Arkansas Publisher Weekly: September 29, 2022 by Arkansas Press Association

Guest Column:

The power of being specific

By John Foust

Overbey moves home and brings a vision with her

Rhonda Overbey is six weeks into her new position with Horizon Publications, and is already seeing positive changes.

Overbey joined the company in August to serve as publisher for the Saline Courier and Malvern Daily Record, as well as regional advertising director for those two newspapers plus the Times-Herald and East Arkansas Advertiser in Forrest City, the Courier-Index in Marianna and two additional newspapers in Starkville and West Point, Mississippi.

“The first month I was here, I started tracking online engagement at the Saline Courier in Benton and the Malvern Daily Record,” she said. “A digital reader is not someone who’s going to be one to say, ‘Oh, this is an interesting story. Let me drop what I’m doing and go buy a copy of the newspaper.’ Posting stories online and sharing them across our social media immediately is often considered counterintuitive to driving readers to pick up the print edition. However, in the first month when we started same-day posting of every story online, we gained 10,000 new unique visitors.”

“Horizon has a smart approach, because the company stays in the background and puts the local leadership in charge of local decision-making,” she said. “However, a lot of times local leadership are so busy they don’t think about

Continued on Page 2

Vol.17 | No. 39 | Thursday, September 29, 2022 | Serving Press and State Since 1873 7 2 Rhonda Overbey

Last day to file ownership statement is tomorrow Arkansas Press Association Publisher Weekly

NATIONAL NEWSPAPER WEEK OCT. 2-8 Celebrate For free resources to promote your newspaper throughout the week, visit nationalnewspaperweek.com #newspaperpower #newspaperpower

Overbey moves home and brings a vision with her

Continued from Page 1

new revenue streams and cost-saving measures. I can help with that. Horizon grouped these locations together and created the position of regional advertising director. My background lets me help consult with local leaders in unique ways.”

Overbey started her career in newspapers the summer after her junior year at the University of Arkansas. She returned to Conway, her hometown, to intern for Frank Robbins at the Log Cabin Democrat

“I remember earning a $300 stipend, which is right on par for 1990,” she said. “I really got the feel for the job that summer.”

Overbey graduated from UA with a degree in journalism and political science in 1991, then went back to work for the Log Cabin Democrat. She started out as a reporter, but, she said, she was much too loud to work in the newsroom.

“I would see the people across the hallway going out to lunch together and laughing all the time. I was like, ‘what do those people do?’ Of course they were the advertising department. It didn’t take me long to move to the dark side.”

Overbey stayed in advertising sales at the Log Cabin Democrat until moving to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 1997, where she stayed until 2003. In 2006, she took a position as retail sales manager, consumer publications with Arkansas Business Publishing Group in Little Rock.

“I learned so much about magazine production and consumer publications there,” she said, “and what they did with their database was groundbreaking at the

time.”

In 2008, Overbey returned to the Log Cabin Democrat as advertising and marketing director, and stayed there another six years before an opportunity presented itself in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

“It was time to move up or move on, so I took a job with CNHI at the Muskogee Phoenix. I was there when Merle Haggard died. It was a prominent news event – losing the originator of ‘Okie from Muskogee.’ When he passed I saved one of the plates from the press, and it hangs in my office today.”

Overbey did a brief stint as publisher of the Sedalia Democrat in Sedalia, Missouri, then served from 2016 through July of this year as publisher of the Aiken Standard in Aiken, South Carolina.

Recently Overby was offered a “California adventure” by a newspaper company, but if she was going to move again it was going to be closer to home.

“All my friends and family are in central Arkansas,” she said. “My youngest nephew has four children under the age of eight, and they hardly know me other than a name on an Amazon package. I wanted to get back home to get to know them.

“There was a time in my life when not knowing what was around the next corner was really exciting,” Overbey continued.

“Now that I’m older, it’s very comforting to know what’s around the corner. It’s so wonderful to have those friends and family nearby.”

Overbey is excited and ready to help her newspapers however she can. She believes the community presence of the newspapers she publishes has diminished due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and her solution to the loss of presence is to pursue growth.

“Saline County is certainly growing and not slowing down, and so we are going to grow with it,” she said. “We’re going to grow the newsroom, grow revenue and grow our audience.”

Same-day mail delivery has also been a big success, according to Overbey. “We had a daily struggle with newspaper delivery,” she said. “We were floored with the number of phone calls we were receiving from subscribers unhappy with their delivery. The transition has been smooth and we have gone from 50 phone calls a day with questions or concerns down to five a week. Most of the calls now are from subscribers forgetting to check their mailbox instead of their doorstep.”

Another early success for Overbey in Benton was the elimination of the Sunday edition in favor of one weekend edition published on Saturday. High school football is key, according to Overbey, and since Benton is not a college town, a Saturday edition works well for the community.

They have also added pages with a Lifestyle B-section to the Saline Courier Overbey said the community is responding positively to recipes, local history and other feature content.

on Page 4

Last day to file ownership statement is tomorrow

Newspapers and other publications that send Periodicals Class Mail have one more day to file an annual Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (PS Form 3526) with the U.S. Postal Service. The deadline this year is tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 30.

Upon filing the ownership statement with the local postmaster, publication owners are required to publish the statement according to the following timetable, depending on the frequency of publication:

● Publications issued more frequently than weekly must publish no later than Oct. 10. This applies to daily, semiweekly and three-times-per-week publications.

● Publications issued weekly or less frequently, but not less than monthly, must publish the statement by Oct. 31. This includes weekly newspapers.

● All other publications such as quarterlies must publish in the first issue after Oct. 1.

Owners may include paid digital subscriptions as circulation in postal statements. A paid subscriber, whether digital or print, may only be counted once. Form 3526 serves as the method for the U.S. Postal Service to establish whether a publication meets standards for the periodicals mailing rates. The form is available at about.usps.com/forms/ps3526.pdf

Continued

Arkansas Publisher Weekly 2 September 29, 2022

Philander Smith Collegiate Choir to perform at Arkansas Press Freedom Gala

The renowned Philander Smith Collegiate Choir is set to perform at the Arkansas Press Freedom Gala on October 20 in Little Rock.

The choir, under the direction of Assistant Professor of Music and Choral Director Dr. Stephen L. Hayes, will perform the national anthem and additional music.

The Philander Smith Collegiate Choir gained national acclaim during the 1990s, traveling frequently to perform at the request of thenPresident Bill Clinton and was a highlight of the 1993 Presidential Inauguration, the first Historically Black College and University choir to perform at such.

The choir has also made appearances with Grammy Award-winning artists such as Jennifer Holliday and Michael Bolton

Honorees

CELEBRATING SUPPORTERS OF DEMOCRACY

Arkansas Publisher Weekly 3 September 29, 2022

Overbey moves home and brings a vision with her

from Page 2

“We are also going to start focusing on investigative reporting and in-depth features,” she said. “These stories may sometimes take three months to produce. It’s expensive to do this type of journalism, but it’s what our communities need and deserve. This is part of our growth.”

Overbey said consolidating and sharing resources across properties are also important cost-saving measures. “Part of improving communication could be as simple as a shared Google folder,” she said.

“I’m here to help, not rebuild,” she said.

“Rebuilding implies that something was broken, and that was not the case. We’re going to stretch our arms a bit and see if we can increase our coverage. We’re interviewing now to add to the newsroom. We’re sharing duties, consolidating resources between Benton and Malvern and other exciting things.”

Overbey is thrilled to be working with the staff of the newspapers she serves. “The staff love their communities,” she said. “I’m so pleased with the team we have. So many of the them have given much of their lives to their newspapers. I am lucky to be working with them as we move forward

together.

“I do believe that newspapers should be treated as historical institutions in communities,” Overbey continued. “They should be supported in the same way you support the court house, or the library or any other institution. Sometimes that support is in the form of advertising, sometimes a subscription and sometimes a donation. The work we do is important for our communities. Not only is it imperative for democracy, it’s writing the first draft of history. It gives me chills when I think, ‘I do a job that is mentioned in the First Amendment’. It’s a gift.”

A R K A N S A S P R E S S A S S O C I A T I O N

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Then-Gov. Clinton stops by APA on his way to work

Committee needed to hear how he stood on several issues—especially Freedom of Information bills being considered in legislature—they invited him to visit the APA headquarters.

The association office was conveniently located on Broadway Street in Little Rock, between the Governor’s Mansion and the Arkansas State Capitol.

Committee Chairman Cone Magie of Cabot, publisher of the Cabot Star-Herald, Carlisle Independent and Lonoke Democrat presided over the meeting.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly 4 September 29, 2022

Continued

State Government Accountability reporting contest is now open for entries; award is $25,000

The entry period for the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications $25,000 Collier Prize for State Government Accountability is now open, according to a news release from the university. The prize, now in its fourth year, honors the best in state government investigative and political reporting in every state. The prize is one of the largest journalism awards in the nation.

The winner of the award will be announced at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in May 2023. Entries are based on state-level reporting in 2022 and can be submitted by any news organization in the nation. The deadline for entries is Jan. 31, 2023.

For more information on the award and to submit an entry, visit: jou.ufl.edu/collierprize

Nominations for E&P ’s Publisher of the Year award close tomorrow

Nominations for Editor & Publisher magazine’s Publisher of the Year award will be accepted until Friday, Sept. 30 at 10:59 p.m. CDT.

The contest is open to all news publishers nationwide.

“The accelerating pace of change in today’s information age requires a greater need for effective leadership. A successful leader must not only strategize from the trenches with practicality and realism, but also think with foresight and imagination,” said E&P in an announcement about the contest.

Nominees should be a publisher who has “risen above the rest and accomplished what seems like the impossible, outmaneuvering the competition, outthinking the future and maintaining profitability” and “a leader with business acumen, technical savvy, and a deep understanding of what needs to be done to stay successful — along with the fortitude and tenacity to implement change.”

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Publisher Walter E. Hussman, Jr. was named Publisher of the Year by E&P in 2008, drawing praise for the DemocratGazette’s increase in circulation when most newspapers at the time were printing fewer copies and his resistance to cutting newsroom budgets or shrinking the amount of space in the paper devoted to news.

For more information and the nomination form visit www.editorandpublisher.com/ stories/eps-2022-publisher-of-the-yearnominations-are-now-open,234649

LET’S GET SOCIAL

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Brandon Morris, strategic communications advisor for MISO, was the winner of a $200 press release distribution door prize provided by APA at the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Arkansas Prism Awards banquet last Thursday, Sept. 22. Morris is pictured with Shira Kelley, public affairs liaison of the Arkansas Commissioner of State Lands and PRSA director-at-large.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly 6 September 29, 2022 @ArkansasPressAssociation @ARPressAssoc

WE'RE POWERING THE POWER OF THE PRESS.

Many of our 17 Distribution Partners deliver power to the printing facilities that deliver news to communities just like yours around the state. And we’ll continue to be there where you need us, powering our future, together.

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

Sandra Byrd, Vice President 501-570-2627 sbyrd@aecc.com

Rob Roedel, Director 501-570-2296 rob.roedel@aeci.com

DISTRIBUTION COOPERATIVES

Arkansas Valley Electric Cooperative 479-667-2176

Ashley-Chicot Cooperative

870-853-5212

C&L Electric Cooperative 870-628-4221

Carroll Electric Cooperative 870-423-2161

Clay County Electric Cooperative........................... 870-857-3521

Craighead Electric Cooperative 870-932-8301

Farmers Electric Cooperative 870-523-3691

First Electric Cooperative 800-489-7405

Mississippi County Electric Cooperative 870-763-4563

North Arkansas Electric Cooperative 870-895-3221

Ouachita Electric Cooperative 877-252-4538

Ozarks Electric Cooperative 800-521-6144

Petit Jean Electric Cooperative

501-745-2493

Rich Mountain Electric Cooperative 479-394-4140

South Central Arkansas Electric Cooperative 870-246-6701

Southwest Arkansas Electric Cooperative..............870-772-2743

Woodruff Electric Cooperative 870-633-2262

1 Cooperative Way • Little Rock, AR 72209 • (501) 570-2200 • www.ecark.org

.....................................

...............................

Guest Column:

The power of being specific

By John Foust

Motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar used to ask, “Are you a meaningful specific or a wandering generality?” He related his comment to a number of areas: long and short-term goal setting, day-today activities, and dealings with family members, coworkers and customers.

On closer examination, it’s easy to see that his words could apply to just about any area of life or profession. Even advertising.

Why should we aim for “good” results for advertisers, when it’s much better to strive for x-percent increase in sales for their businesses? Why should salespeople accept vague answers to key questions, when it’s more useful to structure questions to get specifics? And why should we tell someone they did “nice work,” when it would mean a lot more to them to hear specific reasons why they did well? (Besides making them feel good, that kind of sincere praise encourages them to repeat the same successful behavior.)

It’s easy to be vague. It’s challenging to think—and communicate—in specifics. Yes, specifics are meaningful and generalities wander all over the place, without much significance at all. Generalities have no sticking power.

Let’s take a look at two areas that have a particular need for specificity:

1. Sales presentations. It’s natural to open a sales conversation with a general question like, “How’s business?” The answer is usually a mundane “fine” or “could always be better.” The person asking the questions is in position to steer the dialogue, so it’s up to the salesperson to transition away from vague back-andforth generalities. Get specifics by asking for specifics.

For example, “It’s great to hear that business is fine. What’s creating those results?” Or, “I understand wanting business to be better. What kinds of things do you think would help?”

See what’s happening? This type of response can move the discussion into areas that give the salesperson something to work with.

2. Ad copy. Every salesperson should have antennae for good and bad copywriting. When an advertiser wants to say “save big” or “large residential lots,” alarms should go off. Neither “save big” nor “large residential lots” says anything of value to readers. Exactly how much can people save when they save big? And just how large is a large lot? We’ll never know

unless the ads tell us.

Think of sports. Wouldn’t football fans rather know that their team won 3332 than by “a narrow margin?” Isn’t a headline like “Jones hits three home runs to set conference record” more descriptive than “Jones has great game?”

Look for the specifics in these product statements: Save up to $300 on your new refrigerator. Reduce your heating and cooling costs by as much as 20 percent. Each home in Lakeside Village will be built on a one-acre lot. Place your order by this weekend and get free delivery and installation.

Vague generality or meaningful specific? When it comes to advertising, this can make the difference between a marketing campaign that works anvd one that falls flat

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. For more information, email john@johnfoust.com

Event Details

Statehouse Convention Center in the Wally Allen Ballroom

101 East Markham Street, Little Rock, AR 72201

Thursday, October 20

Cocktail Reception at 6 p.m. | Dinner & Program at 7 p.m.

Cocktail Reception at 6 p.m. | Program at 7 p.m.

Cocktail/Formal (black tie optional)

$200 each or Table of 8 for $1,500

To purchase tickets or a table, visit: arkansaspress.org/events.

About the Honorees

Headliner of the Year

2020 Headliner of the Year

Asa Hutchinson, Governor of Arkansas

Asa Hutchinson is the 46th governor of the State of Arkansas. In 2018, he was re-elected with 65% of the vote, having received more votes than any other candidate for governor in the state’s history.

He has won recognition for the state as a leader in computer science education, cut taxes by over $250 million, and signed a law that exempts the retirement pay of veterans from state income tax.

President Ronald Reagan appointed Governor Hutchinson as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. In 1996, he won the first of three successive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his third term in Congress, President George W. Bush appointed him director of the Drug Enforcement Administration and later as an undersecretary in the newly created Department of Homeland Security.

His experience has established him as a national resource for his expertise on trade, energy, national security and education. The governor has been invited to the White House several times to join discussions about health care, Medicaid and education issues.

The Governor is the former Chairman of the National Governors Association. He is also the former co-chair of the Council of Governors and the former chairman of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) and the Southern Regional Education Board.

Governor Hutchinson grew up on a small farm in Gravette. He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas law school. He and his wife, Susan, have been married 49 years. They have four children and seven grandchildren.

2021 Headliner of the Year

Hunter Yurachek, Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics University of Arkansas

In his fifth full year as vice chancellor and director of athletics at the University of Arkansas, Hunter Yurachek has solidified the Razorbacks as one of the nation’s elite intercollegiate athletics programs.

Since December 2017 Yurachek has worked tirelessly to foster athletics success in 19 sports, restore the tradition of a storied program and enhance the student-athlete experience for 465 student-athletes.

In the 2021-22 academic year, Arkansas recorded the most successful collective year in the program’s history, winning eight Southeastern Conference championships and finishing seventh in the Learfield IMG Directors’ Cup, the competition that tracks the nation’s most successful intercollegiate athletics programs. This bested the eighth place finish Razorback Athletics posted in 2020-21. Arkansas’s previous best finish prior to 2020-21 was 14th in the competition.

The Razorbacks finished first among programs with 19 or fewer sports, second among SEC schools and earned only its second top-10 Directors’ Cup finish, following a then-record eighth place finish in 2020-21. Despite sponsoring only 19 sport programs, Arkansas

(Continued)

Hunter Yurachek, Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics

University of Arkansas

earned a total of nine top-10 NCAA finishes and 12 top-20 NCAA finishes.

In the classroom, Razorback student-athletes earned a program-record 3.27 GPA and a total of 97 Razorback student-athletes earned their degrees in the 2021-22 academic year.

The University of Arkansas and Yurachek are being nationally recognized for those accomplishments. Yurachek was selected as a 202122 Football Bowl Subdivision Cushman & Wakefield Athletics Director of the Year by his peers, and was also a finalist for the Sports Business Journal 2022 Athletics Director of the Year.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson named Yurachek to the Governor’s Economic Recovery Task Force to help guide state reopening in the wake of COVID-19. In April 2021, Yurachek was named to the NCAA Football Oversight Committee, after previously serving on the NCAA Football Competition Committee

Distinguished Service Award

Craig and Brent Renaud, Documentary Filmmakers, Television Producers and Film Programmers Renaud Brothers

The Renaud Brothers are best known for their character driven, cinema verité documentaries like Dope Sick Love, Last Chance High, Off to War and Meth Storm. The Renauds also co-founded the Little Rock Film Festival, which was named one of the top film festivals in the country by Filmmaker Magazine.

Brent Renaud was the first American journalist killed in Ukraine in 2022, while documenting the refugee crisis. The Renaud Brothers’ work has won a Peabody Award, two Columbia DuPont Awards, two Overseas Press Club Awards, an IDA award, a Webby and an Edward R. Murrow Award. Craig Renaud is currently in production on a number of film projects, including a documentary about his late brother Brent and a national PBS series called Southern Storytellers.

Brent Renaud pictured in a Libyan Desert. Photo courtesy of Jeff Newton.

Golden 50 Service Award

John Brummett, Columnist

In December 1969, a few days after his 16th birthday, John Brummett , a junior at McClellan High School in Little Rock and sports editor of his school newspaper, went to work part-time for the then-afternoon Arkansas Democrat in the sports department.

He worked before school, from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., helping produce the afternoon sports pages. He covered local high school sports events in the evenings and local golf, tennis and swimming events in summer.

He has worked continuously since—more than 52 years—for newspapers or news services in Arkansas.

While attending the University of Central Arkansas, he was sports editor of the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway and later a news reporter for the paper. He joined the Arkansas Gazette in July 1977 as a statedesk general assignment reporter. He became a state Capitol reporter for the paper in 1980, and, as the newspaper war between the Gazette and Democrat heated up, a columnist beginning in 1986.

He has worked continuously since—more than 52 years—for newspapers or news services in Arkansas.

He became a senior editor of the Arkansas Times and Arkansas Business in 1990 while also a contract columnist for the Democrat. Then, in 1993, he wrote columns both for the Democrat and Times while in Washington writing a book, called “Highwire,” about Bill Clinton’s first year as president.

Back in Little Rock in 1994, he became exclusively a columnist for the surviving Arkansas-Democrat-Gazette, leaving in 2000 to become a columnist for the Arkansas New Bureau of Stephens Media. He returned in 2011 to the Democrat-Gazette as a contract columnist, and he continues in that role today.

He has won many state column-writing awards, a few regional ones and two national ones from the association of state Capitol reporters.

In 2017, he was inducted into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame.

He has won many state column-writing awards, a few regional ones and two national ones from the association of state Capitol reporters.

In 2017, he was inducted into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame.

Walter E. Hussman, Jr., Chairman of WEHCO Media, Inc.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Walter E. Hussman, Jr., Chairman of WEHCO Media, Inc. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Walter E. Hussman, Jr., a third-generation newspaperman, was born January 5, 1947, in Texarkana and grew up in Camden. His father was publisher of the Camden News, and his grandfather was publisher of the Texarkana Gazette. Hussman earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina and an M.B.A. from Columbia University in New York. He began his carerer as a reporter for Forbes magazine but returned to Arkansas in September, 1970 to work in the family business, and became general manager of the Camden News in 1971.

In a David-versus-Goliath battle that few predicted he would survive, Hussman went head-to-head with the established, dominant Arkansas Gazette and won. Earlier in 1974, Hussman persuaded his father to buy the Arkansas Democrat, the afternoon daily newspaper in Little Rock. After a protracted and heated newspaper war, legal battles and even with the sale of the Arkansas Gazette to Gannett in 1986, Hussman emerged the winner and bought the assets of the rival newspaper in 1991, creating the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Today, WEHCO Media operates 10 daily newspapers, eight weekly newspapers and nine cable television companies in six states.

Hussman was named Publisher of the Year by Editor & Publisher magazine in 2009. He was a member of the board of directors of The Associated Press from 2000 to 2009 and C-SPAN from 1995 to 2003. Hussman championed education and after-school programs in Little Rock and the state of Arkansas. He also served on the Arkansas Arts Center board of directors, on the board of the Arkansas Repertory Theater and on the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Society board of directors. While on the symphony board, he started Pops on the River, a patriotic symphony and fireworks show on the Arkansas River in Little Rock each 4th of July. In 2017, the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media was named in recognition of four generations of the family committed to journalism.

2022

Partner Levels

HEADLINER

(SOLD)

• One complimentary table for eight at event

• Branding in statewide newspaper advertisement promoting event

• Five complimentary full-page advertisements in association newsletter

• Three complimentary statewide news release distributions to the APA News Network

• Name/logo on event tickets

• Name/logo on event tables, signage and promotional materials

FRONT PAGE SPONSORS

$7,500

• One complimentary table for eight at event

• Branding in statewide newspaper advertisement promoting event

• Three complimentary full-page advertisements in association newsletter

• Two complimentary statewide news release distributions to the APA News Network

• Name/logo on event signage and promotional materials

BREAKING NEWS SPONSORS

$5,000

• Four complimentary tickets to event

• Branding in statewide newspaper advertisement promoting event

• One complimentary full-page advertisement in association newsletter

• Name/logo on event signage and promotional materials

FRIENDS OF PRESS FREEDOM – INDIVIDUAL SPONSORS ONLY

$500

Show your support for freedom of speech and freedom of the press in honor or in memory of a loved one, or in your own name. Email information to ashley@arkansaspress.org

• One complimentary ticket

• Name submitted printed in event program

All donations benefit the Arkansas Newspaper Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and are tax-deductable.

Auction Donation Form

Thank you for making a contribution to the Arkansas Press Freedom Gala Silent Auction. Please complete this form and email it to info@arkansaspress.org

Donor name:__________________________________________________________________________

Organization name: _____________________________________________________________________

Mailing address:________________________________________________________________________t

Phone: ________________________________ Email:_________________________________________

Please provide a brief description of the item you are donating: ____________________________________

Please provide an approximate retail value. $___________________________________________________

All donations benefit the Arkansas Newspaper Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and are tax-deductable.