Amendment, copyright, trademark, and complex business litigation.

Nationally, Paul is involved in both the American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law and the Media Law Resource Center, the former of which he had previously co-chaired the Training and Development committee.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has been helping journalists with pro bono legal services for more than 50 years. In 2020, RCFP launched its Local Legal Initiative with the hiring of attorneys in Colorado, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee to provide more focused, local support for local journalism. McAdoo will present “Pro Bono Legal Assistance for Local Journalism” on Saturday, June 25, at 10:00 a.m.

INDUSTRY QUOTE “The focus of entertainment is taking away from what the public needs as news.

I think investigative journalism will always be important and always find its way, be it on the Internet or wherever.”

– Robert Redford May 26, 2022

REGISTER NOW FOR THIS SUMMER’S

Tri-State Press Convention June 23 - 25, 2022 Sheraton Downtown Memphis tristatepressorg.wordpress.com

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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February 10, 2022

Pat Jones, who spent 46 years at the helm of the Batesville Daily Guard, dies at 86 Patricia Ann Freeman Jones, former Arkansas Press Association president and long-time publisher and general manager of the Batesville Daily Guard, died on Sunday, May 22, 2022. She was 86.

She was born October 7, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan, to Earl Ross and Leno Samantha (Dixie) Freeman, and grew up in Webster Grove, Missouri, where she went to school and worked for Southwestern Bell Telephone Company.

Later while living in St. Louis she met her future husband, Oscar Eve (O.E.) Jones, who was a student at George Washington University School of Dentistry. They married in August 1957.

After they moved back to his native Batesville, O.E. set up his dental practice while Pat stayed home raising two sons and two daughters. She began working at the Batesville Daily Guard, which had been owned by her husband’s family since 1929, after her youngest daughter turned six.

“IBM was installing new software at that time, and I came to help. There were lots of changes to make – it fascinated me,” said Pat in an interview published in Arkansas Publisher Weekly upon her retirement in May 2018. She expected to

be there a few weeks, maybe a month or so, but ultimately worked at the Guard for 46 years.

O.E. was not involved with hands-on management of the newspaper so the Guard became Pat’s passion as the children left home. She told of the time when an angry man called to speak to the man in charge at the paper. Pat answered him, “I am the man in charge.”

Pat served as president of the Arkansas Press Association in 1995 and stayed active on its board for a number of years.

She remembered her presidential year running very smoothly, except for a small incident with the late John Robert Starr.

“We used to have roundtable discussions at APA meetings, and I was talking about a story,” she said in the Publisher Weekly interview. “When he asked why I pronounced midwifery as I did, I replied that was the pronunciation in the AP Stylebook. He took offense and said if I worked for him, he would fire me. Since I didn’t, he got up and left.”

Pat was preceded in death by her husband, and a granddaughter, Jessica Jones Goff.

Survivors include sons Oscar Eve Jones IV (Beth) and James Ross Jones (Lua) of

Pat Jones

Batesville, daughters Jena Jones (John Rone) of Batesville and April Phillips (Steve) of Little Rock, brother Ross Freeman of Tulsa, Oklahoma and sisterin-law, Josephine Cargill Krug, eleven grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, three nephews and one niece.

A memorial service was held this afternoon at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Batesville.

Long-time Razorbacks beat sportswriter Nate Allen retires Nate Allen, who is a member of the 12th class of the Arkansas Sportscasters/ Sportswriters Hall of Fame and the author of three books on the Arkansas Razorbacks, announced his retirement this month.

Allen started his newspaper career on the Razorback beat at the Springdale News, now the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, in 1973, shortly after he graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Missouri.

Among the major events he covered during his career are four Final Fours, including Arkansas’s 1994 national championship; four College World Series, including Norm DeBriyn’s 1979 national runner-up finish; the bulk of Arkansas’s football seasons from 1973-2017, including Frank Broyles’ final Southwest Conference championship and Cotton Bowl championship with his Arkansas Publisher Weekly

1975 Razorbacks; Lou Holtz’s 1977 Razorbacks and their rout of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl; and most of John McDonnell’s 42 national championships in track and field.

Allen was the only Arkansas reporter on site when the Hogs won their first national title in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1984.

Allen’s syndicate, Nate Allen Sports Service, has been providing content covering the Razorbacks to newspapers since August 2001. Writer Otis Kirk took over Razorbacks coverage for the syndicate earlier this month.

“Otis is well grounded in all the Razorbacks sports and adds the dimension of being the authority on Razorbacks recruiting,” said Allen in his farewell column. “So I leave the situation in better hands.”

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Nate Allen

May 26, 2022

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Pine Bluff community journalists launch local online news site for Southeast Arkansas, Delta A group of community activists led by local entrepreneur and civic leader Michael McCray have introduced a new online news publication, Arkansas Delta Informer, to offer grassroots views and reporting for Pine Bluff, Southeast Arkansas, and the Arkansas Delta. Addressing the need to provide more relevant and nuanced content pertinent to the African American community, the online newsgroup will give voice to more diverse issues than currently exists in local print media.

It was replaced by a sensational style of ‘If it bleeds, it leads’ reporting. Unfortunately, it lacks context and ignores good news and alternative viewpoints,” said McCray.

“So, we asked longtime newspaperman Wesley Brown to partner with us to create the Arkansas Delta Informer and combat media disinformation. Our goal is to bring better news and improve media literacy in our community.”

The new online site launched on Saturday, May 14, 2022, just ten days before the Preferential Primary Election on May 24. The local venture group developed the Delta Informer with the assistance of longtime Arkansas news veteran and capital reporter Wesley Brown, the publisher of The Daily Record in Little Rock and the Black Consumer News of Arkansas website.

As CEO of the Delta Informer, McCray will oversee the business operations of Arkansas’ newest Black-owned media platform. The Pine Bluff native will oversee regional marketing, advertising, and subscriber outreach to promote the online news site in the upcoming weeks. He is also working to raise startup capital to hire a full-time editor, reporter, and several freelancers.

McCray is a seasoned executive with over 12 years of experience in marketing and advertising. An alumnus of Georgetown Law with degrees from Howard University, American University, and Florida A&M University in producing film, video and television, and business economics, McCray brings varied Fortune 500 experience to the Southeast Arkansas and Delta-focused news site. McCray decided to launch the Delta Informer with other key Pine Bluff investors because of his love for Jefferson County and the Delta and his passion for advocacy and free speech.

“A few years ago, a major investor said that the biggest detriment to outside investment in Pine Bluff was the quality of the news reporting. We once had award-winning journalists covering the news in our town.

Unfortunately, those days are long gone.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

of writers and photographers covering the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the nation’s largest domestic terrorist incident that claimed 168 lives. A few years later, Brown made the switch from crime and city beat reporting to business and financial writing, which he calls the best decision of his career.

Brown later worked on Wall Street in the late 1990s as the energy correspondent for Bridge News and Reuters business newswires. He joined the Stephens Media chain in Fayetteville as its new business editor in 2001 and later moved Brown to Little Rock to work as a business reporter at the State Capitol. His awardwinning “Brown-on-Business” column was published weekly in the former Pine Bluff Commercial Appeal.

“I love news, and I love the energy that Michael and his team are bringing to this venture. They came to me with a real problem of not seeing themselves and other minorities in the local newspaper in a good light or favorably. And that is the issue we hope to address with our news coverage in the Pine Bluff area and the Arkansas Delta,” said Brown.

As a partner in the venture, Brown will serve as the publication’s publisher and executive editor. In addition, he will develop the Delta Informer’s local, state, regional, and national news coverage. He will focus on unbiased and upbeat stories about the region’s people, places, politics, and cultural peculiarities.

Starting as a reporter with the former Hope Star newspaper in the late 1970s, Brown has been in the news business for nearly 45 years. He started his full-time career with the Tulsa (Okla.) World newspaper.

He quickly rose through the ranks as the only African American staff reporter at a statewide newspaper in Oklahoma for several years.

During his time at the World, Brown was one of the first reporters in the nation to do in-depth reporting on the Tulsa Massacre.

He was also part of an award-winning team

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Over the next few weeks, Brown will recruit an editor to oversee news coverage for the Pine Bluff area and Southeast Arkansas. A prolific reporter with expertise in politics, public policy, legislative, business and finance, and corporate and Wall Street news, Brown will also write and report on local, state and national issues for the new online publication.

Brown and McCray are also developing a unique editorial/opinion portal called Delta Perspective. They will seek out diverse local, state and national voices that offer a wide range of perspectives and grassroots views on race, justice, equity, politics, business, culture, public policy and other matters important to Black and minority communities.

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May 26, 2022

A message from Entergy Arkansas, Inc. ©2020 Entergy Services, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Winners of 2022 APW Communications Contest announced Jeannie Roberts, Rachel Spencer, Stephen Steed, Celia Storey, Kat Stromquist, Megan Sumpter, Stephen Swofford, Stephen Thornton, Staci Vandagriff, Tess Vrbin, Amy Webb, Hazelle Whited and Murriel Wiley.

Arkansas Press Women announced the winners of its annual Communications Contest on May 21 in a ceremony held at the Bailey Alumni House on the UA Little Rock campus. Work produced in a variety of communications fields during the 2021 calendar year was eligible for the competition.

Dwain Hebda of Little Rock, president of Ya!Mule Wordsmiths, Inc., took top honors, earning the 2022 Sweepstakes Award. Tammy Keith, a freelance writer from Conway who has previously written for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Log Cabin Democrat, was named Sweepstakes runner-up. Both writers also won individual awards.

Individual awards were also won by the following entrants: Jaime Adame, Maria Aguilar, Spencer Bailey, Jenny Boulden, Bill Bowden, Kelly Brant, Sean Clancy, Margaret Conner, Julianne Dunn, Neal Earley,

Angelita Faller, Amy Forbus, Alex Gladden, Jessica Glynn, Audrey Hanes, Olivia Hicks, Mary Hightower, Bob Holt, Nyssa Kruse, Gavin Lesnick, Grace Lindquist, Frank Lockwood, John Magsam, Karen Martin, Philip Martin, Brandon Mathews, Maggie McNeary, Thomas Metthe, Keith Metz, Debbie Miller, Fred Miller, Ginny Monk, Teresa Moss, Kristin Netterstrom Higgins, Stevie Nielson, Catherine Nolte, Noel Oman, Rachel O’Neal, Brittney Osborn, Michelle Parks, Orry Phillips, Audrey Poff, Nick Popowitch, Alexus Raymo,

First-place winners in the APW Communications Contest may advance to the National Federation of Press Women competition if they are members of NFPW. Forty-eight winning entries from the Arkansas contest will be competing nationally this year. NFPW will announce its winners at the end of the organization’s annual conference, scheduled for June 23-25 in Fargo, North Dakota.

Arkansas Press Women is an association of professional communicators in journalism, public information, business, education and government. Membership in the organization is not limited to women. To learn more about APW visit arkansaspresswomen.org.

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

Ways to give: Estate planning, memorial and honor gifts and charitable donations. The Arkansas Newspaper Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization.

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May 26, 2022

Telling the Story of Giving in Arkansas At Arkansas Community Foundation we engage people, connect resources and inspire solutions that help build local communities. We’ve partnered with newspapers for 45 years to

Our aspirearkansas.org provides health, education, family and economic

spread the word about grants and programs available to nonprofits in all corners of our state.

Thank you for helping tell the story of local giving that helps

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meet community needs forever.

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Since 1976, the Foundation has provided more than $318

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giving can improve communities. the nonprofits in your county that are working to make your community a better place to live.

Jessica Ford Chief Communications Officer jford@arcf.org 501-372-1116 arcf.org

2022 Silent Auction Donation Form Item/Service Donated: ________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Retail Value ($25 suggested minimum): ________________________

Description of item or service (please include size, color, available dates, restrictions, expiration dates and any other important information):

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Name of company or individual to be recognized for donation:

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The silent auction will be open during Tri-State Press Convention June 23-25 in Memphis.

Please mail or email this form to APA. All items should be delivered to the association office by June 16. UPS and other deliveries can be made from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., MondayFriday. Or you may bring your item with you to the convention registration desk when you check in.

For more information, contact Terri Cobb at 501-374-1500, or e-mail terri@arkansaspress.org.

Arkansas Newspaper Foundation 411 South Victory Street, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 Phone: 501-374-1500 ANF Tax ID# 71-0559251

Guest Column: A good idea is worth the wait By: John Foust When I was a kid and jumped to conclusions about something, my father often said, “Hold your horses, son.”

That’s an old saying that means, “Whoa!

Stop and think carefully before making a decision.” Dad had a lot of wisdom.

He knew that one of the most important lessons he could teach me from an early age was to think before taking action.

There’s talk these days about “deferring judgment” when discussing ideas or hearing the opinions of others. That’s another way of saying “hold your horses.”

The concept of delaying judgment has been around for a long time. In fact, it was popularized in the advertising industry

by Alex Osborn, a co-founder of the BBDO ad agency. Osborn incorporated judgment deferral in his rules for creativity, because he understood the value of encouraging judgment-free discussions of just-proposed ideas. In his writings, he labeled his system as “brainstorming,” a term which has evolved into a general description of creative thinking.

It takes patience to defer judgment. We’ve all been in meetings where ideas bounce around the room. Somebody mentions the first glimmer of an ad idea, and before

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

you know it, someone else says, “No, let’s consider this other idea.” As a result, the first idea dies on the spot – and the discussion narrows in focus, often with the most outgoing person in the room taking center stage. That’s not good for authentic brainstorming. And it’s not good for the person whose idea was just suppressed.

At this stage in the process, the objective is to gather as many ideas as possible.

Encourage ideas to flow, so people can build on each other’s creative thinking. Be patient and listen.

Consider Melanie, an ad salesperson who was confronted with a client who wanted to run a big headline that boasted, “We’re the popular choice” – an empty claim with no evidence to back it up. “I cringed when I heard that,” she told me, “but I didn’t interrupt his train of thought. I told myself to approach his idea as the beginning of the conversation, not something to take a stand against. So I asked questions and listened for possibilities. Along the way, he mentioned that he had recently received compliments about his store’s customer service. As he talked, I realized that testimonials could make the concept of popularity come to life. He liked that

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idea, and we ended up with a campaign which featured a quote from a different loyal customer in each ad – along with that person’s photo.”

Melanie’s advertiser was happy with the outcome, but more important, her approach strengthened their marketing partnership.

There wasn’t any magic involved. It was simply a matter of deferring judgment and soaking up as much information as possible. The advertiser’s original idea – as weak as it was – got the ball rolling in the right direction.

The point of all this is to slow down. When you hold your horses a little longer, a better idea may gallop into the picture.

(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.

May 26, 2022