Arkansas Publisher Weekly: June 1, 2023

Former professor Purvis dies; UA, Fulbright years remembered

Guest Column:

Ad-libs: Do you know where your fire extinguishers are?

By John Foust

Simpson, editor at The Courier, builds career, sells first novel

encouraged me to pursue my creative side,” he said.

Simpson’s first break toward a writing career came in 2010 when he began a column, “Misadventures in Fatherhood,” for The Courier.

A real motivator for Simpson’s writing career is his wife Melissa, who holds a journalism degree from the University of West Florida. She encouraged him to speak to the editor at The Courier, Mike Roark, and simply ask if there was work available beyond the column.

sports. “I wanted to write so badly, and I said, ‘I can write about anything you want me to write about.’”

Simpson was somewhat apprehensive about his new position but relied on the support of his wife. “She gave me a crash course in how to be a journalist,” he said. “I just couldn’t have done it without her in my corner.”

He also credits guidance from fellow journalist Sean Ingram, who remains at the newspaper as assistant editor.

Travis Simpson is a very busy man and, after years of love for the printed word, is fulfilling his long-time dream of writing for a living.

In addition to his demanding position as editor of The Courier in Russellville, Simpson works daily on various book projects and recently received the exciting news that one of his novels has been sold to a publisher.

He also somehow finds time to attend the athletic and educational activities of his four children – Gregory, 17, Kaylee, 16, Jeffrey, 8, and Henry, 2.

“I knew I wanted to write at a very young age,” Simpson said. That interest began in the fifth grade when he became a voracious reader, with sci-fi thrillers being his favorite genre.

Simpson also credits his parents for support of his interests as a young man. He loved to draw (and still does), and his father always made sure he had all the art supplies he needed. “My parents always

The result was his employment in 2012 in the sports department at the newspaper. Simpson grew up playing football but was less knowledgeable in some of the other

“I eventually became sports editor,” Simpson said, and was on a staff where “all had to wear every hat.” He began covering many of the major news stories at the

Travis Simpson

Simpson interviewing former Russellville Cyclones head football coach Billy Dawson after their 2016 State Championship win.

Simpson, editor at The Courier, builds career, sells first novel

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newspaper, including the crime beat and several murder trials. Simpson later worked briefly for a digital news outlet in Russellville before being recommended by a journalist friend for the position of editor at The Courier when it came open in June of 2022.

He is enjoying his new role in leading a small staff of four. Simpson said the biggest story in the Russellville area in recent years has been the proposed construction of a state-authorized casino. He believes Legends Resort and Casino is nearing the end of its last legal hurdle for development of a $225 million project to be located just north of Interstate 40.

Simpson said there has been widespread opposition to the casino among Russellville residents but noted “people now seem to be a little more favorable” to the project. He said it would require an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution to stop the casino project and opponents are starting to believe their cause is a “wasted effort.”

Simpson also has written articles about two cold cases that occurred in the Coal Hill area in Johnson County.

The first regarded the death of Brandy Dawn Hutchins, 14, who was found murdered in an abandoned house near Coal Hill on Nov. 12, 1988. Simpson’s article notes there were several Satanic symbols in the house, as well as racist tags such as KKK. “It was 1988, the height of the Satanic Panic, and rumors and media headlines took off from there,” Simpson wrote.

As the case moved forward, most law enforcement officials and others familiar with the victim tended to rule out Satanism as a motive. Four prosecutors have been in office since the murder, but there has never been enough evidence collected to charge anyone in the crime.

A second article by Simpson involved the disappearance of Bonnie McFadden of Coal Hill, then 78, in August of 2005. A wealthy woman, she was last seen cashing a check at a bank in Clarksville. His article noted that McFadden had developed a close relationship with one of her tenants, a man in his 20s, and he was the recipient of numerous gifts from her.

McFadden has not been seen or heard from since her visit to the bank. No charges have been filed and no suspects have been identified by authorities.

“I find it to be really interesting to bring back old stories like that,”

Simpson said.

Journalism relates fully to Simpson’s interests and skills. He feels comfortable with the writing, photography, graphics and the aesthetics of page design.

“I just enjoy it from top to bottom. It’s something different every day, you meet a lot of interesting people and it’s great to be a part of the community,” he said.

He is concerned about the future of newspapers and maintains new models must be developed in the digital age, including more multi-media presentations of the news.

“I just don’t think the public values the printed product as much as newspaper people do,” Simpson said. “And the average person doesn’t clearly see the difference between information generated on social media sites and work done by trained and experienced journalists.”

Amidst all his extensive work on the newspaper, Simpson also has maintained his dream as an author. His novel, “Strong Like You,” was purchased by Flux Books.

Within the genre of young adult fiction, the book involves a troubled high school student athlete in the Ozarks who begins a search for his missing father. Simpson explained the young adult category can best be described as one in which “the age of the protagonist falls into that range (roughly 14 to 22).”

Simpson used his knowledge of sports and crime in developing the novel. The book focuses heavily on the drug scene in rural Arkansas and the way it negatively affects so many lives. “I wanted to show what impoverished Arkansans in the Ozarks often look like,” he said.

The book also tackles the issue of “toxic masculinity,” in which boys are taught it is bad to cry. “As adult men, they then are incapable of dealing with difficult emotions,” he said.

Simpson said the book will be available for sale in the spring of 2024, ending a long series of disappointments and rejections from publishers. It was his 13th manuscript.

Simpson started “really getting serious” about his fiction writing in 2017, rising early in the morning to produce at least 1,000 words a day. Simpson said it requires discipline to do that every day considering all his other commitments to work and family.

Simpson at his old desk at The Courier shortly after taking over as assistant sports editor.

Former professor Purvis dies; UA, Fulbright years remembered

by Bill Bowden

Originally published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on May 27, 2023. Reprinted with permission.

Hoyt Purvis of Fayetteville died on Friday after an illness, said his wife Marion Purvis. He was 83.

During his colorful life, Purvis had been kidnapped by Johnny Cash, dangled his feet in the Black Sea with U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd while waiting to meet with Leonid Brezhnev, and watched smoke billowing from the Pentagon on 9-11.

For 34 years, he was a prominent figure on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville -- 36 years if you count the two years it took him to clean out his office.

Purvis was a journalism professor who had served as an aide to U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and an adviser to Sen. Byrd of West Virginia.

“He was just a brilliant, brilliant man,” said former UA journalism professor Gerald Jordan. “He read anything in sight and just

constantly vacuumed up information. We were so fortunate. Imagine the places he could have gone.”

Purvis had an uncanny ability to be in the middle of history, said UA journalism professor Larry Foley.

“Like Forrest Gump, he was everywhere,” said Foley.

“He had a date to appear on ‘Jeopardy!’, and he probably would have won, but somehow or another word got back to Sen. Fulbright and he wouldn’t let him go,” said Foley. “The senator didn’t want his staffer off gallivanting in California on game shows.”

Charlie Alison, a UA spokesman, said he called Purvis while he was in Washington, D.C., during the aftermath of 9/11.

“He was there for a meeting of the Fulbright Exchange Program when he was

chair of it,” said Alison. “He adjourned the meeting and walked across the Capitol Mall to the Potomac, where he could see the Pentagon on the opposite side burning and smoke billowing out.”

Then there was that time in 1958 when he was kidnapped by Johnny Cash. Sort of.

Purvis was in high school in Jonesboro at the time. He and another student drove to Bono, where Cash was playing a gig, to ask him to perform in Jonesboro.

After the show, Cash invited the boys to join him in his black Cadillac to talk it over. The next thing they knew, the driver started the car, shifted into gear and the Caddy began rolling down the highway. Eventually, it went over the Mississippi River bridge into downtown Memphis, where the driver stopped and deposited

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Hoyt Purvis, 2003 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo. Photo credit Lori McElroy.

Former professor Purvis dies; UA, Fulbright years remembered

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the boys.

They ended up having to settle for Roy Orbison instead. And calling for someone in Jonesboro to come get them.

In the 1990s, while desperately seeking a vintage photo of Orbison for a studentproduced project, Foley said Purvis walked by carrying a cardboard box of stuff.

“Hey Hoyt, got a picture of Roy Orbison in that box?” Foley asked.

“As a matter of fact, I believe I do,” said Purvis, pulling a black-and-white 8x10 from the box.

Hoyt Hughes Purvis was born on Nov. 7, 1939, to Hoyt S. and Jane Purvis in Jonesboro, according to an obituary provided by Marion Purvis.

Hoyt Purvis got his start in journalism at age 14 doing sports reporting at KNEA radio and then moved on to reporting

for the Jonesboro Sun while he was still a student at Jonesboro High School.

He went on to study journalism at the University of Texas where he was elected editor of the Daily Texan newspaper.

While there, he earned his bachelors degree in 1961 and his masters in 1963, both from the University of Texas.

Purvis participated in two exchange programs: the Texas-Chile Student Leaders Exchange Program and a Rotary Foundation Fellowship in France.

He went on to postgraduate studies at Vanderbilt University and then to work as a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle from 1964 to 1965.

He lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya, and Brussels, Belgium, from 1965 to 1967, then headed for Washington, D.C., where he served as press secretary and special

assistant to Sen. Fulbright from 1967 to 1974.

During those years in Washington, Purvis and his first wife, Susan Campbell, had two daughters.

After Fulbright left office in 1974, the Purvis family returned to Austin, Texas, where he served as director of publications and lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs from 1974 to 1976.

Purvis also worked on Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign. Purvis returned to Washington to serve as foreign and defense policy adviser for Sen. Byrd and deputy staff director for the Senate Democratic Policy Committee from 1977 to 1980.

Purvis returned to Austin in 1980 where he was a senior research fellow at the LBJ School from 1980 to 1982, and took on the role of primary caregiver for his two

Continued on Page 5

The legendary Kimpel Hall office of Hoyt Purvis. Photo by Larry Foley, Professor and Chair of the School of Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Arkansas.

Former professor Purvis dies; UA, Fulbright years remembered

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daughters Pamela and Camille after he and Susan divorced.

In 1982, Sen. Fulbright encouraged Purvis to return to Arkansas to serve as the founding director of the Fulbright Institute of International Relations at the UA in Fayetteville.

Dede Long worked with Purvis at the institute.

“I just feel so grateful that I got to learn from him and be around him,” she said. “Such a storyteller.”

Foley described him as a raconteur, able to tell stories with a cadence that built suspense.

A budding obituary writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette took a course from Purvis. It met for three hours every Wednesday night. The obit writer thought it was going to be boring, but it was anything but that. The time flew by.

Foley said he taught one of Purvis’ classes for a summer while Purvis was gone. Foley said he didn’t ever want to do it again.

“For Hoyt, it was like a 75-minute, two-daya-week stand-up routine,” said Foley.

Purvis remained in his position with the institute from 1982 to 2000 and was a

professor of journalism, political science and international relations until his retirement from the university in 201

“We all cried when he retired,” said Jordan. “We were all aggrieved. ‘Oh dear, what are we going to do?’”

Purvis had a famously messy office.

“It was like a stop on the tour when visitors came,” said Jordan.

“When he retired and had to move out of his office, it was like a crisis,” said Patsy Watkins, a former UA journalism professor.

The UA’s Special Collections came to the rescue and took Purvis’ papers.

Foley said it took two years for Purvis to clean out his office. Meanwhile, a major renovation was about to begin.

“I look in there, and he’s going through this piece by piece,” Foley said. “Finally, I say, ‘Hoyt, in two days they’re coming to knock the walls down.’

“Hoyt was beloved. I didn’t want to tell him in two days, the wrecking ball is coming down.”

Watkins said Purvis brought an expertise in political affairs to the journalism department, and that attracted more

students.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton, who had been a colleague in Sen. Fulbright’s office, appointed Purvis to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. He served on the board for 10 years, with three of those years as chairman.

In 1997, Hoyt married Marion Matkin, who is now senior director of development at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design on the UA campus.

Hoyt Purvis was a regular panelist on Arkansas Week on what is now Arkansas PBS, as well as a columnist for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for twenty years.

Purvis was an avid sports fan, particularly passionate about baseball and the Cardinals and Orioles. For a while, he even hosted a local television program in Fayetteville called “Talkin’ Baseball.”

“He could be seen carrying a stack of newspapers, wearing a baseball hat from his enormous collection, watching a sporting event or the evening news, or listening to Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash or other favorite tunes,” according to the obituary from his wife.

Simpson, editor at The Courier, builds career, sells first novel

Continued from page 2

“You just have to put in the work,” he said. “You have to show up and hope your muse shows up, too.”

His niche basically is writing about Arkansas while continuing to develop a unique “Southern dialect” in his characters. “I feel I am getting pretty good at that,” he said.

Simpson has developed a friendship with Eli Cranor of Russellville, a football coach and teacher turned writer. Cranor has achieved success with recent novels, including winning the heralded Edgar Award for mystery and crime writing.

He relates to Cranor bringing a “football mentality” to the writing craft. “You need to have your nose to the grindstone every

day,” Simpson said. “You also need to be willing to be rejected and not stop.”

It has indeed been a challenge for Simpson to manage all the responsibilities and commitments in his day-to-day life while resolutely pursuing his dreams as an author.

Once again, he credits the direction and support provided by his wife Melissa. “I wouldn’t be here without her,” Simpson said.

His wife also recognizes that hard work and is excited about his first book sale. “Travis has been working on this for years,” she said in an article in the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway. “After we had our son, Jeffrey, he told me he wanted to make

this a reality to show his kids they can chase their dreams, too. Travis is an active dad, going to practices or shows, having dinner together and then, when everyone was asleep, he would stay up for hours writing.

“I’m incredibly proud of the discipline he had to balance work, his family and pursuing his dream.”

In that same article, Simpson said he needs to take advantage of this literary achievement. “It’s simultaneously exciting and terrifying,” he said. “Plenty of books come out and flop, and the author is never heard from again. I need it to sell well. And I need to write something to follow it. It’s a lot of pressure.”

Press Women names winners of 2023 Communications Contest

Arkansas Press Women announced the winners of its annual Communications Contest during an awards luncheon on the campus of the NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville on May 20.

Dwain Hebda of Ya!Mule Wordsmiths, Inc. took top honors, earning the 2023 Sweepstakes Award for the second year in a row. Mary Hightower was recognized as the 2023 Communicator of achievement.

Others winning awards in Arkansas Press Women’s 2023 Professional Communications Contest include Terry Austin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; David Barham, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Jenny Boulden, freelance; Bill Bowden, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; John Brummett, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Janet Carson, Arkansas DemocratGazette; Kaitlin Davidson, Arkansas

Department of Human Services; Stan Denman, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Angelita Faller, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Gwen Faulkenberry, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Hunter

Field, Arkansas Advocate; Joseph Flaherty, Arkansas DemocratGazette; Joseph Flaherty, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Amy Forbus, Hendrix College; Frankie Frisco, Arkansas DemocratGazette; Jacqueline Froelich, KUAF 91.3; Steve Goff, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Antoinette Grajeda, Arkansas Advocate; Lisa Hammersly, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Audrey Hanes, Occasions Publishing Group; Ashleigh Hart, Arkansas

Department of Human Services; Olivia Hicks, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Mary Hightower, U or A System Division of Agriculture; Carrie Hill, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Cynthia Howell, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Emma Jones, The Bison, Harding University; Tammy Keith, freelance; Will Langhorne, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Frank Lockwood, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; John Magsam, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Karen Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Samantha McClain, NorthWest Arkansas Community College; Tommy Metthe, Arkansas

Democrat-Gazette; Keith Metz, Arkansas Department of Human Services; Fred Miller, U. of Ark. System Div. of Agriculture; Zoe Moody, The Threefold Advocate/KLRC, John Brown University; Andrew Moreau, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Teresa Moss, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Colin Murphey, Arkansas DemocratGazette; Rex Nelson, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Kristin Netterstrom Higgins, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture; Catherine Nolte, Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith; Catherine Nolte, Northwest Arkansas Food Bank; Morgan Nunley, NorthWest Arkansas Community College; Madison Ogle, The Echo, University of Central Arkansas; Rachel O’Neal, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Brittney Osborn, Occasions Publishing Group; Michelle Parks, University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design; Carrie Phillips, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Audrey Poff, Occasions Publishing Group; Anna Pope, KUAF; Nick Popowitch, Arkansas DemocratGazette; Delaney Reaves, NorthWest Arkansas Community College; Rachell Sanchez-Smith, KUAF; Jamie Smith, Jamie’s Notebook; Joshua Snyder, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Celia Storey, Arkansas DemocratGazette; Stephen Swofford, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Stephen Thornton, Arkansas Department of Human Services; Klansee Tozer, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Staci Vandagriff, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate and Helaine Williams, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Work produced in a variety of communications fields during 2022 was eligible for the competition. First-place winners are eligible to advance to the National Federation of Press Women competition if they are members of NFPW. National winners will be announced during NFPW’s annual conference June 22-24 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Arkansas Press Women is an association of professional communicators in journalism, public information, business, education and government. To learn more visit arkansaspresswomen.org.

Winners of the Communications Contest received certificates documenting their achievement

Mary Hightower with Kristin Netterstrom Higgins

After several years of being unable to travel due to the pandemic, APA is reviving the tradition of visiting member newspapers around the state. Staff recently traveled to newspapers in the eastern part of the state, visiting the TimesHerald in Forrest City, the Wynne Progress and the Helena-West Helena World.

The

boasts the state's only all-female

the accolades the newspaper has collected over the years.  4: At the start of the pandemic the

1: APA Executive Director Ashley Kemp Wimberley, Publisher Tamara Johnson and APA Director of Retail Marketing and Promotion Rebecca McGraw outside the offices in Forrest City where the  Times-Herald, Courier-Index and  East Arkansas Advertiser are published. 2: Tamara Johnson in the press room at the  Times-Herald building.

newspaper

press team. 3: Just a few of

TimesHerald produced yard signs to help bolster spirits. 5: The  Times-Herald is a great supporter of the community 6: A personalised strip by "Stone Soup" cartoonist Jan Eliot is displayed in Johnson's office.

1: The community of Wynne was hit hard by an EF-3 tornado that ripped through the heart of the town on March 31 of this year.

2: Wynne Progress/East Arkansas News Leader Classifieds/Legals Clerk Ashlynn Owens and Managing Editor David Owens. While the newspapers have been unable to publish since the tornado, the Owenses have been keeping the community informed of news and events via social media. David Owens is also contributing to the Times-Herald, which has expanded its coverage area into Cross County. 3: The  Wynne Progress building was damaged in the March 31 storm.  4: The building remains unuseable. 5: Roofing material blown from several blocks away is drifted in the parking lot at the  Wynne Progress 6: Wynne - "The City With A Smile" - is currently rebuilding.

1: Co-owner and Publisher Andrew Bagley with Ashley Kemp Wimberley and APA Director of Network Marketing and Promotion at the offices of the  Helena-West Helena World. 2: The 1961 downtown building housing at 417 York St. in Helena-West Helena is on the National Register of Historic Places. 3: Just a few of the many APA Better Newspaper Contest Awards won by the staff of the World over the years. 4: Helena is well-known for the King Biscuit Blues Festival, held each fall. 5: Bagley, with co-owner Chuck Davis, were featured in the December 2020 issue of  Editor & Publisher magazine. 6: A downtown mural honors Phillips County native Levon Helm.

Reporter and columnist Trimble to be subject of Wordsworth Books discussion

“The Thane of Cawdor Comes to Bauxite: And Other Whimsy and Wisdom From the Pen of Mike Trimble,” a collection of the work of the late columnist and editorialist Mike Trimble, will be featured at a reading and celebration at Wordsworth Books in Little Rock on Saturday, June 10, at 5 p.m.

Trimble was an Arkansas-born writer who had a celebrated career as a reporter and editor for six different newspapers in Arkansas and Texas. His career spanned forty-eight years, starting at the Texarkana Gazette and followed by jobs at the Arkansas Gazette, Arkansas Times, Pine Bluff Commercial, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and Denton (Texas) Record-Chronicle. His remarkable observational skills and downto-earth writing lent unusual humanity to his articles—whether they were news, features, or columns—and he always developed a large and fanatical following wherever he went. Trimble died on November 20, 2021, in Denton.

Journalist Ernie Dumas, Trimble’s friend who collected and edited the volume published by Butler Center Books and the University of Arkansas Press, will talk about Trimble’s nearly-five-decade search for humor and meaning in the lives and events that he captured as a reporter, columnist and editorialist.

Whether he was chronicling, in the 1980s, rising political worthies like the far-intothe-future governors Asa Hutchinson and Mike Beebe, or, more often, the ordinary and feckless people that he encountered every day, befriended, and spent most of his career writing about, Trimble usually found a way, subtly or artlessly, to bring up his own failings, such as identifying the wrong person as the dead woman in an obituary he had written in his earliest days for his first employer, the Texarkana Gazette.

“Although of a relatively scarce breed,” the Arkansas Times observed in the obituary of

the itinerant writer it had once employed, “Mike Trimble was Arkansas’s and perhaps the country’s greatest self-deprecating journalist.”

RSVP for the event by emailing lynne@ wordsworthbooks.com.

Slimp to hold updated ad design webinar

Well-known Photoshop and inDesign professional Kevin Slimp is hosting an updated version of his popular webinar, “Creating More Effective Ads to Increase Ad Revenue,” on Thursday, June 22 at 2 p.m. Central time.

In this 70-minute live webinar, Slimp will cover the things needed to “up” your ad creation, resulting in more effective ads and happier advertisers. He will also discuss issues sales reps should discuss with customers about their ads, and look

into the technical and design skills your design staff needs to know.

“This session is for both ad reps and designers,” said Slimp, “and there’s plenty of information to keep everyone writing notes nonstop.”

Registration is open at newspaperacademy.com/ webinar/2306ads/. The cost to attend is $69. Registered attendees who cannot make the live event can request a recording of the session afterwards.

We all want to take care of our advertisers and coworkers. Well, there is no better way to do that than to help them stay safe in the workplace. There are some simple things we can do to accomplish this.

Some years ago, I attended a series of meetings at a large company which had a number of offices in the area. In each of the meetings – whether attended by 10 people or 50 people – someone opened the meeting with a brief safety announcement. Typically, he or she pointed out the fire alarm locations, how to exit the building if the alarm sounded, where to assemble in the parking lot for instructions, etc. Everyone took the information seriously, and it was easy to see that employees were accustomed to starting their meetings that way.

I remember thinking that it was an impressive way to begin any kind of gettogether. After all, in a sizable meeting room, most employees may not be as familiar with those details as they would be in their individual work areas. And visitors like me may have never been to that building before. As a result of those brief presentations, everyone felt safer and more confident. I know I did.

This list can be a good place to start:

1. Designate a safety officer. This person

Guest Column: Ad-libs: Do you know where your fire extinguishers are?

By John Foust

will open meetings or prepare someone else to open meetings. The officer should check all safety equipment, alarms and door locks, then prepare a standard script to be read before each gathering. Better yet, designate a safety team, perhaps with representatives from several departments. Give them the authority to interrupt any meeting or conversation for any safety reason they see fit.

2. Keep all alarms and sprinklers up-todate.

3. Post exit diagrams around the building. Clearly mark “you are here.”

4. Place fire extinguishers in appropriate places. Let everyone know their locations. Keep them updated and learn how to use them.

5. Call in the experts. This is too important to handle in casual discussions. Invite police officers and fire department officials to do walk-throughs and make recommendations. In a sad commentary on today’s world, ask them to map a plan for what to do if an armed person is in the building.

6. Safety meetings. Safety and inspection requirements inevitably vary from area to area. In addition to the standard meeting announcements mentioned here, it’s important to keep these issues

top-of-mind with employees. In view of our specialization in advertising, we all know the importance of repetition in the business of marketing communication. Safety messages should be repeated enough for everyone in the building to have them memorized.

7. Make a copy of this list – or find a better one. Offer it to your advertisers, vendors, friends and family members. The slogan “Safety is Job Number One” applies to every industry, not just those that involve dangerous equipment, technology and materials. And it applies to everyone along the way, from front-line team members to road warriors to the corporate offices.

(c) Copyright 2023 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

John Foust of Greensboro, North Carolina has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training. E-mail for information: john@johnfoust.com