Arkansas Publisher Weekly: December 8, 2022

requests nominees

for

news media leaders under the age of 35

6Guest Column:

Oboes and leadership

By John Foust

Long-time columnist Smith makes generous offer of content to APA member newspapers

This time of year people often reflect on how they can “pay it forward” and help others. In this regard, columnist and author George S. Smith of the Sutton community in Nevada County, a former reporter, editor and publisher at several Arkansas newspapers, is looking to give back to the industry he loves.

Smith’s generous offer comes in the form of content. He currently writes a column for the Marshall News Messenger in Texas and provides guest columns occasionally to the Northwest Arkansas DemocratGazette. He has offered to provide columns to APA member newspapers to run at no charge to the publication.

“I owe APA a lot,” said Smith. “I was a member for 40 years. I’ve always wanted to give back to the association.”

Smith has previously served as editor or publisher at the Texarkana Daily News and the Texarkana Gazette, the Hope Star, the Stuttgart Daily Leader and other newspapers in Paragould, Fayetteville and Benton/Bryant. He also served on the APA Board of Directors in 1982.

Now retired from the newspaper industry, he works as an adjunct instructor of Business at the University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana in addition to writing.

Smith has also written several books. His first novel, “Uncertain Times,” was published in 2008, followed by a historical fiction book based on the life of his greatgrandfather called “Reveille: A Story of Survival, War, Family” in 2009. He also co-authored “Circumference of Me: A Unique Management Guide for Our Life and Times,” with Steve Burnett in 2011.

Most of Smith’s columns have to do with state and local politics, but they are not inherently political in nature.

“When I write, I try to get people to think,” said Smith, “but I’m not out to change minds. I know a lot of

George S. Smith

Long-time columnist Smith makes generous offer of content to APA member newspapers

journalism history and also have political stories of Win Rockefeller and others I palled around with in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.”

Smith feels that Arkansas community newspapers might appreciate having

additional local content without having to go through an out-of-state syndicate.

“I tell stories from an Arkansas perspective,” he said. “When you have local content, you get local readers. I know a column is just a small part of the

whole newspaper, but I will be happy if I can help.”

Smith paused a moment to laugh.

“I’ve got stories that may not have even been published before.” he said.

The following is a recent column by George S. Smith.

Let him rest

I was sitting on the front porch the other day, scoping out the news when I came across an article about a friend and relative. It was not a nice article; it was steeped in conspiracy theory and partisan political drivel and literary meadow-muffins as to make me grimace.

In essence, the article was attacking Hillary Clinton. Why bother, I thought. She’s politically dead, an asterisk to presidential also-rans, someone who should have been president but who ran two of the worst presidential campaigns in history, the first against Barack Obama and then against Donald Trump

But it wasn’t Hillary’s ham-handed blackwash that caught my attention: It was that she was ‘linked’ to somehow being connected to the deaths of morethan-a-dozen people, including my cousin, Vince Foster

My grandfather and Vince’s grandfather were first cousins, making us fourth cousins, which in South Arkansas was close enough kin to just walk in their house and grab something to eat.

In Hope, Vince and I attended the same elementary school; I lived around the corner and across the street from Vince’s house. All the neighbor kids played in his backyard, which had a swing set and room to roam.

Years ago, I wrote a note to my kids about those days, at a time when I needed to remember that “good” should never be forgotten when “bad” rears its ugly head. It was 1953 and I was a child of the wind,

with no worries about being kidnapped or shot or … anything bad happening. It was a gentler time, way back then, and I rode the streets of Hope on my flairbarred Schwinn Panther, oftentimes with Vince by my side.

We were inseparable for several years; both attended elementary school in Hope, and several times played Cowboys and Indians in the community of Sutton, home of both of their grandfathers. Our grandfathers were first cousins and were descendants of the same patriarch, Archibald Waddle, a pioneer settler of Southwest Arkansas.

One cold winter day, we walked into an old dogtrot house that was built in 1870 by my great-grandfather and Vince’s great-aunt. Abandoned for years, the house was the perfect fort and we fought a passel of Indians for hours. In the process of trying to get the best shot from different vantage points, we broke out all the windows, just like Allen “Rocky” Lane and Hopalong Cassidy did at the Saturday matinees at the Saenger Theater in downtown Hope.

When my grandfather surveyed the damage, he whipped us both with feeling and vigor.

“Destroying something for nothing is taking the wrong path,” he said. It’s a lesson I have never forgotten. My cousin later confided in me that it was the first – and only – whipping he ever received. We kept in peripheral touch over the years. I became a newspaper editor and publisher and he became a lawyer and

assistant attorney general of Arkansas. He later followed another Hope boy, Billy Clinton, to Washington as deputy counsel to the president.

After a couple of White House major missteps in which the Clintons fared badly in the press, Vince Foster, in a deep depression, took a .38 caliber pistol and went to Fort Marcy Park and killed himself. Two independent investigations - one by Clinton-hater Kenneth Starrcame to that conclusion.

Anyone who knew Vince - his family, his friends - believe (no, KNOW) - that Foster killed himself. Vince was a perfectionist, whose record (academically and in his professional life) was one of success. He was valedictorian of his high school class, tops in his college studies; everything he ever tried to do, he did.

When Clinton asked Vince to come to Washington with him after his election, his family and friends, to a person, begged him to forego the opportunity. In a conversation we had a month before his move, I told him that Washington was a no-win situation. “They will eat you alive in that city because you care.”

But he heeded the siren’s call and ended up dead.

The Clintons have always been surrounded by controversy and this sad, sad episode was no exception. The Clinton haters took a firm stance: The Clintons killed Vince Foster. End of discussion.

Let him rest

I am still shocked every time Vince’s name comes up and his death is connected to the Clintons. It is a sad commentary on our political system and on the news-reporting side of our society that it is perfectly acceptable to besmirch the memory of a good and decent man who did nothing wrong except to take a coward’s way out of an untenable situation just to please a herd of ignorant conspiracy followers.

I knew Vince Foster. And I know that if

he had known the hysteria his suicide would cause years after he put that gun in his mouth, he would have taken that gun and thrown it in the nearby lake. No way would he want his death to cause so much consternation and pain for those that knew him and loved him. Nor would he want his death to be used as fodder for the rumor mill aimed at chewing up two of his closest friends in the world –Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Vince was a problem-solver, a thinker.

Current rate cards requested by APA

In order to better serve our member newspapers, APA requests copies of your current print and digital advertising rate cards.

Even if your ad rates have not changed recently, please email your current rate card to rebecca@ arkansaspress.org so we have the most up-to-date information on file.

ARE YOU HIRING?

Let us know!

The Arkansas Newspaper Connection is a weekly publicaton distributed by APA connecting freelance and independent writers, editors, photographers and designers with Arkansas newspapers in need.

The publication also lists available job openings and other opportunities at Arkansas newspapers and associate member organizations.

But this one time he should have thought a little more and tried a little harder to see the light at the end of his personal tunnel.

My plea? Let him lie in peace. He, his family and friends deserve that.

APA members interested in receiving Smith’s column may email rebecca@ arkansaspress.org to be placed on the distribution list.

requests nominees for news media leaders under the age of 35

The nomination period is now open for members of Editor & Publisher magazine’s next class of news media leaders to be honored as the “25 under 35.”

“We’re in search of deserving honorees who are young, bright, highly skilled and capable of tackling whatever the changing news climate throws at them,” said E&P in a recent announcement.

Stephanie Highfill of the Hot Springs Village Voice was in the 2019 class of “25 under 35”, and Eliza Gaines of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was honored in 2021.

Yes, Virginia, there is a podcast episode on the famous editorial

Francis Pharcellus Church wrote the editorial titled “Is There a Santa Claus?” in response to a letter from Virginia O’Hanlon. O’Hanlon wrote, “Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?”

The editorial appeared in The Sun on Sept. 21, 1897, in the newspaper’s third and last editorial column of that issue, positioned below such discussions of topics as an election law in Connecticut, a newly invented chainless bicycle, and “British Ships in American Waters.”

The most well-known and repeated line from the editorial reads, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” It has became one of the most famous editorials ever published. It is frequently reprinted during the Christmas season and has been translated into multiple languages over time.

Journalism History is the official podcast of the oldest peer-reviewed scholarly journal of mass media history in the United States, Journalism History

It is described as “a podcast that rips out the pages of your history books to re-examine the stories you thought you knew and the ones you were never told” and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and other platforms.

Nominations are open to all 35 years and younger. The deadline to enter is Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. Nominees should be young professionals with savvy business acumen who are capable of leading their teams and organizations through trying times and have the vision to implement bold, innovative strategies to reach and retain news audiences.

The 2023 class of “25 Under 35” will be recognized in E&P’s Feb. 2023 issue.

To make a nomination, visit editorandpublisher.com/stories/eps-25under-35-nominations-are-open,241065

Teri Finneman, associate professor at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas and host of the podcast Journalism History, discusses the famous New York Sun editorial in the episode released Dec. 5.

New park to honor groundbreaking publisher Johnson

Arkansas State Parks held a groundbreaking event on Nov. 1 at the site of the future John H. Johnson Park, adjacent to the Delta Heritage Trail State Park Robert S. Moore Jr. Arkansas City Trailhead.

“We are excited to honor the life and legacy of John H. Johnson with the groundbreaking of this park,” said Stacy Hurst, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. “It is only fitting that this announcement comes on the day set aside by the state of Arkansas as John H. Johnson Day.”

Johnson was born in Arkansas City in 1918 but moved to Chicago in 1933, where in high school he was student council president and editor of both the newspaper and the yearbook. He founded Johnson Publishing Company in 1942 with the launch of Negro Digest, later renamed Black World Johnson launched the monthly lifestyle magazine Ebony in 1945, and in 1951 the weekly newsmagazine Jet

As the founder, publisher, chairman and CEO of the largest African-American publishing company in the world, Johnson received countless accolades over the years. The Presidential Medal of Freedom was bestowed upon Johnson by fellow Arkansan President Bill Clinton in 1996, and he was inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame in 2001. He died in 2005 at age 87.

The Arkansas Legislature created John H. Johnson Day in 2019 to pay tribute to his legacy and to help support a museum named in his honor in Arkansas City. The Friends of the John H. Johnson Museum suggested November 1 as the date for the holiday because that was the date the first issue of Ebony was published.

INDUSTRY QUOTE

“I admit that I am hopelessly hooked on the printed newspaper. I love turning the pages and the serendipity of stumbling across a piece of irresistible information or a photograph that I wasn’t necessarily intending to read.”

– Jill Abramson

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John H. Johnson

Oboes and leadership

By John Foust

If you’ve been to a symphony concert, you’ve witnessed the cacophony of sound before the concert begins. Every instrument seems to be in its own world, independently running through the musical scale.

Actually, this is a traditional and deliberate process to tune all of the instruments. First, a single instrument plays the note of A, then the other musicians tune their instruments to that note at the same time. Once an instrument is in tune, the musician often warms up by going through the scale. The objective is for each instrument to be perfectly in tune with every other instrument when the concert begins.

Although other instruments can be used for this purpose, an oboe is generally preferred, because its steady sound stands out from the others in the orchestra. The note of A is used, because all of the string instruments have A-strings.

All of this means that the oboe sets the pace for the entire orchestra. It’s easy to see a direct comparison to a leader’s role in the business world. A few points come to mind:

1. Leaders lead by example. They have to be in tune, themselves, before they are ready to lead others. Even though the old

way of doing things (“Do as I say, not as I do.”) never really worked, a lot of so-called leaders cling to that idea. Maybe it’s habit, maybe it’s insecurity, maybe they’ve never seen any other way.

A leader has been defined as “someone who has earned the right to have followers.” One of the surest ways to earn that right is to be an example for others. The oboist plays A, not E or D or any other note.

If you want your team to be better listeners, be a better listener, yourself. If you want your team to be punctual, be punctual, yourself. If you want your team to understand the principles of effective ad copy and design, know them, yourself.

2. Leaders don’t micromanage. You’ll never see an oboist walking around to make sure the others are tuning properly. He or she stays seated, secure in the knowledge that the musicians are qualified to tune their instruments.

If a leader has done a proper job of training, there is no need to micromanage. All micromanagement does is give the manager a false sense of control over something in which he or she lacks confidence.

3. Leaders periodically review goals. Tuning is not a one-and-done activity. After the intermission in a concert, the orchestra repeats the tuning process. Adjustments are expected. Nothing is left to chance.

Over time, team objectives require adjustments. Perhaps economic winds have shifted, clients have increased or decreased budgets, or new competitors have emerged. Although those changes may seem minor at first, they can develop into huge problems later. True leaders have the flexibility to review goals and make necessary tweaks along the way.

You could say that – in music and in business – leadership is largely a matter of striking the right chord.

(c) Copyright 2022 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

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. Email for information: john@johnfoust.com