Arkansas Publisher Weekly: July 2, 2020

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New postal leadership leaves questions

Guest Column: A newspaper design Q-and-A

By Kevin Slimp

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly Vol. 15 | No. 27 | Thursday, July 2, 2020 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

Listopad dives into involvement in ANF, news industry The tennis and the comic books that brought Steve Listopad to Arkansas wouldn’t have been enough without the opportunity to actively engage in the state’s news industry and train student journalists in a newsroom.

In just three years in the state, Listopad has quickly become an important player in Arkansas journalism. He’s a board member of the Society of Professional Journalists Arkansas Pro Chapter, the faculty advisor to Henderson State University’s publications, and the newest member of the Arkansas Newspaper Foundation board of directors. In 2019, he helped lead a coalition that pushed for strengthening Arkansas’s student press freedom law. This summer, he’s managing the Arkadelphia Dispatch, an Arkansas Press Association newspaper where an ANF-funded intern is currently placed.

Listopad’s head-first dive into the Arkansas news industry likely wouldn’t have materialized without the tennis and the comic books, though. The North Dakota native and lifelong resident of that state probably wouldn’t have taken a teaching

Steve Listopad (second from right) is joined by students from Henderson State University, Rep. Mark Lowery (left) and Ashley Wimberly, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association during the 2019 legislative session. Listopad helped lead an effort to strengthen Arkansas’s student press laws.

job at Henderson State in Arkadelphia if not for learning that many of his colleagues enjoyed his favorite pastimes.

“I found out half the department plays tennis and that’s my sport and half the department loves collecting and talking

about comic books, and we have a comic studies major here,” he said. “That’s always been my nerd vice. The universe just came together.”

“I really never saw myself moving to the fringes of the Deep South, but here I am,” Continued on Page 2

Guest Editorial: Free press is democracy’s cornerstone

By Dean Ridings, CEO of America’s Newspapers

Editor’s note: As we approach Independence Day, the Arkansas Press Association and America’s Newspapers encourage newspaper publishers to publish this editorial or a similar one of their own.

America’s Founders regarded a free press as so vital to the new nation that they took care to include that right in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Founders spoke glowingly about the press as a pillar of democracy and guarantor of liberty. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, famously wrote in 1787 that “were it left

to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

George Washington framed the issue of free expression in almost apocalyptic terms: “If freedom of speech is taken

away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

Yet discussing the free press of their day, the Founders also could often sound like those who are decrying “fake news” in 2020.

Under a barrage of criticism from newspapers published by his political

Continued on Page 3

Listopad dives into involvement in ANF, news industry Continued from Page 1

he added.

through more types of fundraising, more creative fundraising and development and offering more educational opportunities for professionals and students.”

Listopad immediately settled in, since he knew some of his fellow faculty members through the College Media Association already. He also got to work intensifying the call for “New Voices” legislation in Arkansas.

New Voices is a nationwide movement to strengthen student expression rights in high schools and colleges. Listopad joined APA in advocating for what became Act 395 of 2019. That law extends to student journalists at Arkansas’s public colleges and universities the same protections found in the Arkansas Student Publications Act, which was also amended in 2019 to better protect high school journalists from censorship. Act 395 permits students to Steve Listopad, his wife Lori and their two sons. choose content of publications without fear of interference from school administrators, board to consider ways to grow support and it protects student media advisors for the state’s newspapers. from retaliation based on student speech. He said that, in North Dakota, he watched “That’s the kind of stuff that keeps me that foundation’s savings fluctuate with going,” said Listopad, who transitioned the ups and downs of an oil boom and straight from his legislative efforts to his subsequent recession. The group spent several years identifying innovative ways ANF role. to regrow and endowment that had been Listopad was a member of the North Dakota more than $1 million.

Newspaper Association’s education foundation board for six years before “I have the experience of having a set list moving to Arkansas. As ANF continues to of things we do and fund as a foundation evaluate its fundraising and educational having to change, and having to reinvent efforts on behalf of newspapers, Listopad a lot of our initiatives,” Listopad said. “I’d said he was eager to work with the ANF love to see the ANF grow its endowment

His goal is to sustain newsgathering organizations in smaller communities and make sure students and young journalists get the support they need to excel. Right now, at the Dispatch, he’s working on plans to engage Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist University students to create content.

“Newspaper organizations still provide the majority of local news and the newspaper newsroom is the most vital newsroom in the country,” he said. “Without these newsrooms, we would just have news deserts.”

The journalism instructor credits a high school journalism teacher for being a role model that helped him choose his own career path. Listopad wrote for this high school newspaper and the local daily, The Daily News of Wahpeton, North Dakota, in high school. He’s worked for an alternative weekly newspaper in North Dakota and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees from North Dakota State University. He’s currently pursuing a Ph.D. from that school.

His wife, Lori, is a Pulaski County public defender. They live with their two sons in Haskell.

Former Arkansas Democrat editor passes away the Arkansas Democrat in Little Rock.

A native of Sebastian County and an Army veteran, he earned a journalism degree at the University of Arkansas in 1951 and started working as a sportswriter for the Arkansas Gazette. He oversaw the newspaper’s coverage of high school sports, and he was a catalyst in the creation of the state’s high school track and field Meet of Champions in 1958. He was elected as a charter member of the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1995.

Jerry E. McConnell of Greenwood died Thursday, June 25. He was 92. The lifelong journalist was a sports and news reporter and served as managing editor of

He was named managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat in 1971, and later became president of the Arkansas Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi; became a member of the U of A Dean’s Advisory Committee on Journalism; and served on the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame board.

In 1978, he relocated to Oklahoma to become executive sports editor at the Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times.

He covered two Olympic Games--1984 in Los Angeles and 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. In 1996, he ran the working press room in the Main Press Center of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. In 2003, Jerry was inducted into the Lemke Journalism Alumni Society’s Hall of Honor at the U of A. A former president of the Arkansas Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, he also served on the UA journalism advisory committee and the board of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Jo. He is survived by his son, Mike McConnell of Seattle, Washington, one sister, and two grandchildren.

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July 2, 2020

Guest Editorial: Free press is democracy’s cornerstone Continued from Page 1

as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”

opponents, Washington painted journalists as “infamous scribblers.”

Benjamin Franklin, himself a very successful newspaper publisher, described the press of his time as a resentful, vicious institution comparable to the Spanish Inquisition.

Jefferson frequently condemned the press as passionately as he had advanced their right to publish freely. “I deplore ... the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them,” he wrote in 1814. “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper,” he complained in a letter to another friend.

For good measure he wrote to his ally in Congress, the Massachusetts politician Barnabas Bidwell: “As for what is not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers.”

On this Independence Day 244 years later, it’s worth reflecting on the lessons the Founders have for us as we assess the role and the practices of the news media today.

The first lesson is that while the nation’s leaders and institutions may chafe under the public criticism that accompanies reporting of their shortcomings, the role of the press in holding those leaders and institutions accountable is indispensable to the workings of a democratic society.

And therein lies the most fundamental lesson the Founders have for us in 2020: The press and the government may often have an adversarial relationship — but the government must not attempt to delegitimize the press and its work because they are essential to a free society.

Most importantly, the press’ proper role must be recognized by the leaders and institutions being held accountable.

As abused as he was by the partisan press, Jefferson nevertheless declared, “I am ... for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.”

Among those slinging partisan unjust criticisms was the newspaper co-founded

by James Madison, who reasoned that “some degree of abuse is inseparable from the proper use of everything, and in no instance is this more true than in that of the press.”

Yet, he went on to argue that trying to regulate the “abuse” of the press threatens to strangle its vitality and utility to a free people: “To the press alone, checkered

Would any of us want to live in a country where the news media isn’t freely allowed to report on the actions of its government?

Any harm done by an overreaching press would be nothing compared to a government left unchecked. As much as the news media may rub some the wrong way, it is frightening to think of a society with no free press.

Tarred and slandered by the press of his time — often by newspapers owned or financed by fellow Founders — Thomas Jefferson stayed true to that principle to the day he died on the Fourth of July, 1826.

On this Independence Day, all Americans should renew our commitment to Jefferson’s description of the United States as “a country which is afraid to read nothing, and which may be trusted with anything, so long as its reason remains unfettered by law.”

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July 2, 2020

New postal leadership leaves questions Hope-Prescott U.S. postmaster general took over on June 15, leaving questions as to whether News applies for Athenewfuture of the U.S. Postal Service will include privatization and uncertainty about universal service and postal prices.

APA membership

The Hope-Prescott News, a weekly newspaper covering Hempstead and Nevada counties in southwest Arkansas, has applied for membership to the Arkansas Press Association. The APA Constitution and Bylaws require three notifications of the application to APA membership. This is the second of those three notifications.

The News is owned by Mark Keith and Wendell Hoover. Keith is the editor of the publication and Hoover is the business manager. It was first printed in October 2018 after the closure of newspapers in both Hope and Prescott. The newspaper, having been published weekly for more than one year, is now eligible for full APA membership.

Any APA member who objects to the News’s membership in APA may provide a written letter of objection to APA Executive Director Ashley Wimberley, 411 S. Victory St., Little Rock AR 72201 or email info@arkansaspress.org

Louis DeJoy, a businessman from North Carolina, was named by President Donald Trump to the position. The previous three postmasters general had been promoted from within the Postal Service.

Tonda Rush of the National Newspaper Association, said the uncertainty around the USPS is mainly because of disagreements among policymakers about its mission.

There are questions about whether it is a fair competitor with other delivery services and about its universal mandate to deliver to all Americans. Others claim a 2006 law requiring USPS to prepay for future retiree health benefits is causing a crisis within the organization. Currently, the postal service is losing so much money that it could run out of cash by Sept. 30, Rush said.

The outgoing postmaster general asked Congress for $75 billion to prop up the agency.

Lawmakers thus far have not acted on that request.

Rush reported that newspaper publishers are “increasingly worried that Congress would allow USPS to experience a major disruption.”

According to NNA President Matt Adelman, Congress “has to provide funding for this institution and then get serious about reforms that protect service.”

Texarkana Gazette launches new app Paris Express closes office to public The Texarkana Gazette announced to readers a newly designed mobile app that provides updated features and conveniences.

The new app offers the replica edition of the daily newspaper in addition to live news updates throughout the day.

Readers are now able to review current and previous print editions as well as sign up for push notifications about breaking news. The articles can be shared with others on social media, bookmarked for easy viewing or even played on audio.

The app is available for both Apple and Android devices.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

Gannett Co., the owner of the Paris Express and several other daily and weekly newspapers in Arkansas, has closed the Express’s office in downtown Paris effective immediately, the newspaper reported last week.

advertising placements and employees of the Times Record in Fort Smith, another Gannett Co. newspaper, will handle all circulation, subscription and delivery matters. Soon, the Express will have a new telephone number for all advertising

The newspaper continues to publish weekly, but there will no longer be a storefront in Paris. According to a Gannett spokesman, a loss in advertising revenue as a result of COVID-19 has forced “significant changes to the way the office works accommodating for the reduction in manpower.” Advertising and editorial staff will be working remotely, the newspaper said.

and subscription concerns.

The newspaper will collaborate with an Oklahoma-based call center for 4

Some employees were affected by the changes, said Miranda Holman, the newspaper’s editor.

“I know that this is an inconvenience to our subscribers and customers, and I ask that you bear with us as we make the necessary changes. Your support has always been integral to our role in the community, and we need it now more than ever,” Holman said.

July 2, 2020

SPJ Diamond Award winners named The Arkansas Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists named Cynthia Howell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as Diamond Journalist of the Year during its announcement of its Diamond Journalism Awards on June 30.

Howell reports on education for the Democrat-Gazette and has provided readers with insights and analysis related to the ongoing and long-running Pulaski County school desegregation litigation and, most recently, the state takeover of the Little Rock School District.

nursing home operators.

First-place awards were presented to both professional and student journalists in dozens of categories. For a full list of winners, visit ArkansasSPJ.org.

The Diamond Journalism Awards are an annual, regional competition recognizing outstanding journalism in Arkansas and its surrounding states.

Another Democrat-Gazette reporter, Nyssa Kruse, won the Diamond Award for Outstanding New Journalist of the Year. The runner-up in that category was Rachel Herzog, also of the Little Rock newspaper.

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The Robert S. McCord Freedom of Information Act award was given to Eric Besson of the Arkansas DemocratGazette for an investigation into how the state of Arkansas handles licensing of

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July 2, 2020

Guest Column: A newspaper design Q-and-A

By Kevin Slimp So, what do professional speakers do during a pandemic? I can’t speak for all the speakers in the world, but among other things, I’ve been leading a lot of webinars.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone that attendance at online classes has been high over the past couple of months, which means I hear from a lot of folks at newspapers and answer a lot of questions.

In this column, I thought I’d answer some of the questions I’ve received from newspaper folks.

Q: It was really interesting to learn about the most popular colors for ad design this year. Where can I find this information in future years?

A: The popularity of colors always fascinates me, as popular colors change from year to year. If you’re still using reflex blue and green, it might surprise you to know you’re probably not getting as much response from your ads as you might. Pantone releases a list of most popular colors each year. In 2020, the most popular colors on Pantone’s list are “Classic Blue” and “Coral.” If you don’t believe it, just walk into any clothing store.

size of a PDF is determined by graphics on the pages. Large graphics with high resolutions created much larger PDF files.

Users sometimes believe when a file is downsampled during the PDF creation, it lowers the resolution of all the images to the setting of the downsample. It’s actually more of an average (not an exact average) between the original size of an image and a downsampled size. For example, if you place a 10-inch photo with a resolution of 300 on a page and reduce the size to 5 inches with a downsampling of 220, the image in the PDF will still be well over ten times as large as it would have been if the size and resolution of the image was correct before it was placed on the page.

Q: Is there a way to save InDesign paragraph styles so they can be used on another computer?

Q: When it comes to the size of a PDF file, is there a mathematical progression based on what the size of the printed PDF would be? Or is it dependent upon the content of the PDF? For example, would a PDF with mostly text be a different size file than a photo, or one with simple pie charts?

A: Interestingly, as much as most of us use InDesign, this is a question I get asked a lot. Yes, it’s like a lot of functions in InDesign that can be ported from one computer to another. First, save the InDesign document that contains the style on a server, so other users have access to it. Go to the new computer and be sure InDesign is open, but no documents are open. Finally, with no documents open, go to the menu in the Paragraph Styles Panel and select “Load Paragraph Styles.” Select the InDesign file you placed on the server and the styles will be immediately loaded in InDesign and available whenever you create a document.

A: I used to get this question a lot back in the early days of PDFs. Primarily, the

Q: Do you have any general instructions on the best settings in Photoshop for

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photos printed on newsprint?

A: There’s no “one size fits all” setting for newspapers, but I can suggest settings that work well on most web (newsprint) presses. In Photoshop Color Settings (Edit>Color Settings), set your CMYK settings to Black Ink Limit: 90 percent, Total Ink Limit to 285 percent, and dot gain to 26 percent. Set your RGB setting to “Adobe RGB” and your grayscale setting to “Dot Gain 30%” Q: I moved all my fonts over to my new computer, but particular fonts are now turning on ligatures automatically. This is causing issues since ligatures show up as CID fonts when converted to PDF and cause all kinds of problems. Is there a way to make this not happen?

A: Yes, there is. Open InDesign, and be sure no documents are open. Select your type tool and click on the tiny menu in the upper-right corner of your InDesign desktop. Uncheck “Ligatures” and you should have no ligatures whenever you create a new document. If you have templates that have this problem, be sure to open them, uncheck “Ligatures” and save the template. This should take care of your problem with ligatures.

Kevin Slimp, of Newspaper Academy, has been at the forefront of newspaper technology and is a popular speaker and trainer in the magazine and advertising worlds as well.

July 2, 2020