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Two grants remain for annual ArkLaMiss conference State government reporting competition entries sought
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ARKANSAS
Publisher Weekly
PRESS ASSOCIATION
Vol. 14 | No. 41 | Thursday, October 10, 2019
Serving Press and State Since 1873
Industry takes time to recognize newspaper carriers Today, like every other day before, newspaper subscribers will open their door to find their morning newspaper on the porch or in the driveway. Two generations ago, the newspaper might have been delivered on bicycle by youngsters like Warren Buffett, Martin Luther King Jr., or H. Ross Perot. In fact, Perot’s first job was as a delivery boy for the Arkansas Press Association member Texarkana Gazette.
and importance of good carriers.
“In some newspapers, it’s a 12-year-old kid, in others, it’s a husband and wife delivering a route, but whoever it may be, nothing happens unless that carrier performs his or her task,” said Larry Graham, vice president of circulation at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and circulation director at The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs.
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“The most important function of publishing a newspaper is delivering to the subscriber. If that doesn’t happen, everything else that we’ve done – in the newsroom, in advertising, in the printing plant, everything – fails if we do not deliver the newspaper.”
Nowadays, paper boys have made way for dedicated, independent contractors who may count on carrier routes for extra income to send a child to college or invest toward retirement.
As the newspaper industry recognizes International Newspaper Carrier Day on Sunday, Oct. 13, the circulation head for Arkansas’s largest newspaper said we should never underestimate the reliability
Jason Parmenter, a circulation department district manager for the Times Record in Fort Smith, said most of that newspaper’s carriers have day jobs while Continued on Page 2
Fort Smith carrier remembered for dedication to job Debra Stevens – the “ideal carrier” – was right there for them.
Debbie Stevens
When other newspaper carriers in Fort Smith had a question or needed a hand,
Stevens delivered newspapers for the Times Record in Fort Smith for more than 20 years. She was killed in flash flooding in August when her car was swept away by flood waters while she was out on her delivery route. With International Newspaper Carrier Day being observed on Saturday, Stevens’s district manager at the Times Record this week praised Stevens and remembered her for her dedication and commitment to the job. “Debbie was the ideal carrier,” Jason Parmenter said. “She catered to her customers. She would put the paper
anywhere they wanted it, anywhere they requested it to be, and she would go out of her way to do that.” Stevens was remembered in a Times Record article as being committed, loving, kind and gentle. Neal Martin, a Fort Smith city director, attended church with her. The newspaper reported Martin as describing Stevens as: “A model of being a servant, doing what God called you to do, and serving your community and friends.” Stevens and her mother, Nancy Organ, were both preschool teachers at East Side Baptist Church in Fort Smith. Organ passed away in mid-September, just three weeks after her daughter died. A joint Continued on Page 2