Long-time ADG sportswriter Bob Holt dies Wednesday at 65
Guest Column:
By
The Seattle Times editorial board US Senate must pass PRESS Act now
Arkansas Press Association PUBLISHER WEEKLY
Britt Talent has talent for serving Rison, Cleveland County area
Not much has missed Britt Talent’s attention in his hometown and county during the 22 years he has owned and published the Cleveland County Herald in Rison – and that includes not only weekly comprehensive news coverage but also the opportunity to make a difference in his community.
Talent and his wife Karen moved to Rison in 1992 when he accepted a position at the Pine Bluff Commercial, located some 25 miles to the north. He began as a city/county government reporter before moving up to the business reporter spot and then regional editor, overseeing news coverage of eight counties in Southeast Arkansas.
He then served from 1997 to 2002 as advertising director for the Commercial before acquiring the Herald from Stan Sadler, whose family had been with the newspaper for the previous 80 years.
“This was my first time to work at a weekly,” Talent said. “All of my experience up to that point had been daily newspapers. While I grew up outside of Houston in the Pasadena/Baytown area, I have ancestors from Cleveland County that date back to the 1840s, so I was familiar with the county and culture.”
His wife, the former Karen White, also has extensive family connections in Cleveland County and grew up in Pine Bluff.
The Cleveland County Herald was established in 1888 and has been publishing continuously under that name for 136 years. The Herald reportedly had the first female editor in the state, Mrs. Sallie I. Stanfield, who eventually purchased the newspaper in 1893.
Talent, who served as president of the Arkansas Press Association 2010-11, had a larger staff in the past but at present his only employee is “right hand man” Douglas Boultinghouse. Talent focuses on the editorial side of the operation, while Boultinghouse handles bookkeeping, graphics and circulation. Both are involved in advertising sales. The newspaper is printed each week in Monticello.
Karen Talent is contemplating retirement at the end of the current school term after being employed at nearby Woodlawn High School for 37 years as a science teacher and currently as a counselor.
The Herald runs 8 to 10 pages a week, but special sections and promotions add to revenue. The biggest promotion is the annual
high school football edition, as the Rison Wildcats are known throughout the state as a small school powerhouse. “We had one of the few losing seasons ever last year, but we were back to 10 and 2 this year, so all is well,” Talent said.
Stan Sadler continues to cover Rison football for the newspaper as he has for many years, while Talent writes about the Woodlawn Bears.
Sadler also composes a very popular full page every week called “Other Days,” featuring people and events from yesteryear.
Talent understands the importance of incorporating digital elements into the current community newspaper repertoire, and a major project has been the development of the “Free Range Conversations” podcast. The popular program features Talent, Boultinghouse and local community leader Roy Phillips as hosts.
Among recent programs was an interview with musician Charles Esten, who performed at the annual Rison in the Fall Festival. Other recent episodes involved “Bigfoot Sightings in Cleveland County” and an interview with a woman who floated the entire 201-mile length of the free-flowing Saline River, which runs through the area. “We like to call the Saline the Buffalo River of South Arkansas,” Talent said.
Douglas Boultinghouse and Britt Talent display their multiple APA Better Newspaper contest award wins.
Talent
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The newspaper operation also features an active Facebook Page and an engaging website. Talent especially is promoting the E-Herald, a digital replica of each week’s newspaper. It is free for newspaper subscribers, with an option for online only. “We are actually finding that many of our older readers prefer the E-Herald because it is handy and the type can be enlarged,” Talent said.
“Finding new sources of revenue and making the transition to digital platforms is the biggest challenge small-town papers like mine face today,” he said. “A lot of us are managing to hang on thanks to some of our local businesses continuing to support the paper with print advertising. But as our readership and our most loyal advertisers continue to age, even that revenue stream will eventually fade away.
“If we want to reach people in our communities, we’ve got to meet them where they are and, unfortunately for us older guys, that’s digital. Go anywhere in public and look around. Everyone is glued to their phones. While I believe we still have a few years left with the printed newspaper, the future is definitely digital. I’m 63 years old, so I’m not technically savvy at all. High-tech when I graduated from high school was having a cassette player in your car. But I’m not afraid to experiment. That’s what I like about owning my own paper – I’m free to try some things on my own.”
Thus the new podcast, with plans to add video to the production, as well as incorporating advertising into the mix.
“Saving money is making money in my book,” he said. “But the most important thing is to provide people with accurate, objective local information. I think the idea is to get the point across to your readers in the clearest manner possible and provide them with the information they need. I am not a creative writer but am more of a nuts-and-bolts guy. Objectivity is crucial for me.
“I try to make it to every quorum court, city council and school board meeting in Cleveland County. People need to know
what’s going on in their communities, and they need to trust the information you’re providing to them.”
Talent has developed another unique revenue stream that promises to become even more important in the future. Called the Arkansas Homesteading Conference, it is an annual gathering held now at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds, attracting attendees from a wide area of the state, as well as regionally. He became interested in the concept based upon reading Mother Earth News at an earlier age with its emphasis on self-sufficient practices and lifestyles.
He said those drawn to the conference generally fall into either the “tree hugger” or “survivalist” camps, making for some rather interesting interactions. “It’s really something to see both Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders supporters getting along and learning together,” he said. “I love it because I meet a lot of interesting people.”
Typical seminars at the one-day conferences, such as the most recent one which drew some 350 people from all over Arkansas and 12 other states, are herbal remedies, raised bed gardening and small livestock management. Talent has taken the conference on the road to such places as Mountain View, Harrison, Mena and North Little Rock, but now has settled on the Rison location.
One of Talent’s best friends now is Gary “Pa Mac” McWilliams, who has established a successful homestead with his family in the Caddo Gap community in Montgomery County. He has developed a worldwide following with videos sharing practical information in such areas as gardening, livestock development, home construction and necessary tools on the farm.
Talent sees potential for expanding his own homesteading-related activities into a larger business in the future, in effect becoming a subsidiary of the Herald. “What I am looking at is taking a journalist approach to telling the story of homesteading,” he said. His current plans involve retaining ownership of the newspaper, but he potentially could delegate some of the day-to-day work and focus more on the homesteading opportunity.
Cleveland County’s two main economic engines are timber and poultry, and the rural environment has made it an ideal location for the homesteading promotion and agri-business endeavors.
Talent noted that local poultry farms represent large financial investment for growers, with livestock houses that cost up to $400,000 to construct. Many operations are comprised of five or six such buildings. There is an interesting local connection in that a 1980 Rison High School graduate, Donnie King, currently is the President and CEO of Tyson Foods.
Cleveland County, home to some 8,000 residents, has a fascinating history and Talent has spent more than three decades involved with learning and writing about its people and events.
“The most amazing thing is that two extremely remarkable people were natives of our county,” he said. The reference is to country music legend, Johnny Cash (born in Kingsland), and one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, Paul “Bear” Bryant (born near New Edinburg). See TALENT Page 4
Sports Editor Talent cranks out copy for The Antler, the student newspaper for Deer Park (Texas) High School, during his senior year 1979-80.
Talent and Phillips amazingly ran across the concert outfit that Cash wore in his famous 1976 Bicentennial Concert in Rison while looking through an old building at the Pioneer Village in Rison. It was in incredible condition, considering it was in a closet in an unheated building that had a leaky roof. The outfit was put on display in Nashville, then at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and later at Cash’s boyhood home of Dyess in Northeast Arkansas. It was eventually returned to Rison and now is on permanent display at the courthouse.
The concert, at the Rison football field, sold 10,000 tickets and was the largest event ever held in Cleveland County. Cash donated proceeds for the restoration of the historic buildings in Pioneer Village.
Big news involving Cash came this year with the unveiling of his statue in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, along with civil rights activist Daisy Bates, one of two representatives for Arkansas. The mayors of Rison and Kingsland and the Cleveland County Judge attended the ceremony. The Herald has covered many aspects of the Johnny Cash connection, as well as helping produce audio narrations by his daughter, Rosanne Cash, at historical markers relating to her father. The markers are situated throughout the county.
Talent said many residents of Cleveland County are related to Cash and interesting stories abound about his family. His father was from Rison and his mother from Kingsland. One story is that Cash and Elvis Presley once traveled through the county on their way to perform at the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport. They were said to have spent the night at the home of one of Cash’s aunts. “She sent them off the next morning with a breakfast of biscuits and ham wrapped in dishtowels and told them to be sure to return the dishtowels on the way back through,” Talent said.
The newspaper also has featured many aspects of the life of Bear Bryant, who while born in Cleveland County went to school in nearby Fordyce in Dallas County. He went on to set college coaching records, with six national championships at Alabama. An historical marker was erected this year recognizing the birthplace of Bryant in 1913 in the Moro Bottom community near New Edinburg.
An important part of Talent’s career has involved various community improvement efforts, beginning with volunteering on a micro grant program for minority residents while employed at the Pine Bluff Commercial.
One of his most important efforts was helping develop Rison Shine, an organization of concerned citizens dedicated to the promotion, vitality and growth of Rison and its surrounding communities. It has undertaken many projects, such as the annual Rison in the Fall Festival, the spring Pioneer Crafts Festival, downtown revitalization and the community Christmas parade.
Similar grassroots organizations have been organized in Kingsland, Woodlawn and New Edinburg.
Talent is proud of the impact his newspaper has had over the years in Rison and Cleveland County. “You can use the newspaper to do a lot of good,” he said.
Clearly at the top of that list is the Herald’s role in the Cleveland County Cares project at Christmastime. The newspaper has partnered with Melinda McKnight, retired director of the local Human Services office, to provide Christmas presents to needy children in the county, as well as holiday food for their families.
Children and their families are referred by school personnel, churches and the Human Services office. Additionally, the program continues food distributions throughout the year, including during the summer when children are not in school.
Talent said a unique aspect of the program is that other students volunteer to shop for gifts for age-appropriate children. The gifts are designated anonymously so that no one knows the identity of any individual child.
“It’s a hugely successful program and the newspaper plays a big role in promoting it each year,” Talent said. “As an example of how the community responds, I received a check for $2,000 just this week from a local man who wishes to remain anonymous.” He said many contributions come from newspaper readers who have moved away from their hometown.
In another community effort, Talent has served as co-chair of the Cleveland County Broadband Committee, established by the county judge to bring high-speed fiber optic internet service to the county. He has worked on the project for about two years, and it appears federal grant money next year will make it a reality.
Talent is a deacon at Bethel #1 Missionary Baptist Church, where he has served as a youth leader and has taught Sunday School for about 25 years. His wife Karen plays the piano at the church. The Talents helped raise a nephew, Andrew White, who is employed as a computer engineer in Mountain Home.
In his limited time away from work, Talent enjoys fishing, especially in the mountains of Arkansas. “I’m more into the mountains than the beach,” he said.
Though Talent was the “science student of the year” as a seventh grader at his Houston-area school, he learned through a test that his real aptitude was English. That led to his winning several Texas state awards as a sportswriter for his high school newspaper.
Talent in the pressroom at the Advance-Monticellonian, where the Herald prints. The two laundry baskets contain this week’s newspaper for the counter sales. In the background to the right are the two black tubs of newspapers that will be labeled and mailed back at the office in Rison.
Long-time ADG sportswriter Bob Holt dies Wednesday at 65
Celebrated sportswriter Bob Holt, who covered University of Arkansas Razorbacks athletics for the Arkansas DemocratGazette, died late December 4 in Columbia, Missouri. He was 65. Holt had been hospitalized after collapsing Saturday following the Arkansas RazorbacksMissouri Tigers football game at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium in Columbia.
Holt had covered the Razorbacks since 1981, and was known for his in-depth and insightful reporting. Over his career, Holt was named Arkansas Sportswriter of the Year four times and in 2022 was inducted into the Arkansas Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He was a member of the Football Writers Association of America and served on the board of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. He was also voted for the Heisman Trophy and the AP Top 25 basketball poll.
News of Holt’s death spread on social media Thursday morning, eliciting tributes from his colleagues.
“I knew Bob more than 30 years,” wrote Rusty Turner, former editor of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “He was the consummate professional, but also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in the journalism industry. There were none like him. He will be missed.”
A full obituary will be in next week’s Arkansas Publisher Weekly.
APW Immediate Past President receives endowed award
Arkansas Press Women
Immediate Past President Kristin Higgins was named a recipient of the 2024 Lynn R. Russell Endowed Award for Professional Excellence by the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service on Monday.
Higgins, who is a program associate in the Public Policy Center, received the endowed award to further her education and professional skills. The extension service, the outreach arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, recognized employees for their excellence and innovation during its annual employee conference at the state office in Little Rock.
Higgins has been with the Public Policy Center since 2012. Prior to that, she served nearly six years as the government reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. She was also a reporter at the former Morning News of Northwest Arkansas in Springdale and editor for the Arkansas Traveler, UA’s student newspaper. She served as president of Arkansas Press Women from 2017 through 2023 and is currently secretary of the National Federation of Press Women.
NOTICE: Corporate Transparency Act put on hold
The Corporate Transparency Act has been put on hold in a farreaching order that prohibits the federal government from enforcing it anywhere in the country.
In its decision in the case (Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc., et al. v. Garland, et al., Case No. 4:24-cv-478 [E.D. Tex.]) the court found that the law is likely unconstitutional. Among its requirements was an obligation for 32.5 million companies including small businesses to submit sensitive information regarding “beneficial owners” to the United States Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) by January 1, 2025, or face a $500 per day penalty for failure to report.
As a result of the ruling, no business will be required to file Beneficial Owner Information. However, there will likely be further litigation, so the decision could be overturned at a higher level.
Bob Holt
Kristin Higgins
Eight Missouri newspapers are sold to CherryRoad Media
Lakeway Publishers, Inc., announced on Wednesday the sale of its Missouri regional operation to CherryRoad Media, Inc. of Parsippany, New Jersey.
Included in the purchase are the Centralia Fireside Guard, Elsberry Democrat, Hermann Advertiser Courier, Lincoln County Journal, Lake Gazette in Monroe City, Pike County News, Troy Free Press and Vandalia Leader.
The sale is effective January 1, 2025, and brings the total number of Missouri newspapers owned by CherryRoad Media to 19.
“We are excited to be the new stewards of these community news outlets,” said Jeremy Gulban, CEO of CherryRoad Media. “There is rich history within these communities, this region, and these newspapers have been an integral part of that history, have chronicled that history. We look forward to continuing to serve the citizens of these communities and carrying on the legacy of their newspapers.”
A family-owned business, CherryRoad Media is focused on using technology to strengthen communities through their local newspapers.
No changes are expected in the running of the newspapers, except that the digital presence would be increasing going forward. The newspapers will continue to publish weekly while also working to improve reach to audiences who get their news entirely online. CherryRoad has encouraged the same at its other newspapers. “We look forward to helping strengthen local journalism through our understanding of technology, which is our goal everywhere we go,” said Gulban.
Gulban serves on the APA Board of Directors. A subsidiary of CherryRoad Technology, CherryRoad Media operates more than 80 newspapers in 18 states, including five in Arkansas: The Clay County Times-Democrat in Rector, the Clay County Courier in Corning, the Pocahontas Star Herald, Areawide News in Salem and the Marshall Mountain Wave.
Pulitzer Center U.S. Local News
Reporting Grants open for applications
The Pulitzer Center’s U.S. Local News Grant is open for applications on a rolling deadline basis.
The initiative is open to freelance and staff journalists working with local U.S. news outlets to publish in-depth enterprise and investigative reporting projects. The Pulitzer Center is already actively working with partner outlets in many cities, from Milwaukee to Louisville to Tucson to St. Louis, and is committed to investing in U.S. local news by providing the resources to cover stories that might not otherwise get told.
Grants are open to all journalists: writers, photographers, radio producers, and filmmakers. The Center supports veteran reporters who have been widely published, but also backs younger applicants who are looking for help to jumpstart their careers. Journalists and newsrooms who represent
Talent
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He went on to earn an associate’s degree in journalism from San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas, and then a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. During his junior college years, he worked as a sportswriter for the Baytown Sun.
Talent worked for several years in the family restaurant business in Texas, but did freelance sportswriting on the side. Next came his marriage in 1992 and his move to Rison.
Talent has demonstrated that the lines between work, community service and simple fun often are blurred in the life of a small-town community editor and publisher. It’s something of a complete package.
He loves the unpredictable nature of newspaper work. “You may have your day planned, but it may not go as planned,” adding that he finds value in “getting connected to my community, meeting some colorful personalities and having the opportunity to do things the way I want to do them.”
And he thinks it’s important that the effort continue in places like Cleveland County, Arkansas.
a broad array of social, racial, ethnic, underrepresented groups, and economic backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
For more information, visit https:// pulitzercenter.org/grants-fellowships/ opportunities-journalists/us-local-newsreporting-grants
“If the local newspaper goes away, how are people going to know what is going on? They won’t. Sure, there may be people providing news through a social media page or maybe a website, but I bet they’re not covering that community to the scale that a local newspaper should be covering it.
“A lot of these local digital news sites seem to focus on one aspect of a community whether it’s city or county government, schools or whatever. However, they often don’t cover the range of topics a newspaper should cover.
“In addition to losing a local source of news, the community also loses its recorded history. When I’m out covering a football game, I think about those players out on the field and that one day their kids will be able to go back and look up what their dad did in a certain game. When the paper goes away the kids of those future players won’t have that.
“It’s the same thing with obituaries and news stories. I’m very conscious of the fact that I’m recording history as it happens. It saddens me to think that local history may stop the day a local newspaper no longer exists.”
Guest Column: U.S Senate must pass PRESS Act now
By The Seattle Times editorial board
The U.S. Senate has little time left in this tumultuous year but it must make sure to pass the PRESS Act
Dubbed “Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act,” the broadly supported bill would ensure federal protection for journalists. It would prevent authorities from abusing subpoena powers and protect reporters from being forced to reveal their sources.
Similar press protections already exist in 49 states, including Washington since 2007.
Yet at the federal level, reporters are protected by a loose patchwork of court decisions and limited, impermanent administrative decrees.
The case of Catherine Herridge illustrates why permanent, federal protections are urgently needed.
The former Fox News and CBS reporter is facing substantial fines and potentially jail because she is refusing to reveal sources.
At Fox, Herridge revealed a federal investigation into a Chinese American scientist. The scientist sued the government, alleging privacy violations, and the judge in that case ordered Herridge to reveal how she obtained the information.
There is a qualified reporter’s privilege in D.C. federal courts “but its scope is unclear and it could be read in a way to make it pretty weak,” said Gabe Rottman, policy director at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
If the PRESS Act were in place, the subpoenaing of Herridge wouldn’t have been allowed, he said.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., deserves credit for sponsoring this bill and doggedly pursuing it for years.
His Washington state colleagues, Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, have been extraordinary supporters of the press and have leadership positions for the rest of 2024. They should use their influence to help get the PRESS Act done immediately.
This is not controversial. The PRESS Act is a commonsense bill, upholding widely held values of press freedom, with exceptions for extreme situations such as terrorism.
An identical bill passed unanimously in the House in January,
demonstrating that both Republicans and Democrats support the free press and value the work of investigative journalists.
The necessity was explained well by U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., the House co-sponsor, in a statement after the House vote.
“Liberty depends on the freedom of the press,” Kiley said. “Journalists are often the first to expose government fraud, waste, abuse and encroachments on personal freedoms.”
Kiley further made the case.
“A critical aspect of the freedom of the press is the pursuit of truth without government entanglements or intimidation,” he stated. “Administrations from both political parties have unjustly targeted journalists and used compulsory process to obtain information from them about their sources. Most states have protected journalists from such interference, and it is past time for Congress to do so as well.”
Indeed. This should be a priority for Republicans coming into power and focused on rooting out government waste, and for Democrats concerned about the resilience of democratic institutions and checks and balances.
In addition to making sure the press can do its job, Congress also has an obligation to ensure the press survives.
Also awaiting passage are bipartisan proposals to save newsroom jobs with tax credits (the Community News and Small Business Support Act) and give publishers a fighting chance against monopolistic tech companies (the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act).
Get the PRESS Act done now.
Then build on its consensus to pass the other journalism bills, to protect and ensure the survival of America’s independent, free press system.
The Seattle Times editorial board: members are editorial page editor Kate Riley, Frank A. Blethen, Melissa Davis, Josh Farley, Alex Fryer, Claudia Rowe, Carlton Winfrey and William K. Blethen (emeritus).