Arkansas Publisher Weekly: June 18, 2020

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Slimp back with new, popular webinar Guest Column:

Newspapers are definitive source for information

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly

By Al Cross

Vol. 15 | No. 25 | Thursday, June 18, 2020 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

Yarbro’s hands-on experience leads her to general manager role Earlier this year, Robyn Yarbro finally made it to just about the only job she hadn’t ever done for the Camden News and Magnolia Banner-News.

Yarbro, who started working for the Camden newspaper while still in high school, filled almost every position at the newspaper prior to her promotion to the position of general manager. It’s a job she was destined for, said her predecessor, Sue Silliman, who started grooming Yarbro for the role several years ago ahead of Silliman’s retirement in 2019.

Referring to general manager responsibilities, Yarbro said, “I think she started many, many years ago. She knew that I loved what I was doing, I loved our papers, and I loved our mission. So, she knew early on that I was here to stay.”

Robyn Yarbro

Yarbro said the adage that “the ink gets in your blood” is undeniably true in her case. She started work at the Camden News in 1997 as part of a high school

internship credit program. She continued working there while attending classes at Southern Arkansas University Tech in Camden. Her jobs have included editorial clerk, accounting clerk, classified sales, supervisor over the advertising and production department and, most recently, director of business development. As director of business development for about two-and-a-half years, she managed advertising and production staff in both Camden and Magnolia.

Even as general manager, she continues to take on new roles for the newspaper.

A month or so ago, she even delivered newspapers while filling in for an independent carrier.

“I can’t ask an employee to do something I haven’t done,” Yarbro said of her do-itall attitude. “I’m hands-on. I’m going to get in the trenches with the people I manage, and we’re going to get the job done. I’m not scared to be in there with you and do it, too.”

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July 31 is deadline for APA editorial contest entries Arkansas Press Association members are encouraged to submit their entries now in the APA’s Better Newspaper Editorial Contest. The entry deadline this year is July 31.

Initially, entries were due this spring, but because of the coronavirus pandemic the deadline has been moved back to July 31.

The annual Better Newspaper Editorial Contest provides newspapers with the opportunity to have their work recognized by a statewide audience, earn “bragging rights” among Arkansas newspapers and learn about the best writing and photography in the state.

Entries may be submitted in multiple categories in five different divisions: Daily circulation under 10,000; daily circulation above 10,000; nondaily circulation of 1,300 or fewer; nondaily circulation between 1,300 and 2,600 and nondaily circulation above 2,600.

The contest is open to employees of APA member newspapers for work published any time in 2019. Entries are judged by members of the Kansas Press Association.

Awards will be presented during the 2020 APA Convention, currently scheduled for Sept. 24-25 at the Marriott in downtown Little Rock.

To read a complete listing of categories and rules, and to enter, visit newspapercontest. com/contests/ArkansasPressAssociation. aspx.

APA members with additional questions should contact Terri Cobb at terri@ arkansaspress.org.

Yarbro’s hands-on experience leads her to general manager role Continued from Page 1

Yarbro, who has worked for the Camden News for more than 22 years, is a lifelong resident of Camden. She and her husband, Jody, have two sons and a daughter.

She’s committed to her two newspapers’ roles as standard bearers in their respective communities, and she said the employees she manages are equally supportive of that mission. The mission, she said, is to balance coverage of high school sports or 100th birthday parties with the vital responsibilities of a free press.

“We love to tell the good news, but our job is to uphold democracy and be the watchdog for your tax dollars and your

leaders because of canceled events and stay-at-home orders.

elected officials,” she said. “Our mission is to be the watchdog for the community. We have a readers-first mission.”

That mission, Yarbro acknowledged, has been challenged recently by the coronavirus epidemic.

The global public health crisis has led to significant economic impacts for newspapers. It’s been awkward for Yarbro, too, because she’s been unable to make important contacts with business and community

Buying or Selling?

Despite that, Yarbro takes a positive view of the lessons that may be learned from the pandemic. She said the crisis gives newspapers even more reason to “shop local” and support their communities.

“These are definitely hard days, but our industry has been ever-changing, so we adapt and adjust. That’s what we do.

That’s what we’ve always done,” she said.

“We’re spending a lot of time in Zoom meetings, but we’re still putting out a quality, relevant product, which is the main goal.”

—30— Ted William Wagnon

I can help you with a new purchase or the sale of your publication.

LEWIS FLOYD Senior Associate

Ted William Wagnon, 68, of Little Rock died June 13. He was the first-ever editor of Arkansas Business, where he helped grow the Arkansas Press Association member publication into a definitive source for business news in the state.

(850) 532-9466 lfloyd@mediamergers.com

He worked as editor of the Benton Courier before helping start Arkansas Business. He later worked in public relations with VOX Global and Fleishman-Hilliard before starting his own firm, Wagnon Associates.

A native of Stephens, he was a graduate of Arkansas State University.

He is survived by his wife, Karen; children, Amy Wike of Springdale, Carissa Holsted of North Little Rock and Jody McDonnell of Austin, Texas; and seven grandchildren.

Private graveside services were held. The family requests memorials be given to the Arkansas Foodbank or adopting an angel from the Salvation Army tree, in lieu of flowers. To sign an online guestbook, visit northlittlerockfuneralhome.com/obituary/ted-wagnon

Arkansas Publisher Weekly 2

June 18, 2020

—30— Carla Michele Harrison

Slimp back with new, popular webinar Kevin Slimp of the Newspaper Academy will offer the 2020 version of his most popular webinar ever, “Getting People to Pick Up Your Paper,” on Friday, June 26. The online professional development seminar starts at 10 a.m. that day.

Slimp’s first iteration of “Getting People to Pick Up Your Paper!” was the bestattended webinar in Newspaper Academy history, with hundreds of newspapers participating.

In the session, Slimp will discuss new research, information from recent focus groups, insights and more information related to getting people to pick up newspapers. He will also discuss advertising, page design and content.

The cost is $49. To register, visit newspaperacademy.com

Data sought for sales compensation study Newspaper publishers are being asked to participate in a nationwide Newspaper Sales Compensation Study sponsored Carla Michele Harrison, 58, of Waldron, died May 29. A native of Waldron and graduate of Waldron High School, she worked a variety of jobs, including designer and, most recently, in advertising sales, for several newspapers in the region, including the Times Record in Fort Smith, the Scott County Advertiser and the Waldron News.

She attended Temple Baptist Church in Waldron.

She is survived by her husband, Danny Harrison; a daughter, Shawna Harrison of Waldron; a sister and a brother.

Her funeral was June 1 with interment following at Duncan Cemetery in Waldron.

INDUSTRY QUOTE “Great journalism will always attract readers. The words, pictures and graphics that are the stuff of journalism have to be brilliantly packaged; they must feed the mind and move the heart.”

-Rupert Murdoch Arkansas Publisher Weekly

by America’s Newspapers, Editor & Publisher magazine and Media Staffing Network. There is no charge to participate in the study, which is intended to help newspaper owners determine how to compensate entry-level and experienced sellers.

organizations, “with the challenges that many newspapers are currently facing as it pertains to employment of staff, several COVID-19 related questions have been added to the short survey, which takes less than five minutes to complete. This study, to be conducted annually, will give publishers and ad directors more information on trends so they can better compete for talent.”

Survey participants will receive an advance copy of the survey results. The questions must be completed by Friday, July 17.

According to a news release from the

To participate in the study, visit bit.ly/ NewspaperStudy2020. Complete results of the study will be released in September.

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June 18, 2020

Guest Column: Newspapers are definitive source for information

By Al Cross Our country may not be in a depression, but the newspaper business is, and its fatality rate may be as great at that of the coronavirus. The pandemic and its economic restrictions have accelerated closures and mergers, which have increasingly affected county-seat weeklies, long the most stable type of American newspaper.

The economy is gradually reopening, but with no vaccine or proven treatment, the virus remains a threat, and that threatens a resurgence of covid-19 cases and more economic reversals.

To get through this, newspapers need to prove their value, and they need to try new things.

The pandemic is spawning rivers of misinformation, and if there was ever a time for newspapers to reassert their franchise as the main finders of fact for democracy, this is it. But they must remember to assert that on social media, too, and to remind social-media consumers how those media and newspapers differ.

We must repeatedly explain that news media offer journalism, which has a discipline of verification: we emphasize facts, attribute opinion, and clearly separate the two. (That separation has eroded lately, and needs shoring up.)

Social media have almost no discipline and no verification, so the facts get lost in a sea of opinion and invective, driven by algorithms giving people what they want, not what they need. They need to know that.

Don’t like online arguments? This is a fight for your life, so you should wage it on all fronts. Ask your critics to cite specifics, and when they do, remind them that it’s easy to pick examples of bad journalism from thousands of reports. As someone who got

into journalism as a youth baseball scorekeeper and correspondent, I like to say journalism has a fielding percentage about as good as Major League players, around .984. By my reckoning, we’re fair and accurate 49 times out of 50. We do make two-base errors sometimes, but unlike social media and ballplayers, we correct them.

Newspapers’ survival depends on more than trust. They must provide value, which means good publicservice journalism. How do you pay for that when advertising has dried up? Community newspapers need to be more aggressive in following their metro counterparts in asking their audiences to provide a greater share of revenue, and they need to be frank with their readers about their paper’s finances.

They also need to explore a source of revenue that’s becoming more common: philanthropy. It’s unlikely that many community papers will have reporters paid by nonprofits, or get grants from foundations, but in every county in this country, there are people with money who would like to put it to good use. Many of them would define becoming a sponsor of a newspaper, to help it offer good journalism and stay alive, as a good use of their money.

Perhaps the best example of that is the Foothills Forum, a nonprofit in Rappahanock County, Virginia, that finances high-quality, indepth journalism for the weekly Rappahannock News. The county has more money and more journalists than average, because it’s a little over an hour from Washington, D.C., but its paper has more than four years of experience that could provide guidance for others.

Philanthropists often want to help students, and that includes student journalists. When many University of Missouri journalism students’ internships fell through, faculty members Kathy Kiely and Damon Kiesow created a pop-up newsroom to produce stories for news outlets across the state, with students paid with funds from the school, the Knight Foundation and alumnus Walt Potter.

As paid internships have become less common, students are accepting unpaid internships at community papers, and the relationship is mutually beneficial.

Universities can help in other ways.

There is scant published research about community newspapers, and state press associations or newspaper groups should get researchers to examine the relationships of community papers and their audiences – including why they are losing readers and how they might get them back.

Another potential source of help is government – not the direct subsidies that are anathema to most journalists, but public-service advertising during the pandemic. In Kentucky, local governments have financed samplecopy editions of weeklies loaded with information about the coronavirus and preventing covid-19, and there is even more reason to do that now, as we need to take care to prevent a resurgence.

Now also might be a good time for a makeover, to spur single-copy sales.

Think about a magazine format like The Canadian Record in Texas, which runs a compelling color photo on the front with blurbs about major features.

It goes for $1.50 a copy, and folks in Hemphill County snap it up, because they know it’s good journalism.

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Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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June 18, 2020

Newspapers are definitive source for information Continued from Page 4

Many other ideas are out there, in Pub Aux, state press groups and the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors’ online discussion board and monthly newsletter. The May edition had ideas on advertising, covering covid-19, online journalism, dealing with social media and helping communities get through the crisis.

Ideas are what we need. Not all will work, but our industry is at a juncture much like the bottom of the Great Depression, when presidential candidate Franklin D.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

Roosevelt called for “bold, persistent experimentation.”

That’s not something for which newspapers are known, especially community papers, but they’d do well to follow it. After all, FDR’s line was written by a newspaper reporter, Ernest K. Lindley of the strongly Republican New York Herald Tribune. When Lindley and other reporters chided him about the lack of zing in his pre-convention remarks, FDR challenged them to draft a speech.

“Lindley took the bait,” wrote presidential

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historian James MacGregor Burns, and bold, persistent experimentation helped save the country. It might save newspapers, too.

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 director of the University of Kentucky’s Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

June 18, 2020