UA-Fayetteville journalism students to WEHCO Newspapers, Inc. take over COVID-19 information site Student journalists in the University of As the workload on the site grew, Orpin acquires Pine Arkansas School of Journalism and requested that UA operate the site full-time. Bluff Commercial Strategic Media will assume management According to a news release, the school
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Commercial’s accounts receivable and collections. No money is changing hands at the present time.
and operations of ArkansasCovid.com, a website established to provide definitive data and information about the coronavirus epidemic in the state.
“will devote a mix of graduate students and students in Wells’ data journalism class to operate ArkansasCovid.com, providing
“While many newspapers are eliminating some days of publication, we are adding back two days in Pine Bluff so we can cover the news every day,” Hussman was quoted as saying. “Due to the collapse of advertising, not just during the COVID-19 pandemic but over the past 14 years, print publication is no longer economically sustainable.” The Pine Bluff Commercial was founded in 1881 and is one of only two Arkansas newspapers that have won a Pulitzer Prize. Hussman said there will be a news staff of four in Pine Bluff. Former Arkansas Press Association President Byron Tate will be the editor. “The Pine Bluff Commercial has historically been a newspaper that prides itself on having high journalistic standards and providing readers with a first-class local news product, emphasis local. With this announcement we are planting our flag once again to be that newspaper,” said Tate on Monday. The Commercial’s offices will relocate to the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center, 211 West Third Ave., Suite 105, in Pine Bluff. The newspaper’s new website is ArkansasOnline.com/ PineBluffCommercial.
INDUSTRY QUOTE “In many ways, the effort to meet the information needs of a commuinty is the ultimate public benefit — helping to bring news and coverage to a geographic or orhter community to help them make better decisions and be better informed.”
Misty Orpin.
Rob Wells.
The website was started in March by Misty Orpin of Springdale as a personal project. It has since drawn acclaim for “its colorful data visualizations, frequent Twitter updates and … incisive analysis,” according to a news release from the university. The ArkansasCovid Twitter account has more than 11,000 followers. A UA journalism intern has assisted on the site since May, and Orpin has partnered with Rob Wells, an assistant professor of journalism, on ArkansasCovid.com.
students an extraordinary opportunity to work with a real-time data journalism website.” UA will take over the site fully on Sept. 14. “There are not many journalism programs in the country that offer students an opportunity to operate and publish realtime news and data on a topic that affects every person in the state,” Wells said in the university’s news release. “We have a big responsibility to keep up the high standards Misty Orpin has set to this point. I can’t wait to see what my students will produce this semester.”
-Don Day,
Stanford JSK Fellow Arkansas Publisher Weekly
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September 3, 2020