Arkansas Publisher Weekly: June 2, 2022

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New York Times reporter to speak at free event in Little Rock Guest Column:

National Summit on Journalism in Rural America on YouTube June 3-4

By Al Cross

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly Vol.17 | No. 22 | Thursday, June 2, 2022 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

Well-respected journalist UA professor Jordan named APA Journalism Educator of the Year

Hall of Honor in 2012, the UA Faculty Gold Medal in 2013, the Arkansas Press Association Distinguished Service Award in 2016 and the 2017 American Society of News Editors Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship, among numerous others.

This month Jordan, who is retiring after 27 years of teaching, will add the APA Journalism Educator Award to his trophy case. The Journalism Educator Award is given to a person who has made significant contributions to journalism education in Arkansas either at the high school or the college level.

In a recent opinion piece, Woody Bassett of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote, “Gerald Jordan, a true gentleman with a perpetual smile, has earned the respect of the many who have crossed paths with him. His journey through life is to be admired. A Black man who grew up in the Jim Crow South, Jordan went on to attain great heights as a journalist and university professor. While deserving of it, Jordan is not a person who seeks attention or covets public recognition for himself or his achievements.”

University of Arkansas Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism professor Gerald Jordan has received many accolades over his career - the first faculty member named UA Volunteer of the Year in 2004, the Northwest Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Committee Lifetime Achievement Award and the Silas Hunt award in 2010, NAACP Image Award Alumnus of the Year in 2011, the Northwest Arkansas Democratic Black Caucus Service Award and induction into the Lemke Journalism

Jordan was recruited to his position at UA by Arkansas Gazette and New York Times reporter Roy Reed, who taught at UA for 16 years and was himself recipient of the Journalism Educator Award in 1998, to replace Reed on his retirement. “From day one as a professor, Jordan’s years of real-world experience and acquired knowledge as an accomplished newspaperman have enriched the minds of his students, helping to mold them into future journalists by teaching them the fundamentals of good journalism – news reporting, editing, clear writing, accuracy, timeliness, research, interviewing, the importance of credibility and much more,” said Bassett.

“Without a doubt, there has not been a journalism student at the University of Arkansas during the last 27 years who has not benefited from the mentorship of Gerald Jordan,” said APA Executive Director Ashley Wimberley.

A quick search of Rate My Professors, a website which allows university students to anonymously assign ratings to professors and campuses, bears this out.

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Well-respected journalist UA professor Jordan named APA Journalism Educator of the Year Continued on Page 3

Said one review from last September, “He is one of the best professors at the university. I’ve had him for three classes and got so much out of it. He has great experience in the field as well as teaching.

He is hilarious and so encouraging. He will make you a better writer and passionate for journalism. Don’t take his class if you don’t want to be a journalist, because you will after.”

Said another reviewer, “The journalism department is beyond lucky to have Professor Jordan. He is not only extremely intelligent, worldly and knowledgeable, but also kind, caring and motivational. He wants you to succeed and gives you the tools to do so. He is one of those teachers I’ll remember forever because of his positive impact on my life.”

And a third: “By far the best professor I had at UA. [He] truly cares about each student and is so encouraging. If every teacher were like him, that campus would be the best in the country.”

Jordan is a University of Arkansas Alumni, having graduated in 1970 with a degree in journalism. He earned his master’s in journalism at Northwestern University in 1971, then started his newspaper career at the Kansas City Star, where he was a sportswriter until 1976. In September of that year he moved to covering civil rights, education, housing laws, drug use and alcoholism and federal agencies as editorial writer, a position he held until 1978, when he moved to the Boston Globe to work in the same capacity.

He returned to the Star a year later, then moved to the Philadelphia Inquirer, where covered the cultural arts beat — museums, the orchestra, art colleges and related cultural institutions — and wrote general assignment feature stories as the Features Editor in 1983. In May 1986, he transitioned to the position of Washington Reporter for the Inquirer.

In 1989 Jordan was named Assistant Editor of the Inquirer’s Main Line Neighbors publication, and in late 1990 became Assistant City Editor of the newspaper. In early 1995 he was named Editor of the Inquirer’s Neighbors North publication, a position he held until taking the faculty position at UA that fall. After

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

Doug Thompson, Kelly Kissell and Gerald Jordan attending the Friday night Honors Banquet at the 2016 APA SuperConvention.

that, in addition to teaching journalism, he continued to work summers as an editor for the Inquirer for the next 15 years.

Jordan has been actively involved in diversity efforts at UA, working with three chancellors to recruit, retain and support talented Black and other minority students, staff and faculty. He is the first African-American to serve as president of the Arkansas Alumni Association Board of Directors, and he is the founding leader of two alumni societies for UA graduates.

He is also co-founder of the Lemke Journalism Project, which over the past 21 years has brought hundreds of students from underrepresented communities to campus for journalism training.

His course, “History of the Black Press” and created in partnership with Dr. Patsy G. Watkins, has proved popular with students and is cross-listed with the Department of African and AfricanAmerican Studies.

Said Jordan “The way I have tried to

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present the course—and I give credit to Patsy for the direction of the course—is to get students to understand that there is a role for the historic Black press, and it continues and it’s important to have those voices heard in the historic Black press and the mainstream media. If you don’t have a newsroom that is diverse, equitable and inclusive, you are missing voices.”

The Journalism Educator Award will be presented on Saturday, June 25, during the Tri-State Press Convention in Memphis.

For more information on the Convention and to register, visit tristatepressorg. wordpress.com.

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@ArkansasPressAssociation

@ARPressAssoc

June 2, 2022

New York Times reporter to speak at free event in Little Rock The Central Arkansas Library System in partnership with the Political Animals Club will be hosting journalist Jonathan Martin, co-author of the newly released book, “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future”, at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Avenue, Little Rock, on Monday, June 6 at 6 p.m.

Martin is a national political correspondent for The New York Times and a political analyst for CNN. He joined the Times in 2013 after working as a senior political writer for POLITICO. His work has also been featured in The New Republic, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. A native of Arlington, Virginia, Martin is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College.

“This Will Not Pass”, which Martin co-wrote with fellow Times journalist Alexander Burns, is considered a definitive account of the 2020 election penned by two New York Times reporters. In the book Martin and Burns shed light on the events of the election as well as the first year of the Biden administration.

The event is free but registration is required, and seating will be on a firstcome, first-served basis. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the program begins at 6. Beer, wine and concessions will be available. A book signing will follow the talk. Masks are recommended but not required. Register at cals.org/ event/this-will-not-pass-trump-biden-and-the-battle-for-americas-future.

Long-time journalist, social worker Steinmetz dies at 81 Curtis Tucker Steinmetz of North Little Rock, died on May 26, 2022, at the age of 81. A son of Arkansas Gazette stereotype foreman Cecil J. Steinmetz and Verba L. Steinmetz, he worked in several professions during his lifetime.

After graduating from North Little Rock High School, Steinmetz earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Hendrix College. Steinmetz initially worked as a Methodist minister and teacher of English as a second language in Texas and New Mexico, but returned to Arkansas in the mid-1960s. He worked as a reporter for the News Observer in Crossett, the Pine Bluff Commercial and the Arkansas Democrat before joining the Arkansas Gazette. He briefly worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer in the early 1970s before returning to the Gazette, at which he worked until 1976.

After earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, he founded Birch Tree Communities, a non-profit recovery program for adults living with serious mental illness, in 1989. Steinmetz was also an actor and appeared in many plays at the Weekend Theater in Little Rock.

Steinmetz was predeceased by his brother Cecil R. Steinmetz and stepson Walt Childress.

He is survived by his children, David Tucker Steinmetz and wife Martha Steinmetz of North Little Rock, and Lisa Karin DuBose and husband Tony DuBose of Conway, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his two former spouses, Maureen Leverett and Ann Childress, stepsons Allen Childress and Benton Childress and two step-grandsons. No funeral is planned.

INDUSTRY QUOTE

LET US KNOW

If you aren’t just brought up in your tribe but interact with other people either directly or vicariously, through journalism and literature, you see what life is like from other points of view and are less likely to demonize them or dehumanize others and more likely to empathize with them.

-Steven Pinker Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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

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

June 2, 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

development data for all 75 counties.

meet community needs forever.

The Arkansas Nonprofit

Since 1976, the Foundation has provided more than $318

Directory at

million in grants and partnered with thousands of Arkansans to help them improve our neighborhoods, our towns and our entire state. We want to help you tell your readers how smart

arcf.org/directory makes it easy to find

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

USA Today Network and Gannett Foundation launch 2022 “A Community Thrives” program to help community nonprofits Gannett’s USA Today Network and the Gannett Foundation on Tuesday announced the 2022 A Community Thrives program, a $2 million dollar initiative. The program supports communitybuilding initiatives across the country, with a focus on historically under-served individuals and groups and awards grants to worthy causes and organizations aiming to improve their communities.

A Community Thrives combines crowdfunding and grants offering nonprofits the opportunity to promote their ideas and missions on a national platform by leveraging Gannett’s local media brands across the USA Today Network, including USA Today, to drive further awareness and support.

“We are excited to announce the sixth year of A Community Thrives, a program that empowers and uplifts our communities,” said Michael Reed, chief executive officer and chairman of the Gannett Foundation. “The Gannett Foundation is proud to be able to elevate important non-profit organizations supporting their impactful, innovative ideas through this program.”

Non-profit organizations may apply to the 2022 A Community Thrives program through June 30. Organizations that meet the program’s fundraising minimum through crowdfunding efforts will be eligible for 16 National Project Grants, ranging from $25,000 to $100,000.

Gannett Co., Inc. is one of the largest publishers of newspapers in the United States. Newspapers owned and run by Gannett in Arkansas include the Times Record in Fort Smith, the Press Argus-Courier in Van Buren, Charleston Express, Paris Express and Booneville Democrat.

The A Community Thrives program has distributed over $17 million from grants and donations and supported 500 organizations across the country since its inception 2017. The program will award grants based on the proposed projects’ viability, sustainability, community need and service to historically disadvantaged groups.

Organizations may submit applications at acommunitythrives. mightycause.com/giving-events/act22.

Employee of 50 years at the Evening Times passes away Donna Jo Davenport of Marion died at her home on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. She was 75.

She was born in Memphis in 1946 to Vernon G. and Mary J. Edwards Davis. After graduating from high school in 1964 she worked for Orgill Brothers and Company in Memphis.

Donna married Cordel Davenport in 1968. In the early 1970s she went to work for Crittenden Publishing Company and The Evening Times, a job to which she was dedicated for 50 years.

She is preceded in death by her parents and her brother Ricky Davis. She is survived by her husband of 54 years.

Visitation will be held on Friday, June 3, 2022 in the chapel of Roller-Citizens Funeral Home West Memphis from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Graveside services will take place on Saturday, June 4 at 12:00 noon. Memorials may be made to the Marion Animal Shelter.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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June 2, 2022

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: _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Address/City/State/Zip ____________________________________________________________________________ Phone: ____________________________ Email: _______________________________________________________ Contact (if different from above): ____________________________________________________________________ Phone: ____________________________ Email: _______________________________________________________ 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., Monday-Friday. 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: National Summit on Journalism in Rural America on YouTube June 3-4

By Al Cross I don’t remember who said it, but I’ll never forget the moment I heard it: “There is no longer any business model for news.”

That was alarming to someone who had spent his adult life working for newspapers or helping them. It was at the journalism educators’ convention in August 2007, and the following year, the combination of the Great Recession and the digital-media revolution began doing great violence to newspapers like the metropolitan daily where I had spent most of my career.

The digital hit came later for community newspapers, most of which have relatively little competition for local news but come it did; and then came a pandemic that undermined their retail advertising bases as acutely as the now-chronic effect of digital platforms and online shopping.

We’re out of pandemic mode, if not the pandemic, but the digital hit has lasted.

You can see it in smaller page and staff counts at rural weeklies and small dailies (many if not most of which no longer meet the now-archaic definition of “daily” by printing four or more times a week) and the closure of the last newspaper in some counties, creating news deserts – a term that seems to no longer require quotation marks, but could use some definition, just like the related term “ghost newspapers.”

All this raises a fundamental question, not just for rural newspapers, but for their communities: How do rural communities sustain local journalism that supports local democracy? That is the question we aim to answer, or at least start answering at the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, to be livestreamed on YouTube from 1:15 to 5 p.m. Friday, June 3, and 9 a.m. until late afternoon Saturday, June 4. You can watch it and submit comments and questions at https://ukci. me/ruralj.

The summit will be held at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill near Harrodsburg, Ky., where the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues held the first summit 15 years ago. Much has changed; back then, dealing with Arkansas Publisher Weekly

the digital challenge was a last-minute addition to the program!

This time, two dozen invited speakers and a local audience will try to answer the sustainability question by exploring the current landscape of rural journalism and how rural news media are adapting to it, with revised business models and other innovations.

All sessions will include a period for questions, answers and discussion among participants. Here’s the draft program: Friday, June 3, 12:15 p.m. Central The state of America’s community newspapers and their journalism Penelope Muse Abernathy, visiting professor, Northwestern University, will update her groundbreaking research.

Reports from leaders of the community newspaper industry National Newspaper Association Executive Director Lynne Lance will join former NNA president Robert Williams Jr. and Tom Silvestri of The Relevance Project of the Newspaper Association Managers.

Putting local philanthropy in your business model Nathan Payne of Kaiser Health News, recently editor of the Traverse City Record-Eagle, will show how community foundations can help; Jody LawrenceTurner of the Fund for Oregon Rural Journalism, who has spent the past year strategizing approaches to preserve rural journalism; and Dennis Brack of the Rappahannock News, Washington, Va., which uses local philanthropy for polling and reporting projects.

Converting your newspaper(s) to nonprofit status Liz and Steve Parker, former owners and still operators of the New Jersey Hills Media Group, will talk about their recent conversion to the nonprofit Corporation for New Jersey Local Media.

Saturday, June 4, 8 a.m. Central Good journalism is good business, but 8

how do we make people want local news?

Editor-Publishers Marshall Helmberger of the Timberjay, Tower, Minn.; and Sharon Burton of the Adair County Community Voice, Columbia, Ky. How two community newspapers are adapting to change Publishers Bill Horner of the Chatham (N.C.) News+Record and Terry Williams of the Keene (N.H.) Sentinel talk with Buck Ryan, associate professor of journalism at the University of Kentucky.

Innovation at other community newspapers Tony Baranowski, co-publisher of the Iowa Falls Times-Citizen and author of “Black and White and Undead All Over: The true story of innovation and perseverance of America’s small newspapers”, will discuss his work with Jim Iovino, director of NewStart at West Virginia University, which had Baranowski in its first class of fellows.

National funders and supporters on help for rural journalism A discussion with Jason Alcorn of the American Journalism Project, Jonathan Kealing of the Institute for Nonprofit News and Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro of Columbia University, co-founder of the National Trust for Local News.

A university-nonprofit team saves a weekly paper: Over lunch and via Zoom, Dink NeSmith of Community Newspapers Inc. will tell the story of The Oglethorpe Echo, staffed by journalism students of the University of Georgia, an example of the growing role of J-schools in rural papers.

New business models for community newspapers, and a plan to test one Dr. Teri Finneman of the University of Kansas will discuss her research, which has found that many rural newspaper subscribers are willing to buy memberships and e-newsletters to keep their local papers healthy, and will test the model with Harvey County Now in Kansas this summer.

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June 2, 2022

Into the Issues: National Summit on Journalism in Rural America on YouTube June 3-4 Continued from Page 8

What other research is needed to help community journalism?

Bill Reader, Ohio University, and Clay Carey, Samford University, author of “The News Untold: Community Journalism and the Failure to Confront Poverty in Appalachia”, will explore opportunities with Dr. Jennifer Greer, dean of the University of Kentucky College of Communication

and Information, which is sponsoring the Summit.

Concluding roundtable Open-ended, led by Greer and your humble servant. Please join us on YouTube and submit your comments and questions. See you at https://ukci.me/ ruralj!

Al Cross edited and managed rural newspapers before covering politics for the Louisville Courier-Journal and serving as president of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is extension journalism professor at the University of Kentucky and director of its Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog at http://irjci.