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2019 Media Directory available for purchase
Guest Column:
A journalist’s job is to report and offer balance, not to persuade By Tim Gallagher
ARKANSAS
Ar k ansas
PRESS
Publisher Weekly
ASSOCIATION
Vol. 14 | No. 30 | Thursday, July 24, 2019
Serving Press and State Since 1873
Rusty Fraser bucks ‘bureaucracy,’ finds success As if his circulation numbers weren’t evidence enough, Stone County Leader Publisher Rusty Fraser has an ace-inthe-hole story when someone asks about his classified advertising strategy.
Fraser, who offers free classified ads for any subscriber, tells about how he would deliver his weekly newspapers to racks in Calico Rock – in Izard County, about 25 miles away from Mountain View – on Monday nights around 10 p.m. Stone County residents didn’t get their newspapers until the next morning around 8. So then, how was it that one specific Mountain View man was calling sellers around sun-up? He had driven the 50mile roundtrip to get the Stone County Leader’s classified ads. “He was driving all the way to Calico Rock to get the first pop,” said Fraser, who would put the newspapers in the racks in the neighboring town while on the way back from having the Leader printed in Mountain Home.
Rusty Fraser with wife Neal outside the newspaper office, in 1990.
“With shows on like ‘American Pickers,’ everybody is looking for a deal,” Fraser said. “The popularity of classifieds is as
strong as it’s ever been.” Fraser said his newspaper’s circulation is about 4,000 and has remained consistent over the last few years. The city of Mountain View has about 2,700 residents. He said he’s picked up subscriptions from several nonsubscribers who come in the office to buy a classified ad and realize they can place one for free with a subscription. “Instead of selling classified ads, you’re selling subscriptions, which is frankly more important,” he said. “The main thing many chain newspapers don’t understand is that they see classifieds as a revenue source, and classified ad revenue has been declining for decades. What’s more valuable than the revenue is the readership you get from classifieds.” Fraser has found himself by frustrated corporate leadership of newspapers over Continued on Page 2
Slinkard named managing editor in El Dorado The El Dorado News-Times announced the hiring of Caleb Slinkard as its managing editor.
Caleb Slinkard
Slinkard, a native of northeast Texas, most recently was executive editor of The Norman Transcript in Norman, Oklahoma.
While in school at Texas A&M UniversityCommerce, Slinkard worked at the school’s newspaper and hosted a news radio show. He worked as a page designer at the Greenville Herald-Banner in Greenville, Texas, before being named editor-in-chief of that newspaper. “Journalism kind of lends itself to a natural curiosity,” Slinkard said in the NewsTimes’s announcement of his hiring. “I think we have an opportunity to give people who don’t have a voice a voice; we have the opportunity to tell really important stories; and, particularly in
community journalism, I feel that having a vibrant newspaper is really key to having a vibrant community, so if I can play a role in doing that, that’s also a very rewarding experience, very meaningful.” While in Norman, Slinkard’s newspaper was awarded the Oklahoma Press Association’s Sequoyah Award for three consecutive years. That award, according to the News-Times account, is given to the top newspapers in the state. Slinkard said he plans on meeting community members in the newspaper’s coverage area over the next few months.