Arkansas Publisher Weekly: April 4, 2024

Guest Column:

Lowe Down: The urgency for media literacy

By Pam Lowe

One year after tornado, Owens still informing Wynne community

It took only a few brief minutes for the City of Wynne, Ark., to be changed by a dramatic event, and David Owens has been focused on its aftermath for the past year.

The incident was the EF-3 tornado that ripped through the community on March 31, 2023, claiming four lives, injuring 30 and destroying or heavily damaging some 180 structures.

Owens’ position at the time was managing editor of the Wynne Progress, a weekly newspaper whose office was in the path of the twister and suffered significant damage.

Owens and his wife Ashlynn Owens live somewhat south of the path the storm took. They were aware of severe weather heading their way and were sheltering in the bathroom of their house when the tornado hit at 4:45 p.m. Recalling that fateful afternoon, Owens said, “For a minute, it got deathly still out there,” and then the storm roared through to their north.

When he later surveyed the damage, he saw the impact of a major tornado that hit the vicinity of the school and the newspaper office, where windows were blown out and a heating and cooling unit was driven diagonally across the roof, and electrical power disrupted throughout the area.

“The tornado did not discriminate. Parts of every ward, and even areas outside of the City of Wynne were impacted. Almost instantaneously support poured into the city and many volunteers from within the city itself stood up to make sure those affected were clothed, fed, and had shelter.

“It was inspiring to see how fast students were able to return to school, and despite the red tape something like this involves, I think spirits remain high and for the most part residents of the city remain united and are working toward a common goal to bring the city not just to the level it was before the storm, but even better.”

Owens said local and area emergency crews and volunteers responded quickly to the disaster and began the arduous task of trying to return the Eastern Arkansas town to normalcy. In his view, this has been a successful effort.

“I feel the community of Wynne has responded well in the aftermath of the tornado,” he commented. “You never expect a tornado to impact your city. Especially one that destroys your high school, wastewater treatment plant, churches and many houses in what felt like seconds.

Owens’ own newspaper career was put on hold as Progress owner David Boger made the hard decision not to resume publication after the tornado made production difficult if not impossible in the immediate aftermath. Owens explained that Boger had been publishing the Progress and the East Arkansas News-Leader for many years and was already preparing for retirement through a hoped-for sale of the newspapers. “The tornado basically spurred that along,” Owens said.

Owens soon began looking for other career opportunities and briefly did some freelance writing for the TimesHerald in nearby Forrest City, which undertook Wynne coverage following the tornado as the Progress was unable to publish.

His wife Ashlynn also had been working at the Progress as the classifieds/legals clerk, but soon landed a position at the Wynne branch of the East Central Arkansas Regional Library.

Then, in June, Owens received a call from Bobby Caldwell, owner of KWYN radio in Wynne, offering him a position in the news department at the station. He accepted and has since been covering the community through that medium.

Ashlynn and David Owens

Owens

Continued from page 1

The Wynne station is operated by East Arkansas Broadcasters, the largest individually-owned group of stations in the state. It has 52 signals, covering 99 counties in East and Central Arkansas, in addition to the Missouri Bootheel and portions of West Tennessee and Northwest Mississippi.

Owens works closely at the station with Lindell Staggs, who has been a fixture in local radio in Wynne for some 40 years. Owens plays a major part in writing for the daily news show at 10 each morning. Staggs handles most of the on-air presentations, but Owens is involved in that role on occasion.

In October 2023, Caldwell reached an agreement with Boger for acquisition of the Wynne Progress, and Owens, while retaining his position at the radio station, once again assumed editorship of the newspaper.

The Progress currently appears online at thewynneprogress.com with articles posted daily, as well as a newsletter distributed by email upon request. “We try to have at least 10 new posts online each day,” Owens said. While advertising is relatively limited at present, plans are being developed to increase that aspect of the operation.

He said the format is similar to that of the Stuttgart Daily Leader, which EAB purchased from GateHouse Media in 2019 on the eve of its planned closure.

“I do think that maybe we can print in the future, if and when it makes sense,” Owens said.

It has been an interesting career development for Owens, who began working in newspapers in 2004 and had served at the Progress for almost 12 years prior to the tornado.

“The major differences I see between writing for radio and newspapers are in formatting and length,” he said. “You don’t necessarily cover the same story in the same fashion for both mediums. You only have so much time in a 30-minute radio

newscast, and that time includes commercials and whatever obituaries and other news items you have to include. If you are covering a city council meeting from the night before, for example, you only have time to hit the high points in that newscast. With a newspaper story, you can get more ‘in the weeds’ as it were and cover the story in a lot finer detail.

“I think radio is quicker and more in the moment, especially if you are thinking about a printed newspaper. With radio, you can break the news almost as it happens while it takes more time to get that printed product in readers’ hands.

“On a daily basis, I am writing for both radio and the newspaper. Because our radio newscast airs live at 10 a.m., I generally focus on that first. Our newspaper headlines are not delivered to readers until about 3 p.m. Many of the same stories are included on both the radio and the newspaper though, and, as mentioned, I may be able to include a longer comment or more detail in the story used for print. There may also be some situations where you write a story one way for radio and make changes for print because it may be easier to read aloud, for example.”

After Owens arrived in Wynne in 2012, he soon assumed the first managing editor position of his career. “It was definitely something of a fast learning curve for me,” he said.

He was the primary newsperson on staff, usually with only one additional assistant involved, and handled virtually all the newspaper paginating. “I did have some really good freelance photographers, including Brock Meeler and Teresa Lee,” he said.

Owens acknowledged that advertising declined during his time at the newspaper, reflecting the national trend. “But I think we held on fairly well and only closed because of the tornado,” he said.

He said advertising had been a strong suit of the free distribution News-Leader and owner Boger stayed on top of securing inserts from firms such as Tractor Supply, Family Dollar and Hays grocery

The Wynne Progress building was damaged in the March 31 storm. Roofing material blown from several blocks away was blown into the parking lot of the Wynne Progress offices by the tornado. The storm blew out the windows of the Wynne Progress delivery van as well.

Owens

Continued from page 2 stores.

Owens arrived in Wynne following two years as news editor at the Laurel (Miss.) Leader-Call. He also had previous newspaper experience at the Clarksdale (Miss.) Press Register.

Owens earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism at Oklahoma Baptist University, where he served as assistant news editor of The Bison, the student newspaper. A native of Memphis, he graduated from high school in 2000 from Thrifthaven Baptist Academy. He developed his first interest in writing as editor of the youth group newsletter at his church in Memphis.

ANF ad conference grants still available

There’s still time to apply for the Arkansas Newspaper Foundation’s education grants to defray the cost of attending the 2024 APA Advertising Conference this month at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain.

ANF is offering a number of $100 grants to APA member newspapers to attend the twoday conference scheduled for April 18-19. One grant will be made per media group, and first-time attendees will be prioritized. The grant application form can be found on page 10 of this week’s Arkansas Publisher Weekly. Applications should be returned to Terri Cobb at terri@arkansaspress.org as soon as possible, but no later than Wednesday, April 10.

Owens is finding his dual news roles interesting and challenging and clearly is doing his part to report on his city’s continuing efforts to recover from the devastating tornado. He said school enrollment dropped some after the tornado, but now appears to be steadily coming back. Well-developed temporary structures have been used to conduct classes and plans are in the works for a potential new high school facility for the community.

“I think Wynne has done well overall over the past several years,” Owens said. “It has developed a lot better than some of the other Delta towns. We have certainly had some good economic leaders here.”

APA Better Newspaper Editorial Contest to open for entries next week

The 2024 APA Better Newspaper Editorial Contest will open for submissions next week. This annual contest showcases the work of hardworking APA member editors, reporters, designers and photographers in covering their communities.

The contest will have divisions for both traditional print and online news. Submission categories include:

• News Story

• Feature Story

• Investigative Series Reporting

• Beat Reporting

• Sports News Story

• Sports Feature Story

• Sports Column

• Editorial

• News/Political Column

• General Interest Column

• Humorous Column

• Freelancer Recognition

• Headline Writing

There are also categories for photography, layout and design and digital news coverage, including social media and podcasts.

A new category this year is Arkansas Freedom of Information Reporting, for stories written pertaining to the use of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. All winning entries in this category will be put forth to compete for the Meredith Oakley FOIA Award, endowed in honor of late Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Associate Editor and “Voices” page editor Meredith Oakley. The Oakley FOIA Award includes a $1000 prize as well as a plaque.

All contest entries must have been published in the 2023 calendar year. The deadline for submissions is Friday, May 3.

The Better Newspaper Editorial Awards winners presentation will be made at the conclusion of the 2024 APA Convention at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Jonesboro Red Wolf Convention Center on June 29.

Watch your email for more information and the entry submission link.

Dr. Richard Portis, news reporter who turned to medicine, dies at 79

Richard Palmer Portis, M.D., died on March 31, 2024 in Little Rock. He was 79.

Dr. Portis was born July 13, 1944, at Camden to Samuel Palmer Portis and Alice Waddell Portis. The family moved to Hamburg in 1948, where attended Hamburg High School. He was named to the Arkansas All State Band for four consecutive years and was first-chair All State Band trombonist in his junior and senior years of high school, and graduated valedictorian of his class. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Central Arkansas and was a 1974 graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Medicine.

He was known for having a way with words. Before entering medical school he had been an editor and reporter at the Crossett News Observer, the Pine Bluff Commercial and the Arkansas Gazette and had served as an information officer in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Dr. Portis practiced family medicine at Prescott, Hope and Texarkana and later had a full-time emergency medicine practice. In the 1980s he was appointed by Gov. Bill Clinton to the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Endowment for the Humanities and to the Governor’s Advisory Council for Gifted and Talented Education. He was medical director at Southwest Regional Medical Center in Little Rock until it closed in 2008, and had been a member of the Southern Medical Association and the Arkansas Medical Society.

Dr. Portis

In addition to his parents, Dr. Portis was preceded in death by his sister, Aliece Portis Sawyer and a brother, Charles Portis. He is survived by his wife, Leah Latham Portis, a son, Charles J. Portis, daughters Dr. Susan Portis Ferguson and husband Michael Ferguson, and Jane Portis, two stepsons, Palmer Aviles and Cameron Aviles and his wife Dr. Samantha Burnside, brother Jonathan W. Portis, and four grandchildren.

Services will be held at 11 a.m., Friday, April 5 at Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, followed by a graveside service at 3 p.m. at Hamburg Cemetery in Hamburg.

Petition signing at Arkansas Press Association headquarters

APA, along with Arkansas Citizens for Transparency, hosted a successful drive-up petition-signing event in support of the Arkansas Government Disclosure Amendment & Act of 2024 on Tuesday, with about 60 people stopping by while out on their lunch breaks. For more information about the Amendment & Act, visit ARCitizens4Transparency.org or join the ACT Facebook group at www.facebook. com/groups/694605929241418

Congress approves NNA language directing HHS advertising to community media; small, weekly newspapers to benefit

Three years of planning and effort by the National Newspaper Association and its partners resulted in an emphatic recognition by Congress of the vital role community newspapers play in sharing health information to small and rural markets, the NNA announced last week. As part of the final batch of appropriations bills approved by the Senate in the early hours on March 23, funding to the Department of Health and Human Services included report language directing the Secretary of HHS to use part of its public health paid advertising budget to reach small or rural markets through local media outlets, including small daily and weekly newspapers. President Joe Biden signed the bill.

“This effort gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said John Galer, NNA’s Chair and publisher of The JournalNews in Hillsboro, IL. “While we watched the U.S. government spend tens of millions of dollars in health outreach, almost nothing was spent in reaching many of our small and rural populations through their most-trusted source, the local newspaper.

“We quickly realized that we needed an all-out effort to educate federal officials on the vital role we play in our communities and that we needed to elicit the help of Congress to do so,” Galer said. “This was a very tall hill to climb, and we’re very excited to be able to announce this achievement for our members and our industry.”

Claudia James, Managing Director of Cogent Strategies, a public affairs firm which teamed with NNA on this project, will work to ensure that HHS fulfills its responsibilities under this bill, according to NNA Executive Director Lynne Lance.

“Our work with Cogent has been so in-sync with our association that we know now is a great time to celebrate the victory, but to not rest on our laurels,” Lance said. “We still have a lot of work to do to make sure the bill is fully implemented at the agency level.”

NNA Chair Galer thanked Martha Diaz-Aszkenazy of the San Fernando Valley Sun, CA; Brett Wesner of Wesner Publications, Cordell, OK; APA board member Jeremy Gulban of CherryRoad

Media, Parsippany, NJ; Horace Moore, The Northwest Alabamian, Fayette, AL; and Tonda Rush, NNA’s General Counsel for their specific outreach to members of the House Appropriations Committee and advice on legislative language. NNA would also like to thank Jeb Bladine, publisher of the News-Register, McMinnville, OR; Laurie Hieb, executive director, Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association; Layne Bruce, executive director, Mississippi Press Association; and Felicia Mason, executive director of the Alabama Press Association and Alabama publishers.

Wesner thanked the Appropriations Committees in both houses of Congress, with special recognition for Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) and Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK).

James included members of Cogent’s team in recognition of their efforts, including Shelly Purvis and Randall Gerard

The report language sent to the President reads as follows:

The Committee recognizes the critical role

local media plays in delivering public health messages to small or rural communities. Therefore, the Committee directs the Secretary to ensure that local media in small or rural markets are part of the Federal public health advertising campaigns. To further this goal, the Committee directs the Secretary, in coordination with the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and their media buyer contractors, to prioritize local news media in rural areas for HHS Federal advertising campaigns to reach citizens in these communities with key health messages. Local media should include newspapers, including non-daily newspapers, television, and radio. The Committee directs the Office of the Secretary to provide to the Committee within 90 days of enactment an update on the efforts of the Department to ensure that local media in rural areas are part of the Department’s public health advertising campaigns, including a breakdown of money allocated to local media in rural areas for each of the health focused public affairs campaigns for fiscal year 2023.

The NNA Public Policy team will be working with the Cogent team to make sure HHS is following these guidelines.

There’s nothing that pinpoints and highlights what is desperately needed and creates a wake-up call more than a crisis. That wake-up call is now for our democratic republic. The political landscape in the U.S. in the past decade paired with our society’s handling of the 2020 pandemic has determined the need for media literacy as a necessity in order to save our democracy. Many across our country, as well as our Allies across the globe, watched and listened in disbelief as many Americans turned their backs on science during the surge of the virus, allowed their fears to be fed by those trying to divide our nation, and the success of these efforts, due to media illiteracy. They continue to shake their heads as we persist in wrestling with the concept of what is genuine.

Media literacy involves possessing the acumen for distinguishing between reliable sources of information and filtering the noise from the unreliable sources. It’s the ability to discern between casing and sausage, shell from seed, truth from propaganda, wise counsel from gasbaggery.

It’s important to note that media can literally be created by anyone. It is always created for a purpose and a discerning public can determine that reason and if it is factual or biased. Taking advantage of those who can’t or won’t distinguish if information is factual, is exactly how trolls influence our thinking, our elections and ultimately our lives. There’s only one thing we can do to combat this and that is to become a nation of critical thinkers and stop swallowing the message of every meme, article, politician and talking head without fact checking. Debunking fake information should become second nature to all of us.

It’s essential for future generations of citizens to know the skills of how verification and proper sourcing works, how to discern

Guest Column: Lowe Down: The urgency for media literacy . . .

by Pam Lowe

between rumors and fact and taking the time to authenticate information. What we have seen in the past few years is that a person’s media diet strongly shapes his/her beliefs, and we can’t ignore the importance of it. The power of trolls and misinformed users on social media, who are bent on creating misinformation campaigns, sadly influence many smart people. It’s time to point out that Facebook posts and tweets are not the news. They have their place, they are entertaining, but a trusted news source; they are not.

We all should care about the distinction between fact and misinformation. Our democratic future depends upon it. The one source people can depend upon is their loyal, trusted newspaper.

Let’s do our part to initiate media literacy where we live. I kindly ask that you share this column with three people, electronically or in print, however you receive the newspaper. Encourage conversations about media literacy. Invite others to subscribe to the local paper. You’ll be doing a service for your community and our republic by promoting and supporting a news source that upholds unbiased reporting and news that is important to your region. Truth is the bedrock of a stable, intelligent and law-abiding society and nowhere will the public find a more honest reporting and champion for their right to know the truth than their community’s newspaper.

Learning about media literacy needs to begin with our children, in order for them to build upon the skill of recognizing false information. This ability will serve them and our country well. We must foster future generations who are capable of distinguishing between solid sources of information and understanding the influence of communications in different media platforms.

If you really want to impact change,

share this column with educators at your neighborhood schools; those who educate our future leaders. Ask them what they are doing to teach critical thinking, differentiating between factual and false information, finding trusted information sources and how to filter noise. High quality teachers will engage and enjoy this open dialogue. Inquire if they are implementing the newspaper as a curriculum tool to teach media literacy. If not, perhaps you can enlist some assistance in supplying newspapers for their classroom(s). It’s a small gesture that can have a bearing on the future of democracy while supporting local papers. What could be more central to us when we are facing critical challenges now and as we cast our eyes to younger generations who will be our decision makers in the future?

The 2020 COVID-19 virus and social isolation changed us. It tested who we are as neighbors, and what we choose to believe and support. It has affected our general mindset toward employment, life, and what is important to us. For the past four years following the pandemic, we have blamed it for all that ails us as a society. As with any defining moment, we should have learned a few things. The global crisis helped to place a spotlight on our willingness to accept false information, our distrust of one another and our general weakness in judgment. What will we do now that we know that media illiteracy is our Achilles heel? Once the toothpaste leaves the tube, you can’t put it back in and once you’ve seen the truth, you can’t unsee it. What we do about it now is all on us. If you believe in democracy, support your local newspaper.

Pam Lowe is the editor of the Clay County Courier in Corning. Readers may contact Pam at plowe@cherryroad.com. The original version of this column was published in the Courier on Feb. 28, 2024.

Conference Schedule

THURSDAY, APRIL18

1:00 PM

1:30 PM Welcome, Introductions & Announcements

Session One: Registration Opens

Digital Advertising Essentials: A Profitable and Simple Path for Beginners

Unlock the transformative potential of your traditional print newspaper organization in the ever-evolving digital landscape. Join us in this enlightening exploration, where we'll break down the complexities of engaging in digital advertising at an ABC level – accessible, basic and clear. We're here to demystify the digital advertising world and demonstrate how you can leverage your existing publisher site resources, newsletters and email marketing to embark on a profitable and sustainable journey.

Presented by Richard E. Brown

3:00 PM Break

3:30 PM Session Two:

Success from Day One: Onboarding Sales Executives for Impact

Uncover the blueprint for transforming your print newspaper organization's sales team into a powerhouse, driving revenue and reader engagement. Join us in this illuminating presentation, where we delve into the intricacies of onboarding news sales executives with a keen focus on aligning mission and action. Discover the art and science of translating your organization's mission into tangible Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and scorecard deliverables that not only keep your new sales executives aligned with your vision but also laser-focused on key deliverables that directly contribute to and enhance your bottom line.

Presented by Richard E. Brown

Conference Presenter

6:00 PM

7:00 PM

8:30 PM Reception

Lodge Great Room

Group Dining in the Dining Room

Group Gathering President's Lodge Great Room

8:00

Richard E. Brown is a recipient of the News Media Alliance Rising Star award. He previously served as the director of renewals and digital sales strategy at LPi and held the position of director of digital operations and sales at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Recently, he was the head of digital subscriber churn for Gannett | USA Today Network and is the former senior director of retention for The Daily Beast. Additionally, he is a member of the board of directors for the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation, a monthly columnist for Editor & Publisher magazine, a contributing writer for Digital Content Next, and a revenue sustainability coach for Local Independent Online News (LION Publishing). Richard is the owner of RE Media Holdings, LLC, and is currently leading the Ads & Sponsorships Lab Program at News Revenue Hub.