Arkansas Publisher Weekly: December 22, 2022

Guest Column:

Brenda Blagg’s career in journalism made the communities she covered better

By Rusty Turner

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly

In Memoriam

Arkansas newspaper industry deaths in 2022

Rex Dearmont Rust, 52, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Jan. 6. A Cum Laude graduate of Harvard University, Rust worked in private equity before joining Rust Communications, a secondgeneration media company that owned and operated more than 40 newspapers plus other media assets, as co-president in 2000. In addition to media properties he also managed a portfolio of commercial real estate investments through the Rust Property Management subsidiary. Rust was active in both the industry and his community, serving on many committees and boards and was also very involved in prison ministry. The Rex Rust Memorial Foundation (rexrust.org) has been established in his memory.

Janet Nelson, 73, Mountain Home, Jan. 17. Nelson was managing editor of the Baxter Bulletin in Mountain Home from 1970 to 1984. An Illinois native with a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Nelson moved to Arkansas in 1970 to join the Baxter Bulletin staff as a reporter and was quickly promoted to managing editor. During her tenure the newspaper sued then-county-owned Baxter Hospital for a Freedom of Information Act violation involving closed meetings. When the lawsuit reached the Arkansas Supreme Court, the court ruled in favor of the Bulletin. The case changed FOIA law in Arkansas.

Ralph B. Patterson, 73, Blowing Rock, North Carolina, March 2. Patterson was a son of former Arkansas Gazette publisher Hugh B. Patterson Jr. and the brother of former Gazette executive editor Carrick Patterson. His grandfather John Netherland Heiskell was editor of the Gazette for more than 70 years. Patterson started his career as a copywriter and creative director for Cranford Johnson & Associates before joining the Arkansas Gazette, where he worked as a reporter, copy editor and columnist. In 1980, he was named vice president and director of marketing services. He later joined Cranford Johnson Robinson Associates as vice president and creative director, then the Frank J. Wills advertising agency,

Eliza Hussman Gaines named as ADG’s next publisher

The Arkansas Press Association mourned the loss of many people associated with Arkansas newspapers or the state’s journalism community in 2022. We remember and pay tribute to those we lost over the past year.

Rex Rust

Janet Nelson

Ralph B. Patterson

Arkansas newspaper industry deaths in 2022

where he was senior vice president and creative director until his retirement.

Standard in Amity and the Malvern Daily Record. In his publisher’s column on March 24, Joe May of the Southern Standard remembered her as “the last of a dying breed” of community columnists, a “classy lady to the end with a sharp mind.” Blanton submitted her column of community news, local history and interesting facts to the Standard for 25 years. Blanton’s father, Charlie Wesley Knight, wrote “Point Cedar News” before her. Blanton also served as State Coordinator for the National League of Families for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action, Southeast Asia.

Brent Renaud

Timothy

Rock,

Jan Schick, he died due to health issues related to COVID-19. He studied journalism and photography at the University of Central Arkansas and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Early in his career he worked at the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. He spent the last 21 years at JM Associates, a television production company in Little Rock, traveling the United States and to locations such as Africa, Madagascar, Australia and Brazil to film.

Brent Renaud, 50, Little Rock, March 13. Renaud, an award-winning Arkansas journalist and filmmaker who with his brother Craig Renaud worked as The Renaud Brothers, was killed by Russian troops in an area just outside Kyiv that had been under heavy shelling. Injured in the attack was a colleague, American documentarian Juan Arredondo. While receiving treatment on a hospital gurney, Arredondo said they had been on their way to film citizens fleeing Kyiv when they came under fire.The Brent Renaud Journalism Foundation (brentrenaudjf. org) was created to honor his legacy of storytelling through journalism and ensure that his life’s mission continues. APA’s Distinguished Service Award was presented posthumously to Renaud this past October.

Stephen Steed

Stephen Steed, 62, Little Rock, March 21. Steed had been employed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2016 and had just been promoted to business wire editor at the time of his death. A native of Leachville, Steed and his three brothers were once featured in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” for having been born on the same date – October 27 – two, three and four years apart. A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Steed wrote for the Arkansas Gazette, USA Today, Spectrum Weekly and the Arkansas Times, and was a reporter for Donrey Media Group. He also served as the information director for the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1999-2009

David Meadows, 58, Columbia, Missouri, May 11. Meadows had been general manager at Central Missouri Newspapers, Inc., which is owned by WEHCO Media in Little Rock and has published the Jefferson

Joel Schick, 51, Little

March 3. Son of the late APA Executive Director Dennis Schick and former APA Administrative Assistant

Tim Schick

Norma Lou Knight Blanton, 92, Hot Springs, March 12. Her column, “Point Cedar News,” ran in the Southern

Norma Blanton

David Meadows

Arkansas newspaper industry deaths in 2022

City News Tribune, the Fulton Sun, California Democrat and HER Magazine, since 2019. A Virginia native, he began his career at Gannett/USA Today in 1984 before joining the Morris Publishing Group in 1994. In 2002, he was named general manager of the Topeka Capital-Journal and publisher of The Dodge City Daily Globe in 2004. In 2008, he was named publisher at Paxton Media’s The Courier in Russellville and in 2009 group publisher for the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway, Searcy Daily Citizen and Batesville Daily Guard, as well as The Courier.

Twanette Clark

he initially worked as a Methodist minister and teacher of English as a second language in Texas and New Mexico after college. Steinmetz returned to Arkansas in the mid-1960s and worked as a reporter for the Ashley News Observer in Crossett, the Pine Bluff Commercial and the Arkansas Democrat before joining the Arkansas Gazette. He also briefly worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer in the early 1970s before returning to the Gazette. After earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work at UALR, he founded Birch Tree Communities, a non-profit recovery program for adults living with serious mental illness.

Twanette Sinele Clark, 70, Cabot, May 26. Clark was born in Batesville and graduated from Oil Trough High School. She studied at Harding University in Searcy and Arkansas College (now Lyon College) in Batesville. Over her career she served as assistant editor at the Newport Daily Independent, a typographer at Diversitype and a copy editor/proofing specialist and publications editor at CJRW agency in Little Rock. Clark was a fierce advocate and supporter of causes for children, civil rights and social action, disaster and humanitarian relief, education, the environment, health and human rights and poverty alleviation.

86, Batesville, May 22. Jones, an APA past president, was the long-time publisher and general manager of the Batesville Daily Guard. Jones met her husband, Oscar Eve (O.E.) Jones in St. Louis and they married in August 1957. After they moved back to his native Batesville, O.E. set up his dental practice while Pat stayed home raising two sons and two daughters. She began working at the Daily Guard, which had been owned by her husband’s family since 1929, after her youngest daughter turned six. She once said she expected to be there just a few weeks, maybe a month or so, but ultimately she worked at the Guard for 46 years, becoming, in her words, “the man in charge.” Jones served as president of APA in 1995 and stayed active on the board of directors for a number of years.

Patricia Ann Freeman Jones

after

high school in 1964. She married Cordel Davenport in 1968 and went to work in the early 1970s for Crittenden Publishing Company, which published The Evening Times in West Memphis and The Marion Ledger. It was a job to which she was dedicated for nearly 50 years, until heath issues made continuing to work impossible. “Even though she never birthed a child, she had a motherly love for all of us at Crittenden Publishing”,

,

Pat Jones

Curtis Steinmetz

Curtis Tucker Steinmetz, 81, North Little Rock, May 26. A son of Arkansas Gazette stereotype foreman Cecil J. Steinmetz,

Donna Jo Davis Davenport, 75, Marion, May 31. A native of Memphis, Davenport worked for Orgill Brothers and Company hardware distribution

graduating from

said former coworker Dianne Daniel. “We all loved and respected her likewise.”

Donna Davenport

Arkansas newspaper industry deaths in 2022

John Henry Criner, III, 83, Proctor, June 27. Known as “Papa Duck”, Criner was most content chasing ducks or catching fish. He had been the “outdoors” columnist for The Evening Times in West Memphis since 2013. Over his career he worked as a motel proprietor, Labrador Retriever trainer and schoolteacher and was wellknown as a great storyteller and an avid reader. Co-worker Jane Russell said, “The Evening Times has lost another great family member. Working with Mr. John these many years was a privilege. His wit and wisdom was much appreciated.”

Max Atkinson

Rosetta Vincent Lockhart, 93, Gregory, June 25. A native of McClelland, Lockhart was postmaster of the Gregory Post Office for 43 years, retiring in 2000. She wrote the “Gregory Gleanings” column, which was published first in the McCrory Leader, then in the Woodruff County Monitor and the White River Journal in Des Arc, for more than 60 years. In 2011, she was honored with the APA’s Golden 50 Service Award. Gregory also served as Justice of the Peace and was instrumental in getting “city water” to Gregory and the outlying areas. For many years, she coordinated the Gregory community Christmas Eve celebration.

“Papa Duck” Criner

Max Atkinson, 73, Mountain Home, July 16. A native of Fordyce, Atkinson wrote the “Ozark Angler” fishing column for The Baxter Bulletin in the 1980s. He died in a boating accident on Norfork Lake while on his way home from the Friday Night Buddy Bass-O-Thon Tournament Series. Atkinson was a longtime Farm Bureau insurance agent, fisherman and outdoor guide and was also a former coach of the Lady Bomber soccer team, which he led to two state championships. Known for his quick wit and sense of humor, he also served as the public address announcer for Mountain Home Bomber football, basketball and soccer games for 20 years.

Bruce Arnold Ferguson, 90, Mountain Home, July 25. His column “Then, There’s This…” appeared in The Baxter Bulletin and other newspapers periodically from the 1990s until 2019. A native of Evansville, Indiana, Ferguson earned a degree in anthropology from the University of Colorado and held several patents. His early career included a NASA partnership designing patches worn by the astronauts on their missions. His published books include “Romancing the New Yorker,” about his efforts to win publication in the New Yorker magazine, “Shmoozing the Nigerians,” “Barndance in the Tabernacle” and “Then, There’s This,” a collection of his newspaper columns.

Bobby J. Gurley, 84, Conway, formerly of Waldo, Nov. 21. A native of Sulphur Springs, Texas, Gurley worked as a commercial printer and pressman at the Banner-News in Magnolia for 45 years. “Bobby was one of the last people in this region with linotype experience,” said Mike McNeill, publisher of the Magnolia Reporter and a colleague of Gurley’s from the Banner-News. “The big linotype machine remains in the Banner-News backshop, although the paper hasn’t been printed there in decades.”

Bobby Gurley

Bruce Ferguson

Rosetta Lockhart

Brenda Blagg

Brenda Joyce Blagg, of Fayetteville, died Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. She was 75.

Blagg was born May 3, 1947, in Newport to William and Juanita Johnson Blagg. She launched her journalism career at Newport High School as editor of the Greyhound in 1965.

She attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and studied commercial art until she changed her major to journalism in her junior year. She was editor of the Traveler, the UA student newspaper, at the time the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act was enacted in 1967.

Blagg worked as a college stringer for the Arkansas Gazette and the National Observer in 1970. After a stint at the Newport Independent, in 1971 she joined the Springdale News, which was later merged into the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and remained for decades. Her weekly syndicated political column, “Between the Lines,” was launched in 1979 and ultimately ran in newspapers statewide, reaching more than 90,000 homes.

Blagg was one of the founders of the Northwest Arkansas Gridiron Show, an irreverent, satirical look at public affairs, which launched in 1978. She played crowd-favorite character Leticia Mae Stufflebeam, or “Aunt Titty”, a hill woman

with a stoic and silent husband, Elmer. Blagg was a staunch advocate of free speech and freedom of information. She was a founding member of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Coalition and worked on the 1999 FOI Arkansas Project that audited compliance with the state’s open records law. She was Arkansas coordinator for Sunshine Week, an annual nationwide recognition of the importance of public access to government information, in 2005 and 2006. She was the recipient of APA’s Freedom of Information Award in both 1995 and 2005, and received the APA Distinguished Service Award in 2017 for her tireless legislative work. Other awards and accolades received over the years are too numerous to count.

Blagg was preceded in death by her parents and one niece, Jennifer Smith

She is survived by two sisters, Janie Blagg of Fayetteville and Sondra Sue Cox (Jerry) of Jonesboro, three nieces, a nephew, and eight grand-nieces and nephews.

In her memory, the Brenda Blagg Scholarship has been established at the University of Arkansas School of Journalism and Strategic Media. Memorials may be made online by visiting onlinegiving.uark.edu and selecting “Other department, program or fund” from the drop-down menu. Please write “Brenda Blagg scholarship” in the blank box, then proceed to complete the other categories. You can also send a check payable to University of Arkansas Foundation to: Gift Administration, c/o Brenda Blagg Scholarship, 1125 W Maple St., ADMN 210, Fayetteville, AR 72701.

Some of Blagg’s many awards were displayed at the Celebration of Life Service on December 20.

Blagg with sisters Janie Blagg and Sondra Cox upon receiving the Distinguished Service Award in 2017.

“Aunt Titty” and “Elmer” at the Northwest Arkansas Gridiron Show.

WEHCO Media Inc., parent company of the Arkansas DemocratGazette, announced Dec. 20 that Executive Editor Eliza Hussman Gaines will become the newspaper’s next publisher on Jan. 1, 2023.

Outgoing Publisher Walter E. Hussman, Jr., made the announcement Tuesday afternoon in the Democrat-Gazette’s newsroom in Little Rock. Hussman announced at the Arkansas Press Freedom Gala in October that he planned to retire by the end of the year.

Gaines has served as executive editor of the statewide newspaper since January and was managing editor for the prior two years.

She is the fourth generation of the Hussman family to be in the newspaper business, which the family began in 1909. Gaines was the first woman in the 143-year history of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to lead the newsroom.

Gaines was named to Editor & Publisher magazine’s list of “25 under 35” rising stars in the newspaper industry in 2021. Prior to joining the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newsroom, she was WEHCO Media’s vice president of audience development, an editor of The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs and a travel reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Gaines earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina in 2012 and serves as vice president of the APA Board of Directors.

Eliza Hussman Gaines named as ADG’s next publisher holidays H A P P Y

Gaines presenting the Golden 50 Service Award to her father, Walter E. Hussman, Jr. at the Arkansas Press Freedom Gala in October.

Troutman Media LLC has purchased the Cassville (Missouri) Democrat from CherryRoad Media of Parsippany, New Jersey, according to a recent article announcing the sale. The sale is effective January 1, 2023.

Kyle Troutman and Jordan Troutman, owners of Troutman Media, are the current editor and reporter, respectively, at the newspaper.

“I cannot express how excited Jordan and I are to take over ownership of the Cassville Democrat,” Kyle Troutman said. “This is an incredible opportunity not only for our family and professionally, but even more for the Cassville area community.”

CherryRoad bought the 151-year-old newspaper from Rust Communications in March 2021. Rust had owned the newspaper since 2004.

Jeremy Gulban, CEO of CherryRoad Technologies, said in making the transition he hopes CherryRoad will still be involved in helping newspapers thrive.

“CherryRoad’s overall goal in this initiative has been to protect local newspapers from the negative consequences of technology changes that keep occurring,” he said. “Our goal is to continue to support the Troutmans going forward with our technology. We hope that local ownership partnered with supportive technology can be a model for other local newspapers.”

“Newspapers are the backbone of democracy and society, and returning the Democrat to local ownership will help foster the ties between the paper and the community,” said Kyle Troutman.

“If you call, you’ll speak to us. The overwhelming majority of our processes

will again be handled in-house. We hope to make things straightforward and simple.”

Kyle Troutman is a 2007 graduate of Little Rock Central High School, where he worked on The Tiger, the student newspaper. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Arkansas Little Rock School of Mass Communication, where he was news editor of UALR’s The Forum newspaper.

In 2011, he joined the staff at the Searcy Daily Citizen, where he worked as a reporter, sports editor and designer. He was hired to be editor of the Cassville Democrat in Jan. 2014 and was made editor of The Monett Times as well in July of that year.

In 2017, he received one of Missouri

Press Association’s William E. James Young Journalist of the Year awards, which is given to two individuals under 30 years old working in Missouri Press Association newspapers with the aim to reinforce the importance of a journalist’s role by recognizing and nurturing talent to further promote quality journalism.

Jordan Troutman is a graduate of Southwest High School in Washburn, Missouri, and was hired as a reporter at the Cassville Democrat in August 2018. The couple married in October 2020 and have two daughters, ages 7 and 1.

As the new owners of the Democrat, Jordan Troutman will continue reporting in special projects and will take on the office manager role, and Kyle Troutman will take the lead in news reporting, sports coverage and design.

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.

Kyle and Jordan Troutman with their daughters.

Brenda Blagg’s career

in journalism

made the communities she covered better

By Rusty Turner. Originally published Dec. 21 in the Northwest Arkansas DemocratGazette. Reprinted with permission.

My words should not appear in this space. This real estate belongs to my friend and mentor, Brenda Blagg.

Her column occupied this prominent spot of the Wednesday editorial page of this and its predecessor newspapers, The Springdale News and The Morning News, for more than 40 years. Alas, Brenda died last week after a remarkable 75 years on this Earth. Today, I’ll try to do her proud and explain to you, dear readers, just what a wonderful person and superb journalist she was.

She’d be mortified by all the attention, by the way. Brenda Blagg, the journalist, was an observer and chronicler of facts, context, background and analysis. She did not desire to be a newsmaker. She preferred to leave that to the people she covered.

Yet, her family, friends and colleagues — and they are legion — couldn’t resist telling her story immediately after the word of her passing last week. Expressions of grief, tributes to her life’s work and remembrances of her generosity, both professional and personal, flowed to our email inboxes and on social media.

There was a news story in this paper and others. Commentators weighed in on her achievements and generous spirit. It seems everyone had a funny, sweet or enlightening Brenda Blagg story. Such was the impact of a life well-lived.

I met Brenda after she’d already made a name for herself in Arkansas journalism. It was 1984 when I went to work at The Springdale News. I had known of her since 1979, when I was a freshman journalism major at the University of Arkansas. I heard my professors and older classmates talk about the great community newspaper up the road, and their star reporter. Brenda’s career was a point of pride among the UA journalism faculty -- she was a UA alum and former editor of the school

paper -- and they loved to hold her up as an example of what can be achieved in community journalism. She’d ferreted out corruption in a local sheriff’s office; found an office holder who’d moved out of the district he was supposed to represent; held public officials’ feet to the fire on open records and public meetings. Everyone, it seemed, knew who Brenda was. I thought, she must be one tough, bulldog of a reporter.

When I got to The News, I was surprised to meet a completely different person. She was humble, quiet and generous with her time. She worked hard, often spending the night in her corner of the newsroom (more than once a new staff member was surprised to see her feet sticking out from under the desk early in the morning). She nurtured all the young reporters who came through the Springdale newsroom, even us sportswriters, with advice, direction and encouragement. Her kindness to her colleagues had no bounds. She developed sources by persuasion and persistence. She knew where to look for information and how to get the documents that would tell the story she was pursuing. Though she rarely raised her voice, she could strike fear in the heart of a recalcitrant government official when she handed over a highlighted copy of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act and pulled out a notebook and a pen.

She loved elections. In those days, The News produced voluminous guides for primary and general elections and Brenda served as their de-facto editor. She wrangled candidate questionnaires, mug shots, stories and sample ballots for months before they all came together in a chaotic frenzy just before it was to go on the press. It wasn’t magic — it was hours of hard work by a lot of people — but it looked like it when it hit the streets.

A few years later, through a series of job changes and mergers, I ended up

being Brenda’s boss. But I was also still her student. Much of what I know about digging through public documents to find the real story came from Brenda. Her passion for open government and the FOIA was contagious. I caught it. I’ve found myself on occasion sitting before an Arkansas Legislative committee trying to head off another attempt to weaken the state’s sunshine law and thinking to myself, “What would Brenda do?” If I could figure that out, I knew I’d have the right words to say.

For many years I was her column’s first edit. She’d transitioned from reporter to full-time opinion writing and I was responsible for the editorial page. Her columns were inevitably concise, clear and cogent. She wasted no words and she had a firm grasp of all sides of the issue she was addressing. Her columns were more analysis than opinion. But even when she offered her opinion, it was in a civil, professional manner. She didn’t want any extra noise between her readers and what she wanted to say. As our public discourse has become more caustic over the years, the difference between Brenda’s work and others’ became more striking. It also made it clear just how special her talent was.

If you’ve read this far (Brenda was usually done after 800 words; forgive me for plowing on for a few more graphs) you may think Brenda was all business. But the gal knew how to have fun. She was one of the instigators (“founders” is too formal for this group) of the Northwest Arkansas Gridiron Show, an irreverent, satirical look at public affairs.

The show first came about in 1978. In it, local journalists write and perform skits and parody songs about the people and events they cover. One of the show’s mainstays were a couple of characters the Gridiron writers dreamed up called Letitia

Brenda Blagg’s career in journalism made the communities she covered better

Mae and Elmer Stufflebeam. They hail from somewhere in the Ozark backwoods. They were a hoot and huge hit, and Brenda captured the role of Letitia Mae (“Aunt Titty” to her friends) perfectly. She was a slow-talking homebody who had a knack for telling the truth even if she garbled a few of the facts or names along the way. Letitia and Brenda were nothing alike. But it’s hard to think about Brenda without hearing her voice speaking to her eversilent partner, “Ain’t that right, Elmer?” and then answering for him, “That’s right!”

Her greatest strength, both as a person and as a journalist, was her ability to build relationships. The words it would take to

enumerate all the kindnesses she showed to her friends, colleagues and even sources would fill several editions of this newspaper. This week, I’ve read or heard story after story about Brenda’s generosity. Many were new to me, and I’ve known her 40 years. All of those stories, I’m certain, are true.

Her friendship with me is something I will cherish. I was once one of those young cub reporters who needed a bit of advice or a shoulder to cry on when things weren’t going well. I got that from Brenda well into my career, as did dozens, maybe hundreds of others.

We all remember. We’re all grateful. We’re

all richer for having known her.

I hope her readers will cherish her work as well. She did her job well and in the right way. The communities she served are better for having had Brenda Blagg watching out for them. A journalist couldn’t ask for a better legacy.

--30--

Rusty Turner is the editor of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and a past president of APA.

Blagg, Rusty Turner and Katherine Shurlds

Janan Jackson Foster, Shelly Magie Moran, Blagg, and Connie Magie Buckingham

Blagg signs copies of her book, “Political Magic: The Travels, Trials, and Triumphs of the Clinton’s Arkansas Travelers” at the Arkansas Studies Institute in Little Rock.

Sylvia Spencer Orton, Blagg and Kay Goss at the Arkansas Travelers Reunion on November 20, 2017.