Arkansas Publisher Weekly: September 23, 2021

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Media outlets continue to get hit with copyright complaints Guest Column:

Pandemic facts can be delivered with unusual means

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly

By Al Cross

Vol. 16 | No. 38 | Thursday, September 23, 2021 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

Gretchen Hunt finds forte in community journalism Arkansas State’s last-ever community journalism graduate has certainly gotten her career’s worth out of the degree.

The university in her hometown of Jonesboro had just about stopped offering its community journalism major before Gretchen Hunt enrolled at the school in 1994, but Hunt pursued the field anyway because of its requirement for business classes in addition to the typical news editorial coursework. Then, just two days after graduation in 1998, she started a job at the Times Dispatch in Walnut Ridge.

For 23 years and counting, Hunt has lived the college major she loved.

“The community journalism major was intended for people who wanted to work in smaller newspapers and have their hand in everything,” Hunt said in a telephone interview last week. “I didn’t want to just write or just edit or just do pagination. I wanted to have a variety, and boy, did I ever.”

After two decades in the newsroom, Hunt is now operations manager at the Times Dispatch, which was acquired by Paxton Media in 2019. Under Paxton, she’s taken on additional responsibilities in Paragould, where she sells advertising for the Paragould Daily Press.

Hunt continues to write for the Walnut Ridge newspaper on occasion, while also heading up production and circulation at the Times Dispatch. She handles classified and legal advertising in Walnut Ridge and works in retail advertising in Paragould as well as in Newport at the Paxton-owned Independent.

“I just have my big toe in Newport, I’m

knee-deep in Paragould and way over my head in Walnut Ridge,” she laughed. “ …

You do what’s needed as best you can.”

in those classes to successfully guide the college newspaper, The Herald, as editorin-chief, and continues to use them today.

Hunt’s community journalism requirements included graduate-level courses in the ASU business program like “Economics of Newspapers.” She used lessons learned

As The Herald at ASU celebrates its centennial this semester, Hunt will be a featured speaker on campus in November as part of the Dr. Joel Continued on Page 2

Gretchen Hunt finds forte in community journalism Continued from Page 1

Gambill Distinguished Speaker Series.

The endowed series is named for Dr. Joel Gambill, who was chairman of the university’s Journalism Department for more than 36 years and is considered one of the premier journalism educators in the country.

While at her alma mater, Hunt will likely tell students about how she landed her job in Lawrence County: A professor stopped her in the hallway a week before graduation and said she should get in touch with John Bland, whose family then owned the Times Dispatch.

She started in Walnut Ridge as a reporter, then was managing editor under Bland,

a former Arkansas Press Association president who was editor and publisher of the newspaper. By the time Bland sold to Paxton, Hunt was editor of the Times Dispatch.

Hunt’s been active in the Lawrence County community, serving as chamber of commerce board president and on various local committees.

Hunt said she still hears from Bland, who’ll occasionally text her with photos or news tips.

Hunt said she hopes to stay in the business, and in Walnut Ridge, until retirement. She’s not sure when exactly that might be.

“He’s invested in me staying a part of the business because of the history here, trying to keep it as a good, locally driven community newspaper,” she said. “Having the years with it that I’ve had, he was excited that I chose to stay with it, and he’s encouraged me to do so.”

She added, “It’s the only thing I’ve ever really wanted to do, and I’m blessed to be able to do it.”

“When I went to college, I had people ask ‘Why are you going into newspapers?

Newspapers are on their way out.’ And 23 years later, I’m still here.”

Open-government symposium set for September 30 A grassroots group that advocates for open government has scheduled a daylong symposium on transparency for Thursday, Sept. 30, in North Little Rock.

The Arkansas Transparency in Government Group will meet from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. that day at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel. Anyone with an interest in open government or Arkansas’s Freedom of Information Act is welcome to attend.

The symposium features an overview of the state’s FOIA by Deputy Attorney General Beth Walker; a panel discussion about the roles of the state’s FOIA Coalition and the Legislative FOIA Task Force; and a presentation on FOIA from legislators’ perspectives with Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, and Rep. Vivian Flowers, D-Pine Bluff. Other speakers will discuss FOIA-related topics throughout the event.

Support the future of Arkansas journalism by giving to the Arkansas Newspaper Foundation.

Ways to give: Estate planning, memorial and honor gifts and charitable donations. The Arkansas Newspaper Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization.

For more information call APA at 501-374-1500 or email info@arkansaspress.org.

For more information, visit the Arkansas Transparency in Government Group website at arktigg.com.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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September 23, 2021

-30Jonesboro Sun to sell building Randell Wayne Loyd

The downtown Jonesboro offices of The Jonesboro Sun have been sold and the newspaper will be relocating to smaller office space in another part of the city, the newspaper’s publisher told readers.

Randell Wayne Loyd of Morrilton died Thursday, Sept. 16. He was 78.

Loyd was a former advertising salesman for the Petit Jean Country Headlight in Morrilton and was a retired Morrilton Fire Department captain.

He worked at the Headlight for about 35 years, according to an article in a recent edition of the newspaper. In addition to selling advertising, Loyd had other newspaper responsibilities including photography and film developing.

St. Bernards Healthcare, whose hospital is directly across the street from the building on Carson Street, has purchased the property. St. Bernards previously owned all the commercial property surrounding the Sun building.

Newspaper publisher Reece Terry said about half of the building was not being used following the decision by Paxton Media to move printing of The Sun, Paragould Daily Press, Independent in Newport and Times Dispatch in Walnut

Ridge to Paxton’s Paducah, Kentucky.

headquarters

in

“This move meant we were utilizing less than half the space in The Sun’s present location, so we decided to approach St. Bernards about the possibility of acquiring the property. Due to the proximity to St. Bernards, we felt this would be a natural fit and give them an opportunity to better utilize the property. We are delighted to place the Carson Street location in the hands of a great community partner.”

The newspaper has been at its Carson Street location since 1970, following renovation of a former armory to house its printing press. It is relocating to offices at 1300 Stone Street.

Loyd also served as a city alderman and was a member of First Assembly of God. Survivors include his wife, Carol Massey Loyd; a daughter, Suzanne McMurry; a sister, Inez Freeman; and a grandson.

Memorial services were held Sept. 21 in Morrilton.

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September 23, 2021

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Media outlets continue to get hit with copyright complaints Over the past few years, litigators have increasingly pursued copyright infringement cases by searching for images posted online and in print without permission of the copyright holder.

Arkansas Business reported just this week about a pending lawsuit filed against Arkansas Times Inc. by a New York-based photographer who claims the company wasn’t authorized to use his photograph on one of its website. Likewise, some Arkansas Press Association members have received correspondence from individuals or organizations threatening legal action over copyright issues.

Some lawyers and companies are monitoring the internet and stand ready to pounce when they can identify copyright infringement cases.

INDUSTRY QUOTE “The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It’s not our job to cozy up to power. We’re supposed to be the check and balance on government”

—Amy Goodman

According to Arkansas Business: “Copyright infringement damages typically total from $750 to $30,000, but if copyright owners prove the infringement was willful, statutory damages can reach $150,000 per work infringed. In recent years, software developers have made it easier for photographers or image copyright holders to upload their pictures into a program and scan the internet for possible misuse of their photographs.”

APA Executive Director Ashley Wimberley reminded APA newspapers that they should consider drafting licensing agreements with individuals or entities that submit photographs or recordings to a newspaper.

Those agreements should specify that the entity submitting the photograph has full rights to it, and that the newspaper has permission to republish the photograph.

Otherwise, newspapers could find themselves in legal jeopardy.

“While it may seem pretty easy to snag a stock photo off a website, it may prove to be an onerous challenge if faced with a copyright suit,” Wimberley said.

“We encourage our members to be cautious about the photos they reprint and remember it’s always best to have a licensing agreement in hand before publishing copyrighted work.”

Wimberley said APA members should consult their attorneys about how to draft a licensing agreement.

The Arkansas Business article quoted Adam Hopkins of the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock as saying that publications should “assume by default” that every image is copyright protected.

USPS publishes planned rate increases The U.S. Postal Service on Sept. 15 announced proposed rate increases starting next July. The filing, known as “Schedule for Regular and Predictable Rate Adjustments” can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/kshsb8w7.

The proposals come on the heels of a rate increase that took effect last month.

Newspaper and periodicals industry advocates are challenging that rate increase in court. The groups claim the increases by the Postal Regulatory Commission violate requirements set by Congress and are overly burdensome to mail users. Newspaper postage rates increased by nearly seven times the rate of inflation.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is considering the case.

The filings released by the USPS last week lay out expected rate increases for the next three years.

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

Send your staffing changes to info@arkansaspress.org to be updated online and included in the Arkansas Publisher Weekly.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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September 23, 2021

Guest Column:

Pandemic facts can be delivered with unusual means

By Al Cross With the nation desperately in need of vaccination and masking to prevent deaths and keep our hospitals from being overrun, what role should community newspapers play?

Clearly, what people need most are facts.

Misinformation about the coronavirus, its COVID-19 disease and the vaccines is more prevalent in rural areas, a COVID States Project poll showed, and we noted it on The Rural Blog at https://tinyurl.com/p5apxv5n.

There is plenty of factual information from reliable sources, so one approach is to publish answers to frequently asked questions. We did that on TRB at https:// tinyurl.com/zkpvbs5b; it made for a long story, so when we originally published it on Kentucky Health News, we suggested to editors that they could run it in installments, and some did.

Questions and concerns vary from community to community, so you might want to focus on those that you think are most important to your readers. You might get a better idea of concerns in your state, compared to other states, from a Census Bureau survey that we reported at https://tinyurl.com/2rpzerm8.

For example, it showed that one reason for vaccine hesitancy or resistance, distrust of government, was highest in Minnesota and Kentucky.

But if you really want to have an impact, you have to go where the misinformation is: social media. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a guide on how to handle misinformation on social media at https://tinyurl.com/2nyf6fmp. One of its introductory lines is an example of the nonjudgmental approach that helps when giving factual information to people who have been misled: “Misinformation often arises when there are information gaps or unsettled science, as human nature seeks to reason, better understand and fill in the gaps.”

This is a big job, so it’s helpful to have partners. The best are probably your local health-care providers. A doctor in Somerset, Kentucky, called up the Commonwealth Journal to get a story in which he gave the facts and pleaded with his neighbors to get vaccinated. Kentucky Health News noted it at https://tinyurl.com/s8njycuk, and that prompted retired journalist Jamie Lucke to volunteer to write similar KHN stories that

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

are being picked up by local papers: https:// tinyurl.com/yrwcnpxk.

This is an unusual time that calls for unusual partners. You probably didn’t know that the Cooperative Extension Service in your state has received a special federal appropriation for immunization education, tailored to specific communities; we took note of it at https://tinyurl.com/vrm672yc. This is an unusual venture for the Extension program, one in which community newspapers could be helpful.

Extension agents are cautioned not to get involved in controversial issues, and in some places right now there is no more controversial issue than preventive measures against the pandemic, such as masking and vaccination, so some agents are hesitant to get involved. That’s even true of some newspapers. This is a case where Extension agents and newspapers can have each other’s backs and do what they are supposed to do: deliver facts and advice to help people live better lives.

Another batch of federal pandemic relief funds has gone to the community health clinics that are officially known as federally qualified health centers, which TRB noted at https://tinyurl.com/btjc9ehd. A state-by-state list is at https://tinyurl.com/be8etdwt. It’s unclear exactly how the centers can spend this money, but community newspapers need to ask them. Funds might be available for advertising or even sponsoring a samplecopy edition countywide or to certain postal routes.

Sample copying could make a significant difference in the course of the pandemic in your county. It reaches population segments that don’t regularly read your newspaper and that are probably in greater need of factual information about the virus and the vaccines: the young, the less educated and the poor.

Medicaid beneficiaries are less likely to get vaccinated against the virus, we reported at https://tinyurl.com/h25wy9tj.

In Kentucky, some local governments have sponsored sample copying of newspapers packed with coronavirus information. As this column was written Aug. 27, state officials were considering a proposal from our Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues that they sponsor sample copying with the assistance of the Kentucky

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Press Association. The state would use federal pandemic relief money, and there’s no reason to think that other states couldn’t do likewise.

And what about your editorial page? Last month, this column mentioned some prizewinning pandemic editorials in weekly newspapers and endorsed an indirect approach; an editorial is unlikely to convince many vaccine skeptics to get a shot, so the better targets are family and friends who are more likely to be persuasive.

Given the role that some politicians have played in spawning doubts about vaccines and masking, newspapers should look for opportunities to compliment politicians who are doing the right thing. Kentucky Health News did that implicitly when a congressman whose district lags in vaccination spoke out in favor of it: https://tinyurl.com/5957sf4j.

Often, the most opinionated thing on an editorial page is the cartoon. Bill Bramhill of the New York Daily News did a Pulitzerworthy one about pandemic misinformation, and we published it at https://tinyurl.com/ ytbkd67c.

Non-local contributors can still strike chords with local readers. Recently, TRB excerpted and KHN republished pandemic articles that we thought resonated with rural audiences: Appalachian writer Silas House’s lament about people not willing to sacrifice for the common good (https://tinyurl.com/ pad4v3c7), and Alabama political writer Kyle Whitmire’s column disputing religious notions that pandemic prevention isn’t important (https://tinyurl.com/3s3x9pat).

Keep an eye out for pieces like those, and use them as inspiration for your own.

Stay safe, be well and help your neighbors do likewise. If you need help covering the pandemic or anything else, just email me at al.cross@uky.edu.

Al Cross edited and managed rural newspapers before covering politics for the Louisville Courier Journal and serving as president of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the extension professor of journalism at the University of Kentucky and director of its Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog at irjci.blogspot.com and the Midway Messenger at MidwayMessenger. org.

September 23, 2021