Arkansas Publisher Weekly: April 20, 2023

Times-Echo returns to print after 18 years

3 Guest Column:

6 On writing better

By Brenda Looper

Arkansas Press Association Publisher Weekly

16

April 20, 2023 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

Tireless Arkansas Business advertising exec Bonnie Jacoby continues to thrive in Arkansas news industry after 32 years

By Wesley Brown

Arkansas Business Publishing Group (ABPG), parent company of Arkansas Business, the state’s business news standard founded at the beginning of the burgeoning Internet Age, will celebrate its 40th anniversary in the upcoming year.

Bonnie Jacoby, vice president sales and training at Arkansas Business, has managed the publication’s online and print advertising operations for nearly 33 of those 40 years.

Founded by retired CEO and 2020 Arkansas Business Hall of Fame inductee

Olivia Farrell, the Little Rock publishing group has grown from its start as a single weekly business newspaper to a statewide niche publishing company with over 30

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publications in its roster.

The company produces a variety of annual, biannual, monthly and weekly publications for varied audiences across the state. Besides its flagship Arkansas Business and ArkansasBusiness.com, the magazine and newspaper publisher’s portfolio include such well-known titles as Little Rock Family, Little Rock Soirée, Arkansas Bride, Arkansas Next and Metro Little Rock Guide. The Little Rock publishing group’s list of titles also includes six special-interest magazines, including the popular Book of Lists and Greenhead

From her perch, Jacoby oversees the advertising and sales teams for the company’s business publications.

Jacoby started her career with ABPG as an

now for next

Plan now to attend the 2023 APA Advertising Conference next week on April 28. This year’s conference at the Red & Blue Events Venue in Little Rock will be the first time meeting in person in three years. The conference was cut short in March 2020 and held via Zoom in 2021 and 2022 due to the ongoing pandemic.

Marianne Grogan, president of Coda Ventures in Nashville, Tennessee will present the morning session, “Data-Driven Revenue”. In it, she will take participants through the results of the statewide study commissioned by APA in 2022 and demonstrate how that data can be used by newspapers for successful sales

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week’s

APA

account manager for the weekly business journal. Since then, she has had the opportunity of learning every advertising and sales role in the company and has played a major role in building the familiar “AB brand” that is now synonymous with high-level and influential business leaders and executives.

Ahead of the publication’s 40th anniversary, Jacoby said she has had time to reminisce on the company’s growth, as well as her own personal journey. She noted that in the early years after Farrell launched the company, the flagship weekly print publication had not yet garnered a stellar standing in the business community.

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Advertising Conference

Tireless Arkansas Business advertising exec Bonnie Jacoby continues to thrive in Arkansas news industry after 32 years

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“When I first started, our reputation was not as strong as it is today. I would have to sell who we were to get an appointment with somebody,” explained Jacoby. “Now, when you mention the name Arkansas Business, it has credibility. Whether we are selling Arkansas Business or one of our other publications, there is this level of trust and credibility that goes with it.

its staff, which includes a number of employees with tenures going back several decades, has faced and weathered numerous challenges over the years.

The company has endured four major downturns since its launch in 1984, including the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009 and the recent COVID-19 economic decline.

Despite those challenges, current APBG

in the building every day, and with hard work, honesty and a positive attitude she serves her team and the clients of Arkansas Business. I'm so grateful to have her leadership on this team, and it's been so rewarding to see her team continuing to grow and hit records.”

Bettis noted that the company has an annual honor for the top sales and marketing team member called the “Jacoby Sales Champion Award.”

Jacoby said the team she manages is diverse across several demographics, which forces her to adapt to communicating and motivating in different ways.

“I try to see what is important to them. I try to be the cheerleader and try to create a fun environment to sell and work in, while also maintaining what the expectations are,” she said. “You have to adapt yourself to the personnel that you are supervising.”

The biggest change that Jacoby has seen during her career is technology and the advent of the internet. Over the past 40 years, those combined forces have led to substantial changes in traditional print media. But, the internet has helped the business publication reach a more diverse audience than ever before. According to Jacoby, Arkansas Business’s weekly news journal has more than 80,000 readers per issue, while its online companion, ArkansasBusiness.com, has over 100,000 unique monthly visitors and 50,000-plus e-newsletter subscribers with only a 30% overlap.

“People know that if you advertise with us, you are attaching your brand to something that people trust,” she continued. “And that trust is extended to you, as a partner with us.”

For the record, Jacoby said she is not the longest tenured Arkansas Business employee. George Waldon joined the weekly business publication in 1985 as an associate editor. Waldon now serves as senior editor for the 39-year old publication, covering banking, finance and real estate.

Jacoby said that Arkansas Business and

President and Publisher Mitch Bettis raves about Jacoby’s impact on the thriving media innovator and its culture. Bettis purchased ABPG in February 2019 from a limited partnership led by Farrell after serving as the company’s general manager and publisher for several years.

“For more than 30 years, Bonnie has been the catalyst for success at Arkansas Business. She's been an innovator and a vocal champion for every client she and the team have worked with,” said Bettis.

“Additionally, after three decades she is as dynamic a leader as she ever was. Bonnie is almost always the first person

Jacoby said although she celebrated her 30th anniversary with ABPG in March 2021, she does not plan to slow down any time soon. As an industry trailblazer and innovator who has spent her entire career at APBG, the energetic advertising executive is looking toward the future and to accomplishing even more as Arkansas emerges from the pandemic.

She noted that the key to her success has been continuing to evolve and innovate as a manager and advertising executive. “Most of my career I’ve had my hands in so much and learned from the ground up,” she said.

“I have not set any exit strategy. I am still having fun and that’s what matters.”

Bonnie Jacoby

Editorial Contest now open for submissions

The 2023 APA Better Newspaper Editorial Contest is now open for submissions to showcase the work of the editors, reporters, designers and photographers who worked so hard during 2022.

This year’s submission categories include News Story, Feature Story, Series Reporting, Investigative Reporting, Beat Reporting, Sports News Story, Sports Feature Story, Sports Column, Editorial, News/ Political Column, General Interest Column, Humorous Column, Freelancer Recognition and Headline Writing as well as a variety of photography, community coverage, layout and design and digital, including social media and podcasts, categories.

All work must have been published in the 2022 calendar year. The deadline for submissions is April 28.

The 2022 APA Better Newspaper Editorial Awards winners presentation will be made at the conclusion of the 2023 APA Convention at the DoubleTree Hotel in Little Rock on July 22.

For complete contest category information, rules and to enter, visit newspapercontest.com/Contests/ ArkansasPressAssociation.aspx. The login name and password remains the same as previous years, but if you need assistance please email terri@ arkansaspress.org.

Register now for next week’s APA Advertising Conference

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conversations.

Following Grogan will be a panel discussion, “Best Revenue Products,” featuring Jennifer Allen, owner and publisher of the Hot Springs Village Voice, Andrew Bagley, owner and co-publisher of The Helena World and Monroe County Argus, and Rhonda Overbey, regional publisher and advertising director of the Malvern Daily Record and the Saline Courier

in Benton.

The APA Better Newspaper Advertising Contest awards ceremony, emceed by Roby Brock of Talk Business & Politics, will close out the day.

Cost for all conference events, including lunch, is $50. Visit arkansaspress.org/ advertising-conference to purchase tickets. If you have any questions, email info@arkansaspress.org.

Times-Echo returns to print after 18 years

The Eureka Springs Times-Echo is again being printed weekly after a more than 18 year hiatus.

Carroll County Community Media LLC relaunched the Times-Echo on April 13. According to an article in the newspaper, the last previous issue was dated March 29, 2005. In that issue, the top story announced that the Times-Echo, which had been published since 1894, was being merged with the StarTribune, itself a merger of the Berryville StarProgress and the Green Forest Tribune, into a new publication called the Carroll County News

on Eureka Springs community coverage.

Eureka Springs Times-Echo

“One of the criticisms of the Citizen in recent years was that we had gone too far in the direction of hard news without balancing that out with features and community coverage,” said Loftis. “That criticism wasn’t unfair. So we wanted to make a clean start with a publication that shows the kind of balance and comprehensive coverage that folks in Eureka Springs want to see.

“We want to connect with the community, and when the idea of relaunching the Times-Echo came up, we couldn’t think of a better way to make that connection.”

Carroll County Community Media LLC is a partnership between publisher/ reporter/editor Scott Loftis, photographer David Bell and Steve Johnson, a former advertising representative for the Carroll County News who is also the former executive director of the Greater Berryville Area Chamber of Commerce.

The partners purchased the Carroll County News, which continues to publish weekly, and the Lovely County Citizen, which has since transitioned to digital-only, from CherryRoad Media in January of this year. The new Times-Echo will focus heavily

“It’s exciting to celebrate the rebirth of a valuable member of our community: the local newspaper,” said Johnson. “In a world where technology dominates our lives, the return of the Eureka Springs Times-Echo might seem like a small event. But for a town like Eureka Springs, which is steeped in history, this newspaper always delivered vital connections between its citizens, businesses, and events for over a century. I’m glad to see this grand old lady return to inform, unite and strengthen our whole community.”

The newspaper is online at eurekaspringstimesecho.net.

APA annual election results announced this week

APA membership recently approved the slate of candidates to serve on the Board of Directors.

Elected to serve as at-large board members for the first time are Andrew Bagley, co-owner and publisher of the Helena World and Monroe County Argus; Tom Byrd, publisher of the Mena Star, The De Queen Bee, The Waldron News and The Citizen in Mansfield/Greenwood and Scott Loftis, editor, publisher and majority owner of the Carroll County News in Berryville and the Eureka Springs Times-Echo

At-large board members reelected for

E&P seeking nominations of "Shooting Stars"

Editor & Publisher magazine is seeking nominations of talented photographers to feature as “Shooting Stars” in the June 2023 issue.

Do you work with an exemplary visual journalist who has the instinct to capture the essence of a story? Top-of-the-field news photographers and videographers are astute observers and the chroniclers of history who capture stories frame by frame.

Nominate your favorite photographer at editorandpublisher.com/stories/ nominations-are-open-for-epsphotojournalism-competition-shootingstars-class-of-2023,223289

All visual journalists working in print, digital or both, from any size newsroom, will be considered. Nominations close at 11 p.m. on April 28.

2023 are Jennifer Allen, owner and publisher of Hot Springs Village Voice and HSV Life magazine; Jeremy Gulban, publisher of the Marshall Mountain Wave, Pocahontas Star Herald, the Clay County Courier in Corning, the Clay County Times-Democrat in Piggott, the Villager Journal in Cherokee Village and The News in Salem; Brent A. Powers, president of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers, LLC. At-large board members will start their service with the next called board meeting.

In addition, the board voted on and approved the following slate of directors

to serve as officers on the 2023-2024

Executive Board: Immediate Past President Lori Freeze, news and photo editor of the Stone County Leader in Mountain View; President Eliza Gaines, publisher of the Arkansas DemocratGazette and Vice President John Robert Schirmer, editor and publisher of the Nashville News-Leader and publisher of the Murfreesboro Diamond and Glenwood Herald

Executive officers will be seated at the APA Summer Convention in Little Rock in July.

At Home in Arkansas new Media Member

APA is pleased to announce the membership of At Home in Arkansas as a Media Member.

The monthly home and lifestyle magazine was founded in February 1995. Publisher Kelly Fraiser has been a part of At Home in Arkansas since 1996, when she was hired as an account executive. After spending a year as associate publisher, she was promoted to publisher in April 2004.

In 2013, she and her husband, David, founded Root Publishing—a nod to the magazine’s local roots—and have proudly owned the company that produces At Home in Arkansas and Weddings in Arkansas ever since. Editor in Chief Stephanie Maxwell Newton joined the At Home in Arkansas team as editor in 2017.

At Home in Arkansas is published 11 times a year. The magazine’s sister publication, Weddings in Arkansas, is published twice a year. You can find each issue on newsstands at Kroger, Barnes & Noble,

Walmart and other local retailers and on the web at athomearkansas.com.

We welcome them to the association.

Journalism Days being held at University of Arkansas this week

More than 600 Arkansas high school journalists are on the University of Arkansas (U of A) campus as part of Journalism Days, an annual tradition in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media (SJSM) in partnership with the Lemke Journalism Alumni Society, April 18-22. Events include an open house, scholarship reception, guest speakers and the Roy Reed Lecture.

The lecture honors Roy Reed, a New York Times reporter from 1965-1978 who taught journalism for 16 years at the U of A. Antoinette Grajeda, Arkansas Advocate senior reporter, and Rusty Turner, Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette executive editor, gave the joint lecture Tuesday to a class of 150 journalism majors. Both are graduates of the journalism school with standout careers in reporting. Turner, an APA Past President, is retiring next month after a 40-year career in journalism in Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley.

"Antoinette and Rusty are leaders in Arkansas journalism. In the Roy Reed tradition, they are dedicated to seeking the truth and to building the profession by giving back to the younger generation of journalists,'' said Larry Foley, chair of SJSM. "Roy Reed was a legendary reporter and beloved professor. I'm so glad we can carry on his tradition with this lecture series.''

In addition to Journalism Days, the Arkansas Scholastic Press Association (ASPA) brought teachers and high school students to Fayetteville for its convention, which started on Wednesday. ASPA was founded by Walter J. Lemke, who also founded the journalism school.

Rounding out the week of journalism-related events is the Society of Professional Journalists region 12 conference on Friday and Saturday for college journalists, educators and reporters from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

"The U of A is positioned to recruit young journalism talent and provide top opportunities for our students and graduates,'' said Gina Shelton, campus adviser for the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and president of the Northwest Arkansas pro chapter. "Our school is engaged at every level.''

More about J-Days: For updates, news and reminders about all J-Days events, visit the Lemke Journalism Alumni Society website at www.arkansasalumni.org/lemkesociety.

More about ASPA, the high school journalism association founded by Walter J. Lemke: www.arkansasscholasticpressassociation.org.

More about the Region 12 SPJ Conference, the Art of Journalism: region12conferencespj.wordpress.com

Okla. county officials accused of planning reporters' murders

The Governor of Oklahoma has called for the resignation of four McCurtain County officials after a recording of them discussing the murder-for-hire of local newspaper reporters and making racist comments came to light.

The recording was captured by McCurtain Gazette-News reporter Bruce Willingham, whose family owns the newspaper. McCurtain County is located in the far southeast corner of Oklahoma and borders Arkansas and Texas.

McCurtain County Sheriff

Kevin Clardy, MCSO

Captain Alicia Manning, Jail

Administrator Larry Hendrix and County Commissioner

Mark Jennings are accused of discussing plans to beat, kill and bury two Gazette-News reporters and lamenting that modern justice no longer includes lynchings.

Willingham said he left his recording device inside a McCurtain County commissioners' meeting on March 6 after receiving a

tip that the commissioners were illegally engaging in county business after the public meetings were adjourned. When he retrieved the device he discovered more than three hours of audio recordings that include discussions about hiring hitmen, where the reporters' bodies could be buried, derogatory and racist comments about the local Black community and describing a woman who recently perished in a house fire as “barbecue”.

“I am both appalled and disheartened to hear of the horrid comments made by officials in McCurtain County,” Okla Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, said in a statement on April 17. “There is simply no place for such hateful rhetoric in the state of Oklahoma, especially by those that serve to represent the community through their respective office.”

Willingham turned the full audio over to the FBI and the Oklahoma Attorney General's office. The investigation is ongoing.

Antoinette Grajeda

Rusty Turner

Everyone needs an editor. I can assure you that for every story of a writer done wrong by an editor, there are at least three editors over in the corner raging and cursing a long list of writers who don't spell-check or fact-check, don't know versus and verses (and other homonym sets) mean different things and, worse yet, don't take kindly to being edited.

Over the years I've dealt with just about every type of writer one could imagine. Back when I was on the night copy desk editing news stories, I was usually the one who dealt with a certain reporter because others didn't want to; the writer rechecking his story after it had been lineedited annoyed those who just wanted to move copy. I didn't mind, though, because the reporter just wanted to make sure that nothing that had been changed made the story incorrect.

A particular turn of phrase wasn't the worry; whether readers understood the story and got accurate information was. Very rarely did that reporter have to have a correction run.

Another writer, on the other hand, was hostile to editing. That person had to run more corrections than most.

Professional writers have the benefit of professional editors; it's unwise to waste that resource. A good editor does more than just check grammar and spelling, but will push the writer to do better. On the news side, it's important to make sure the writer didn't bury the lede, has checked all facts, and has kept his or her opinion out of the story. On the opinion side, there's more leeway, but it should still be clear when the writer is expressing opinion, especially if they write reported opinion, as John Brummett does. Fact-checking is

Guest Column: On writing better

By Brenda Looper

no less important here.

We don't do these jobs for our amusement (though it happens; we're a weird lot sometimes), but to serve readers and cast the writer in the best possible light. In that vein, some tips for writing from an editor: Be open to editing. No one's work is perfect, so if you send something to a newspaper with the directive not to edit it (or not to edit it without approval of every edit, which with short staffs is unlikely to happen), odds are it won't be printed. I can't think of any submission over the nearly 12 years I've been on the opinion side of things that didn't improve with editing, even something as simple as a comma in the right place. (Remember, commas save lives: Let's eat Grandma! OR Let's eat, Grandma!)

Read what you wrote, put it away, then don't look at it again for a minimum of six hours. If you don't have an editor friend and you're not on deadline, this trick helps you see what you wrote with an atleast-somewhat fresh set of eyes, which means you're likely to catch something that needs correcting. I typically write my column on Monday afternoon, then don't look at it again till after I've edited Rex Nelson's column the next day. I've been able to find some significant errors that way, as well as fine-tune some of the writing. Plus, at least one if not two other editors read through it as well. Sure, we'll still miss things occasionally, but that's life. Brush up on your grammar and word use. Editors don't expect a perfect piece to come to them, but something riddled with spelling errors (spellchecked or not; spellcheck typically doesn't catch correctly spelled words that are incorrect in usage), grammar errors such as wrong punctuation or misplaced modifiers (a misplaced modifier causes more trouble

than a dangling participle) and odd spacing (spaces before punctuation, line breaks where they shouldn't be, etc.) tells the editor you don't really care. Clean up those issues before you submit something to give yourself a better chance of being published.

Kill your darlings. We all have them and should be willing to sacrifice them for the greater good. I'm a little too enamored of parentheticals (duh, but c'mon, they're fun and useful). But there are times when the reader gets to one of those darlings and says, "Oh, lord, not this again." Literary devices are very useful, but when writers lean on them too much, it makes it a slog to get through whatever they've written, and it all starts to sound the same. For example, use alliteration sparingly; I've been guilty of that, but it tends to be mostly in two- to three-word headlines. Whole paragraphs of it ... ugh, painful ... might remind the reader of Peter Piper and his peck of pickled peppers. Moderation goes a long way

Read your writing out loud. This would be the "sounds right" rule, and it's one I learned when I was studying broadcast news. If it sounds natural and flows smoothly as you're reading it, that's good; if something makes you stumble, it might need a rewrite.

Sort of like my life sometimes.

Originally published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on April 19, 2023. Reprinted with permission.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Assistant Editor Brenda Looper is editor of the Voices page. Email her at blooper@adgnewsroom. com. Read her blog at blooper0223. wordpress.com

YOUR P R E S S P A

What is Earn Your Press Pass?

Earn Your Press Pass is a simple course, covering the basics of community journalism

It is designed to train those with limited or no news experience to work for their local newspaper,helping to create valuable coverage It is taught by Lindsey Young, a community journalist and publisher with 10 years of high school teaching experience.

What does the course include?

A. Writing on deadline

B. Fun with leads

A. Parts of a newspaper

B Other terms to know

A. Who should I interview?

B Preparing for an interview

C. Conducting an interview

D Interview follow-up

E. Source problems and issues

F. Let’s practice.

A Newsworthiness

B. News-writing basics

C Breaking and hard news stories

D. Covering a meeting

E. Working a press release

F Writing a feature story

G Covering sports

H. Opinion writing

C Using quotes

D Headline writing

E. Cutline writing

F Thinking outside the pyramid

A. Tips for effective editing

B. Revising and rewriting

C Let’s practice

A Your right to know

B. Avoiding libel

C Journalism ethics

D Contradictions of community journalism

X.

A. Taking good photos

B. Editing photos

C Dealing with submitted photos

IX. Photography Final Bits of Advice

A. Keeping yourself organized

B Preparing files for layout

C I have nothing to write about. Help!

•

Sections are feature videos and printable cheat sheets

• Lessons will continue to be added/updated.

“I was extremely impressed Lindsey even taught this old dog some new tricks The content is solid, it’s easy to use, and you can sign into and out of the program as your time allows. Lindsey’s engaging nature makes the lessons enjoyable, which makes you look forward to the next segment.”

president and a 50-year veteran

For more information, contact Ashley Kemp Wimberley at ashley@arkansaspress