6 8
APA media directories now available
Guest Column:
A different kind of question By John Foust
Arkansas Press Association
Publisher Weekly Vol. 15 | No. 48 | Thursday, November 25, 2020 | Serving Press and State Since 1873
In challenging year, APA members remain thankful
In what has become somewhat of a tradition, some newspaper industry veterans and allies of the Arkansas Press Association community were asked this year to share their own words about what makes them thankful. Here’s what Wesley Brown, Terri Cobb, Jessica Hughes Ford, Brice Guthrie, Gretchen Hunt, Pam Lowe, Melissa Orrell and Rusty Turner had to share with Arkansas Publisher Weekly readers. Happy Thanksgiving! new experiences. I am also thankful for my family, who remain healthy, including my husband, Jason, who is busy delivering packages for UPS, my oldest son, Conley, who is completing his senior year at Greene County Tech in Paragould and making plans to attend my alma mater, Arkansas State University, next fall and my youngest son, Colter, who is an active eighth-grader at GCT.
Gretchen Hunt with her husband, Jason, and sons Conley and Colter
Add to that my amazing co-workers, near and far, awesome communities that I love being a part of and the love of my Lord and Savior and I would say I am blessed indeed.
Gretchen Hunt, operations manager, The Times Dispatch (Walnut Ridge) While 2020 has been a year of changes and challenges, especially with the COVID-19 virus, it has also been a year of blessings.
So this year, I would say I am thankful for
When most of us realized that this virus was going to be around for a long while, my family decided to hold a Zoom call every Sunday to just talk about life. In the last few months, I have learned that one of my grandnephews is now in graduate school to be an agricultural economist, making him among a small class of Black students and professionals in that field. I am also learning that millennials think a lot different than my generation and that things I thought were cool are not. We have also had some serious family discussion about religion, the social justice movement that some younger members of my family have actively been involved in, and other things that have drawn us all closer together.
After more than 20 years working for the Bland family at The Times Dispatch, I recently completed my first year working for Paxton Media Group. Most recently, I have begun a transition away from my duties as editor. While I will continue to write, my focus will be on business operations for The Times Dispatch, as well as assisting with The Paragould Daily Press and the Newport Independent as needed.
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I have a newfound thankfulness for my family and friends. Although I have always been close to all of my five brothers and sisters, the eight-month long shelter-inplace orders around the country have offered me an opportunity to learn about my nephews and nieces and their children who each time I see them in person are a lot older than I remember.
Wesley Brown
Wesley Brown, publisher, The Daily Record
Likewise, I have also had some extra time at home to reconnect with old friends from my early years as a journalist in Tulsa, Oklahoma City and New York City, and my time as a vagabond marathon runner hoping one day to make the Olympics. And though this pandemic has been difficult and surreal for our time, it has also Continued on Page 2