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Newspaper carrier dies in flash flooding in Fort Smith Popular podcast targeted for plagiarizing Arkansas reporter’s work
ARKANSAS
Ar k ansas
Publisher Weekly
PRESS ASSOCIATION
Vol. 14 | No. 35 | Thursday, August 29, 2019
Serving Press and State Since 1873
Saline Courier reporter’s work with sources pays off When asked what made the difference in her award-winning investigative coverage for the Saline Courier, Sarah Perry says, more or less, to consider the source. The leads and interviews from nearly three dozen sources helped shape Perry’s four-article investigation into the Bryant mayor last year. For that series, the Saline Courier reporter won this year’s prestigious I.F. Stone Award presented by the Arkansas Press Association for investigative coverage. Perry’s articles illustrated dysfunction and discord at Bryant City Hall. After the articles were published, the longtime mayor lost re-election to a political neophyte who had raised 10 times less money than the incumbent.
The series relied on complaints, grievances and financial information unearthed through Freedom of Information Act requests. Perry said she would not have been aware about those specific records without the trust and assistance of the sources she had cultivated over her six years at the Courier.
successful covering her beat because she knows the right mix of positive and negative reporting will reap long-term benefits. Continued on Page 2
“I had been working with these people for so long, it made me feel good that I had built up this relationship with employees and the City Council and they trusted me with the information that could have put their jobs on the line,” Perry said. Perry is the senior reporter at the Bentonbased newspaper and she has reported on Bryant city government for the six years she’s been at the Courier. She said she’s
Sarah Perry
State Archives calls on Arkansas newspapers to go to microfilm Countless reporters know the feeling of searching for an older article on the internet and ending up with a “Page Not Found” error. That’s becoming more and more common, said Terra Titsworth with the Arkansas State Archives, which is why the Archives are on a mission to preserve Arkansas’s newspapers in microfilm form.
The State Archives, located in Little Rock, currently houses microfilmed copies of nearly 100 Arkansas periodicals. The organization’s goal is to maintain all APA member newspapers on microfilm, but the Archives can only do that if APA members provide copies of their print products. “If they will send it to us, we will microfilm it,” Titsworth said. “It has to be published in Arkansas and pertain to Arkansas, and
newspaper organization’s membership about the Archives’ microfilm efforts and to grow participation. APA members who did not attend the convention are encouraged to call the Archives at (501) 682-6900 or visit Archives.Arkansas.gov for more information.
if there’s an Arkansas relevance in it, then we will microfilm it if we have it.” Titsworth said the Archives’ microfilm collection is open to the public six days a week. In addition to newspapers, other documents on microfilm include government and military records. The Archives took time to talk one-on-one with APA members during the recent APA convention in Hot Springs, informing the
Titsworth said that archiving of newspapers and other important documents is a widespread problem nationally. “Over time, digital records become somewhat impossible to retrieve,” she said. “I still feel that microfilm is the best way to preserve newspapers. It only requires magnification and light. Other mediums change relatively quickly and it becomes very difficult or expensive or impossible to retrieve those things.”