Arkansas Publisher Weekly: August 12, 2021

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FOIA Coalition appoints Steinbuch to another term

Guest Column:

Lessons from a failed advertiser

By John Foust

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly Vol. 16 | No. 32 | Thursday, August 12, 2021 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

Nashville community service messages urge vaccinations With COVID-19 cases rising sharply in Howard County and across Arkansas, the Nashville News-Leader has teamed with another local media outlet to encourage citizens to get vaccinated.

News-Leader Publisher John Robert Schirmer said the vaccination campaign launched last month in his newspaper and on Southwest Arkansas Radio. The effort comes as Arkansas experiences a surge in coronavirus cases caused by the deadly Delta variant. Arkansas hospitals are at capacity because of the pandemic.

As of Aug. 9, just under half of Arkansans had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Vaccination hesitancy remains high in the state.

Schirmer said he started thinking about how his newspaper could help after the number of active COVID-19 cases in Howard County grew from almost zero to about 80 in a short time span.

Continued on Page 2

CherryRoad Media launches newspaper in Minnesota CherryRoad Media, the New Jerseybased company that acquired four Arkansas newspapers earlier this year, started a newspaper in International Falls, Minnesota. The company launched the Rainy Lakes Gazette after another newspaper in the community ceased publication.

International Falls is a town of about 6,000 people on the Canadian border.

Jeremy Gulban, CEO of CherryRoad and publisher of its Arkansas newspapers, said he and members of the community

recognized a need for a newspaper just two weeks after the previous publication, the International Falls Journal, had shut down.

“To see how the community in International Falls has rallied together to help us get this initiative off the ground validates the importance of community newspapers,” Gulban said in a news release. “In speaking with people in the community over the last several weeks, a common theme has been a sense of regret that they took for granted the previous paper

would always be there.”

Gulban and CherryRoad entered the newspaper business in 2020 when the company purchased the Cook County News-Herald in nearby Grand Marais, Minnesota.

The company expanded its print newspaper portfolio in June when it purchased the Marshall Mountain Wave, the Mountaineer Echo in Flippin, the Clay County Democrat in Corning and the Pocahontas Star Herald.

Nashville community service messages urge vaccinations Continued from Page 1

“I saw a story about ways churches could get involved in getting people vaccinated, and one thing they suggested was getting local people involved in public service announcements,” Schirmer said.

He met with a local pastor, the Rev. Daniel Kirkpatrick, and together they identified a group of influential community residents and asked them if they would be willing to participate in the outreach campaign.

Schirmer is running an advertisement every week with a photo of a community influencer stating the reasons he or she was vaccinated. Those same influencers are also recording 30- to 60-second radio ads to be broadcast regionally.

“We’re thinking that if people see people they actually know, they’ll feel better about it and be less hesitant about getting the shots,” Schirmer said. “I hope we can start making some progress on this thing and get some control over it.”

Schirmer owns several other newspapers

in southwest Arkansas, and depending on the success of the effort in Nashville, he may expand the outreach to other communities.

Schirmer has dubbed the outreach effort a “Love Thy Neighbor” campaign, and former Nashville Leader publisher Louie Graves was the subject of the first advertisement. Graves is an Arkansas Press Association past president.

In the ad, Graves told readers: “I got the shot because I figure that my own risk of not surviving COVID is a lot greater than any risk of side effects. I got my second shot in January. No problems.”

The ad contains the phone number and address for the Howard County Health Unit, where residents can go to get the free vaccine.

Others who have participated in the outreach effort so far are Vera Marks, the mayor of Mineral Springs, who said she contracted the virus a year ago

and had to be placed on oxygen; and Rick Rebsamen, principal of Nashville Elementary School. Rebsamen urged readers: “Don’t believe everything you hear on social media. Get your shot.”

One aspect of the PSA connected to News-Leader readership is a discount for subscribers who have been fully vaccinated.

Any subscriber who has been fully vaccinated may bring his or her vaccination card to the News-Leader office for a $5 discount on new subscriptions or subscription renewals or extensions.

Subscribers have until Sept. 3 to obtain their discounts.

Schirmer, an APA board member, said he doesn’t mind if other newspapers use the same idea for similar efforts in their own communities.

“I hope people will, if there’s anything we can do, especially with school starting,” he said.

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August 12, 2021

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FOIA Coalition appoints Steinbuch to another term The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act Coalition voted last week to re-appoint law professor Robert Steinbuch as its representative on the state Freedom of Information Act Task Force.

Steinbuch is a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law and an expert on FOIA. He was first appointed by the Coalition to the Task Force when the Arkansas Legislature established the Task Force in 2017.

The nine-member Task Force is responsible for making recommendations to the General Assembly about potential

Robert Steinbuch

legislation that would amend or impact the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. The coalition is a group of journalists, educators, government officials and advocates committed to protecting Arkansas’s open records and open meetings laws. Both the Task Force and coalition meet regularly during legislative sessions.

The Arkansas Press Association is responsible for appointing one member to the Task Force, as well. The APA’s appointee is Wesley Brown, publisher of the Daily Record in Little Rock.

INDUSTRY QUOTE “The newspaper is a greater treasure to the people than uncounted millions of gold.”

—Henry Ward Beecher

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

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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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August 12, 2021

Courier-Index marks 150 years of publication

The Courier-Index in Marianna has reached a significant milestone, serving Lee County and surrounding areas for 150 years.

The newspaper celebrated sesquicentennial in July.

The

weekly

Courier-Index

its began

publishing in July 1872. It continues to be published on Wednesday along with its sister publications, the East Arkansas Advertiser and the daily Times-Herald in Forrest City.

In May 1986, Times-Herald Publishing acquired the Courier-Index.

Both newspapers were sold to Argent Arkansas

News Media in 2016.

DJ McMickle handles news reporting for the Courier-Index currently. He’s been with the newspaper since 2016. His sister, Clarissa Peyton, sells advertising for the newspaper. Tamara Johnson is the publisher.

Judge rules against disclosure of report on LR police chief An internal report about complaints lodged by officers against the Little Rock police chief is not subject to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, a Pulaski County Circuit Court special judge ruled last week.

Four Little Rock police officers who filed complaints against Chief Keith Humphrey had sought copies of the final report under FOIA. However, Special Judge Kathleen Bell ruled the report constitutes an employee evaluation or job performance record and is exempt from disclosure.

Under FOIA, employee evaluation records are releasable only if the records form a basis for a suspension or termination of an employee.

According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the city of Little Rock hired a consultant to review the complaints against Humphrey. The consultant completed a 27-page report and made recommendations to city officials.

The newspaper said the officer’s FOIA lawsuit was “premature” because there had not been a final action taken regarding the investigative report.

Of the documents, the judge determined 12 records, which included memos written by Humphrey and some meeting minutes, should be open under FOIA. She ordered the city to produce those documents within five business days.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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August 12, 2021

Guest Column: Lessons from a failed advertiser

By John Foust I remember talking to Clark about his early days in advertising. When he started his then-small marketing business, one of his first clients was a fast-food establishment that needed help with an introductory campaign. Although the store manager knew almost nothing about advertising, he understood that it was important.

According to Clark, three factors drove the advertising strategy: (1) the budget was severely limited, (2) although it was a national brand, the business was new to the market, and (3) a large university was about two miles away.

“In those pre-Internet days, the college market was the store manager’s best option,” Clark said, “and I figured the surest way to reach those students was through the college newspaper. The challenge was to give them a reason to travel two miles for fast-food. I decided to run a series of quarter-page ads, with discount coupons. The price fit the manager’s budget, and the coupons would give him a way to measure results. Each ad had a code number on the coupon, so he would know which days of the week drew more responses.”

When Clark dropped by the store after

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

a few ads ran, the store manager held up a big paper grocery bag which was overflowing with coupons. There was no organization at all, and it was obvious that coupons had been mixed together in the bag. The ads had pulled in some customers, but – even though they had discussed the significance of measuring results – the manager clearly had no interest in following through.

“Unfortunately, that fast-food place didn’t stay open very long,” Clark explained. “For several years after it closed, I wondered if I could have provided more help. But eventually I came to realize that advertising alone can’t keep a business going. People were willing to try the restaurant once, but the food simply wasn’t good enough to bring them back. The store manager had a gruff personality that may have turned off customers. I also heard that there were staffing problems and issues with state restaurant inspections.”

Although that was a painful experience, it taught Clark some lessons which benefited him in later campaigns. “The first lesson was the importance of a system for clients to track ad responses,” he said. “That can be as simple as a box

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with folders to organize coupons. Or it can be as sophisticated as a spreadsheet or tracking software.

“The second lesson was to develop a way to capture customer information – at least a name and email address. That can be done with some kind of loyalty program, a requirement to provide information before downloading an online coupon, or an inperson sign-up for future deals.

“The biggest lesson of all,” Clark said, “was the first-hand observation of the power of the consumer’s in-store experience. The ultimate goal is for the customer to see the store as worth a second, third and tenth visit. Experience, not advertising, is the determining factor in customer loyalty.” © Copyright 2021 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

August 12, 2021