Arkansas Publisher Weekly: February 29, 2024

By Jim Pumarlo

Arkansas Press Association Publisher Weekly

Freeze finds purpose in publishing south Arkansas newspaper

When Rachel Denton Freeze returned to her hometown of McGehee in the fall of 2001, her aunt, Arlene White, suggested she try her hand on the staff of the White family’s community newspaper.

Freeze had some writing experience, primarily in technical publications, so there was at least a degree of experience and interest involved.

But the extent to which she latched onto the opportunity was not anticipated – it ultimately became a way of life, in essence, a personal calling.

Freeze bought the newspaper, the McGehee-Dermott Times-News, in 2017 from her aunt, who originally had begun as co-publisher with her husband, Jim White. Prior to that, the newspaper was published by Jim White and his brother, Tom White. The latter, who recently retired as publisher of the Advance Monticellonian in Monticello, served as president of the Arkansas Press Association in 2018. The McGehee paper earlier was published by the White brothers’ father, James P. White.

you could call an accidental career, but a perfect one. I just couldn’t have chosen a better career for myself. Everything has just fallen into place. It also gives me a purpose, and I believe that purpose is important. I truly believe I am contributing to the betterment of our community.”

Freeze notes that very few community newspapers in Arkansas are independently operated today, even fewer with women owners. “And that is something that I am proud of,” she said.

“In the current economic climate, you do what you have to do to survive and succeed. I firmly believe small weekly newspapers are an extremely important part of our society. I do think we matter. We’ll never be millionaires, but we do matter.”

The Times-News averages about 10 pages a week, larger with special promotions such as Christmas, graduation and Farm Family of the Year. It is printed in Monticello.

Freeze is the only full-time staffer, but her aunt continues to handle the bookkeeping and circulation. She also has part-time

Looking back over these 22 years, Freeze said, “It was almost what

APA public notice website to get new look; training scheduled

The public notice website hosted by APA will be getting a new look in the coming weeks as hosting duties are transitioned away from Column.

“We are excited by this improvement to arkansaspublicnotices.com, which are both functional and asthetic,” said APA Executive Director Ashley Kemp Wimberley. “We hope that our member newspapers find

the new site easier to use as well.”

While the look and feel of the website will be different, the address will remain arkansaspublicnotices.com. APA is partnering with the Illinois Press Association on the retooled site.

Brief Zoom meetings for APA members to learn how to upload to the new site have

been set for the following dates and times:

• Tuesday, March 19, 10-10:30 a.m.

• Thursday, March 21, 2-2:30 p.m.

• Monday, March 25, 10-10:30 a.m.

• Wednesday, March 27, 2-2:30 p.m.

Please email ashley@arkansaspress.org with the date and time you prefer for your newspaper staff to attend.

Rachel Denton Freeze

Freeze

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assistance from her sister, Jamie OConnor, who is involved in advertising and page layout.

Advertising sales are augmented by a commission-only representative, who also serves as the secretary to the McGehee mayor.

Circulation has held up remarkably well, with a total of approximately 3,000. Subscribers have the choice of mail delivery or access to the online replica. “We still have the traditional ‘paper guy’ who delivers to all our outlets,” Freeze said. The newspaper covers the cities of McGehee and Dermott, as well as rural areas and communities in Desha and Chicot counties.

“The advertising aspect of weekly newspapers has drastically changed,” Freeze said. “Print advertising is not always a top priority for businesses. But we take those changes and make the best of it. A significant number of our advertisers have stuck with us, and in return, that allows us to tell the community about the good things happening.”

“Our people have not abandoned us. We still get excellent support from the community.”

While Freeze maintains a rather traditional view of community journalism, she does adapt as necessary to changing conditions, such as promoting the newspaper’s digital footprint and taking steps to attract young readers.

“We listen to our economy and to our readers,” she said. “We are not afraid of change. If we were afraid of change, we wouldn’t still be here.

Of course, staffing is an issue. Freeze relies on contributors to expand news and sports coverage.

“I would like to have a larger staff, but you’ve got to be realistic. Therefore, she assumes the great bulk of the coverage. “If you are going to remain in business, you’ve got to be willing to put in the work. That’s the sacrifice you have to make. Of course, that’s true not just for the newspaper, but for any business.”

The newspaper’s downtown office was destroyed by fire on Feb. 6, 2019, but the publication didn’t miss an issue.

In the aftermath, Freeze moved the office to her home, resulting in significant expense savings. She notes her business was, in retrospect, ahead of its time in that her work went “remote” just prior to the COVID-19 years.

“Calls to my home office when I’m away from it go directly to my cell phone, so I guess you could say I am available 24/7,” she said. “The savings we have accomplished with this have been critical to the business. We are pretty comfortable now with what we are doing, and I would say these days we are better off financially than we were at the time of the fire.”

While Freeze focuses on the positive in the community, with small town standbys such as honor rolls, high school football and photos

See Freeze page 3

Freeze with her aunt, former Times-News Publisher Arlene White and friend Autumn Atwill at a fundraiser for the local Boys & Girls Club

Freeze

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of local kids, she doesn’t shy away from rigorous coverage of local government. As a result, she is a huge defender of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

“It is as important as the air we breathe,” she said of Arkansas’ transparency law. “If not for the FOIA, we simply wouldn’t be able to find out things the public needs to know. Local politicians are not above the law.”

She generally has good cooperation from her own local officials, but there have been examples where it has been necessary to use the FOIA to obtain relevant information. “I try to ‘train’ my local government officials on the law, most of the time in a polite way, but other times not so much.”

Concerning the importance of being a watchdog for the public and providing a real service to readers and her community, Freeze said, “It feels like we really make a difference with our work. At least that’s the theory I’m operating under,” she said with a laugh. “I really do hope that’s right.”

Freeze clearly is proud of her local community, noting its strong agricultural base. “Our people are proud of our farmers in the area and support what they do,” she said.

“Things could, of course, be better, but we are fine with just being McGehee.”

While Freeze is all about her role as a community newspaper publisher, there is indeed a second love in her life – the protection and care of animals.

“I have always been an animal lover,” she said, noting she has adopted or fostered many strays in her life. Presently, she is the owner of six dogs and two cats and fosters additional animals until they can be adopted.

“We are fighters,” she said of the people in her community. “We have small businesses who stuck it out during COVID-19. And we also are blessed to have some good elected officials.

“We are starting to see some of the younger people coming back home to McGehee, and some of them are getting involved in renovating the downtown area.”

There are two new pocket parks downtown and two murals, one devoted to the various aspects of the community and the other a memorial to firefighters who were killed in a building collapse during a fire in the 1970s.

McGehee is the home of the impressive World War II Japanese American Internment Museum, which documents the forced relocation of American citizens of Japanese descent to the nearby communities of Jerome and Rohwer during World War II.

“Do we struggle?” Freeze asks about her small delta community. “Of course we do.” But she is encouraged that the city sales tax revenue appears to be holding steady. “That is an indicator to me that we are in good shape.

As a result, she serves on the board of directors of a remarkable organization in McGehee, the Paws & Claws Humane Society, that provides services for abandoned animals throughout several counties in the area. At any given time, the shelter will house as many as 100 dogs, virtually unheard of for a town of roughly 4,000 people.

“We even get calls from as far away as Little Rock and Mississippi,” she said. “And we do what we can when it is feasible, based on our numbers.”

Freeze said the development of the shelter, which involves about a half dozen other committed community members, was somewhat a necessity for her. It prevents her from being potentially overrun at her own home – in the past, she sometimes housed as many as two dozen abandoned animals.

Operating a shelter of that size requires extensive funding. “All of us involved do a lot of begging for money,” she said. “And I serve as the grant writer for the shelter.”

Not everyone realizes the dramatic difference between animal treatment in the South as compared to locales in the Northeast. Strays abound in Arkansas, while areas such as New England are looking for pets to adopt.

As a result, the McGehee shelter partners with two organizations in Boston and Connecticut which find suitable homes in the Northeast. Freeze’s shelter takes the animals to the Little Rock area, where a well-equipped recreational vehicle transports them northward. The animals are treated for heartworms, spayed or neutered at the McGehee shelter.

Freeze enjoys keeping up online with some of the animals that

Even though the Times-News office was destroyed by fire in 2019, the newspaper did not miss publishing.

Freeze

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are adopted. “One of them is a three-legged Beagle mix that is currently wintering in Florida,” she said with a laugh. “He even has his own horse. He is living better than I am.

“Sometimes I say that I’m a newspaper publisher to support my dog habit,” Freeze said.

Freeze was born in McGehee and lived there until junior high, when she moved to Albany, Georgia.

She has been an avid reader since her elementary school days. “I was the kid who would rather read a book than go out for recess,” she said. “It was my passion,” she said of devouring Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries.

“Most people today don’t have that love of reading that used to exist in our society,” she said. When asked by young people what they should do in preparation for being a journalist, Freeze has a one-word answer – read.

she said. Her mother, Brenda Denton, managed the front office at the newspaper for about 20 years.

“I like to read books about politics, even though I hate politics,” she said. “Does that even make sense? I still like a good mystery novel. Nancy Drew trained me well.”

Freeze eventually earned two degrees from Georgia colleges – in economics from Albany State University and in liberal arts from Darton College. She worked for a large timber management company in Georgia for 10 years before returning to her hometown.

Tragically, her son, Miles Robbins, died unexpectedly at age 26 in 2021. The animal shelter in McGehee is named in his honor.

Looking ahead, Freeze has no intention of retiring any time soon. “I couldn’t love my job anymore if I tried,” she said. “This is what I was meant to do. I don’t think I would still be here 22 years later if it wasn’t.

She prefers actual books to a Kindle. “I like to feel the pages of a book and a printed newspaper,” she said. “I like getting that black ink on my hands. Even my mother reads more digitally than I do,”

“This newspaper is my life,” she said. “It’s what keeps me going. As long as I have my faculties about me, I’ll be right here.”

Deadline for inaugural news reporting contest is tomorrow

One day remains for Arkansas news media organizations to enter the inaugural Adolph Ochs Awards for Impartial News Reporting.

Four awards totaling $100,000 will be presented to print, broadcast, cable television and digital media outlets for news reports published during the 2023 calendar year.

Named in memory of Chattanooga Times and New York Times Publisher Adolph Ochs, the awards have been developed by

Media CEO Walter E. Hussman, Jr. and The Center for Integrity in News Reporting at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, and are meant to honor the most fair, impartial, objective news reporting in the nation.

Entries will be judged by Newspaper Association Managers, a professional organization of executives of state, regional, national and international newspaper associations headquartered in the United States and Canada. APA Executive Director

“We are proud to be part of this effort to bring quality, impartial news reporting to light,” said Wimberley. “Anything that honors the work of well-trained professional journalists we want to support.”

Only news articles will be considered for judging. For more information or to submit entries, visit JournalismAwards.unc.edu.

Well known as a dog lover, Freeze has been caring for late Dumas Clarion Publisher Terry Hawkin’s dogs, Eddie Wayne and Hera Sue, since he passed away in 2019. The sign at the Paws & Claws Humane Society in McGehee is named in memory of her late son, Miles Denton.

WEHCO

Ashley Kemp Wimberley sits on the NAM board of directors.

ANF

board member Listopad severely injured in one-vehicle car accident

Arkansas Newspaper Foundation board member and Society of Professional Journalists Arkansas Pro Chapter immediate past president Steve Listopad was severely injured in a one-car accident this past weekend.

Listopad was driving in Little Rock early Sunday morning when his car left the road and struck a retaining wall, resulting in severe trauma to the lower half of his body. He was transported to Baptist Health Medical Center, where it was determined

that both legs required amputation below the knee. Following the initial surgery he was listed in critical but stable condition.

According to caringbridge.org/visit/ stevelistopad, doctors brought him out of sedation on Tuesday and, although still heavily medicated, he was awake and able to visit with his family on Wednesday.

Listopad and his wife Lori Listopad have two sons, Murray and Casper. A GoFund me page has been set up at https:// www.gofundme.com/f/steve-and-lorilistopad to support the family as they face a lengthy hospital stay along with the necessity of acquiring a larger wheelchairaccessible vehicle and making substantial modifications to their home.

“All of us at APA are shocked and saddened by this news,” said APA Executive Director Ashley Kemp Wimberley. “Please consider donating to the Listopad family to help in the coming days and months as they chart this new path forward.”

In addition to serving on the ANF board, Listopad, a former professor of journalism at Henderson State University, was named APA’s Journalism Educator of the Year in 2021.

Fort Smith newspaper switches to mail delivery, adds Saturday print edition

The Times Record in Fort Smith, along with other regional publications, transitioned to delivery by the U.S. Postal Service earlier this month, Gannett has announced.

The move was made in order to “optimize resources amidst increasing digital readership demand”, according to the announcement, and was effective February 12. In addition to the Times Record, Gannett operates the Boonville Democrat, Charleston Express, Paris Express and Press Argus-Courier in Van Buren, all weekly newspapers.

“For many years now, the printed newspaper has served as a culmination of the stories that will become our collective history, while

our websites and mobile apps deliver the news of the day,” said Michael A. Anastasi, VP of Local News for Gannett. “We know that by the time our informed readers pick up the paper, they know what happened yesterday — the print newspaper should provide additional context, to help readers better understand their community and the world around them.”

The Times Record previously had shifted its Saturday newspaper to a digital e-edition in early 2022. Saturday will now be a print newspaper day, with the Sunday edition transitioning to digital only.

“While the exact timing of delivery may change, depending on your postal carrier’s

Arkansas

Scholastic Press Association planning annual convention

The Arkansas Scholastic Press Association has announced its 2024 State Convention will be held April 25-26 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. Between 800-1000 school-age journalists, teachers, advisors and sponsors are expected to attend in order to learn from professional journalists, attend insightful workshops and gain valuable insights from industry experts.

Visit arkansasscholasticpressassociation. org/2024-convention-registration for more information and to register. Sponsorship and trade show vendor information can be found at arkansasscholasticpressassociation.org/ sponsor-vendor-signup.

schedule, subscribers will see the weekend edition a little earlier, with newspapers that previously arrived Sunday going out to subscribers for delivery on Saturday, instead,” said Anastasi.

Readers can visit swtimes.com, as well access the eNewspaper, the digital replica of the newspaper, at swtimes.com/ enewspaper.

Steve Listopad

Editors are routinely challenged with making uncomfortable news decisions. To be certain, there is no universal right or wrong call on whether to publish a story and in how much detail. Several factors may be in play including community norms and longstanding newspaper policy.

The examples of tough and sensitive issues are numerous and surface in everyday coverage. Stories can range from monitoring public employee wage negotiations and publishing salaries of public officials to identifying suspended high school athletes and reporting on labor strikes to interviewing families of homicide victims and publishing photos of fatal accident scenes.

Nothing is more challenging than reporting on violence, specifically mass shootings that are becoming commonplace across the United States. Gun Violence Archive reported 656 mass shootings in 2023. Respective numbers for 2022 and 2021 were 646 and 689. Newsrooms must be prepared to navigate a community in trauma – be sensitive in coverage and yet report the news. They must be ready to find their niche in reporting an event that will prompt widespread media coverage.

Rest assured, however, that other sensitive issues – those not so visible – are being talked about in communities. They have an impact on people. They must be reported if newspapers are to represent themselves as a living history of their hometowns.

Reporting these stories in a responsible fashion is a requisite if your newspaper is to remain relevant, especially in today’s fractured media landscape.

It’s healthy and essential for newsrooms to pause and consider whether readers are best served by reporting certain news. Newsrooms may have faced some of these

Guest Column: One checklist for evaluating, advocating coverage of sensitive issues

By Jim Pumarlo

scenarios often enough to have developed policies. Many times, however, decisions must be made on a quick turnaround.

Here is one checklist, and accompanying rationale, that advocates giving attention to challenging stories.

Is it true? Newspapers routinely report why athletes are “missing in action” – whether due to an injury, a family emergency or a college recruiting trip. Sitting on a bench for violating school or high school league rules is equally newsworthy.

What is the impact of an event? It’s standard procedure at most schools to call in counselors in the wake of an untimely death of a classmate, whether the death is due to natural causes or a suicide. The death automatically becomes conversation in homes. Can newspapers ignore the story?

Is the report fair? Teacher salary negotiations often are emotional and acrimonious. At the same time, salaries can represent 75 percent of a school district’s budget. Newspapers are performing a vital service by keeping a community abreast of contract talks, giving equal attention to all sides of all issues.

Is it a public or strictly private issue?

A closure of a major employer has a tremendous economic impact on a community. The news begs for explanation and interpretation.

Will the story make a difference? A newspaper’s attention to a fatal accident, including a photo, can become a springboard for action to install traffic signals at a dangerous intersection.

Will the truth quell rumors? A newspaper receives word from an elementary school student that a high school teacher lost all his fingers in a lab experiment – the “news” clearly spreading quickly. An investigation

reveals that the teacher lost a fingertip, and a story sets the record straight.

How would you justify your decision to readers? Certain stories – an individual on trial for sexual abuse, for example –are expected to generate reader reaction, and editors should be prepared to answer questions. The hows and whys of coverage are ready-made fodder for an explanatory column to readers.

How would you treat the story if you were the subject? This question is not intended to prompt rejection of a story. Rather, it’s a reminder to treat the story with sensitivity and balance.

In the end, fairness and consistency should be guiding principles for any story, and they are especially important when dealing with sensitive subjects.

Another element – community dialogue

– is common to evaluating whether and what to publish. All decisions are stronger if the menu of options is explored with individuals within and outside your newspaper family. The conversations will not necessarily produce consensus, but seeking the opinions assures readers that decisions are not made on a whim.

Jim Pumarlo is former editor of the Red Wing (Minn.) Republican Eagle. He writes, speaks and provides training on community newsroom success strategies. He is author of “Journalism Primer: A Guide to Community News Coverage,” “Votes and Quotes: A Guide to Outstanding Election Coverage” and “Bad News and Good Judgment: A Guide to Reporting on Sensitive Issues in Small-Town Newspapers.” He can be reached at www. pumarlo.com and welcomes comments and questions at jim@pumarlo.com