Arkansas Publisher Weekly: July 22, 2023

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Meredith Oakley: Politicians didn’t get away with much Guest Column: Ad Libs Don’t sell your clients short

By John Foust

Arkansas Press Association

Publisher Weekly Vol.18 | No. 29 | Saturday, July 22, 2023 | Serving Press and State Since 1873

Reception and open house at APA’s newly renovated offices kicks off 150th Anniversary Celebration and 2023 convention

1873 - 2023

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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July 22, 2023

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Trade show vendors share expertise with convention attendees The Trade Show at the 2023 APA Convention is an opportunity to make contact with industry professionals who can be great sources for stories on a variety of topics. Twelve vendors were set up in Salon D at the DoubleTree by Hilton Little Rock this Friday, July 21, ready to talk to publishers, editors and reporters about their individual areas of expertise.

The 2023 APA Trade Show vendors are: Booth #1: Mirabel Technologies Publishing tools and marketing solutions.

Mirabel Technologies is a privately owned, international tech company that provides all-in-one software solutions for businesses. President Mark McCormick founded Mirabel Technologies in 2003 with the vision to help publishers streamline operations in an ever-changing media environment. After launching over a dozen successful magazines in South Florida, McCormick introduced Mirabel’s flagship product, “The Magazine Manager”. As the first web-based CRM made for publishers, it now serves more than 17,000+ media properties worldwide.

Since then, other publishing products followed suit, including “The Newspaper Manager”, a CRM specific to newspapers, and “Mirabel’s Magazine Central”, a library-like platform to display digital editions. In 2019, Mirabel Technologies expanded into marketing automation and email verification with “Mirabel’s Marketing Manager” and “Clean Your Lists”, respectively.

Booth #2: Black Hills Energy Black Hills Energy traces its roots to 1883 and the organization of the Black Hills Electric Light Company of Deadwood. Now, Black Hills is a diversified electric and gas utility company selling power in South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa and is committed to creating a cleaner energy future that builds upon a responsibility to provide the safe, reliable and cost-effective energy that improves customers’ lives.

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people need to thrive in their everyday lives – connection to friends, family, work, commerce, education, health, entertainment and more. AT&T’s efforts to narrow the digital divide focus on expanding networks, providing affordable high-speed internet and demonstrating how internet connectivity changes lives.

Booth #4: Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau The Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau (LRCVB) is the official destination marketing organization for the city of Little Rock. LRCVB is a full-service bureau, with more than 120 full-time professionals covering disciplines in Finance and Administration, Facility Operations, Sales & Services, and Marketing, Communications & Community Engagement, providing support in planning meetings, conventions or visits to the city, including information on hotels, dining, attractions, transportation and much more. The organization also manages the Statehouse Convention Center, Robinson Center, the River Market and multiple parking facilities.

See Trade show page 7

Meredith Oakley: Politicians didn’t get away with much

By Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial staff. Originally published on Thursday, July 20. Reprinted with permission.

For decades, for generations of Arkansas Democrat, and then Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, readers, Meredith Oakley was the lioness of Arkansas journalism. And she hunted.

Her column was an almost-daily feature of this paper. And for her day job, she ran the Voices page--like a drill sergeant. In fact, a smarty-pants editorial writer once told her, to her face, that she was like U.S. Army toilet paper: Rough, tough, and didn’t take much off anybody.

She beamed. She took it as the compliment it was meant to be. And it may have made her week, her month, her year. She repeated it several times that day to make sure others heard it.

She seemed elated, encouraged by such descriptions.

She was certainly old school. And sometimes that was in the best way. As in old-school journalist. The only way she looked at politicians was down her nose. (Mencken, Henry Louis.) And she knew journalists--we’d say especially opinion journalists-can never be fully objective, so they must be fair. (Brinkley, See Oakley page 5

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

Meredith Oakley

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July 22, 2023

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Oakley Continued from page 3

Meredith spent 35 years at this paper. She was a columnist, an associate editor, a big sister to some on this page, and a terror if you got in her way in the newsroom. Oh, there are stories. And an editorial obit isn’t a marketing assignment. Besides, she probably wouldn’t mind. She told some of the stories herself.

David.) And Meredith Oakley could be mercilessly fair.

The paper got word that she died this week. At the age of-None of your business, she’d probably say.

Over the decades, how many politicians got the call at 5:30 a.m., with one of their PR types on the other end of the line: “Have you read Meredith Oakley today? You might want to right now, sir.”

She was one of the many journalists who made it through the newspaper war, and celebrated when the Democrat became the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Like many good folk still in the newsroom, she was on the winning side, even having helped win.

But it must be said that only the politicians who had it coming would gasp at that phone call. For if you were doing your job, and doing it well, and not dipping into the public’s bank account, and being a true public servant, she could compliment a body. And in her column, she could even tell a joke on infrequent occasion.

Oh, she was a fighter. Doubtless there are those in the afterlife who already know it.

She left the paper in 2011. This is from her final column, and since we can’t say it any better, we’ll give her the last word. She always seemed to get it anyway:

But what really seemed to get her riled was a pol gone bad. She had them for breakfast. And readers could see the leftovers when they read her column that morning.

“It always made me smile whenever a colleague would remark that, in researching a bit of Arkansas governmental or political history, he or she had come across an old byline of mine. It makes me smile now to consider that someday others may do the same.

They won’t know or care who I was, but my name will be there regardless. It’s as close to immortality as I’m ever going to come in this life, but it will suffice.”

Governors called her “M.O.” Journalists called her ma’am. C-SPAN called her for interviews.

“I spent my youth looking ahead and much of middle age learning to appreciate the wisdom in the observation that life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” she once wrote. A huge Beatles fan, as most thinking people are, she quoted John Lennon a lot. He was her favorite Beatle. By the by, she saw the group in Memphis when they came through in the 1960s, and only as Meredith Oakley could, she recalled telling all the screaming girls around her at the stadium to SHUT UP! so she could hear the concert.

______________________________________________________ Former Arkansas Democrat-Gazette associate editor and columnist Meredith Oakley died Wednesday, July 19, in Little Rock. A full obituary will appear in next week’s Arkansas Publisher Weekly.

“My old boss and mentor, the late John R. Starr, once chided that loyalty was both my greatest attribute and my greatest fault. He was wrong. If I am anything in great abundance, it is stubborn. I don’t give up or give in easily.”

We can vouch for that.

So can many an Arkansas politician. When the Ledge was in session in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, etc., she had what the military calls a Target Rich Environment. And she rarely missed.

She called ‘em like she saw ‘em, and if a lawmaker pushed a bad bill, he found out why--and he found out when everybody else did: in the morning paper.

What really bothered her, or seemed to, was somebody fooling around with the FOI. This state’s Freedom of Information law is one of the nation’s strongest, and nobody was a bigger defender of it than Meredith. On the occasion when she was in the same room with a politician, invariably she’d turn the topic to the FOI, and whether the pol in her sights was pro-FOI ... .

Or her prey.

INDUSTRY QUOTE “Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy ” – Walter Cronkite Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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July 22, 2023

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Trade show Continued from page 3

Booth #5: Arkansas Problem Gambling Council

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Booth #6: Arkansas Press Services A subsidiary of APA, Arkansas Press Services, Inc. offers numerous advertising services to newspapers and the public.

Booth #7: Arkansas Children’s

Arkansas Children’s is the only hospital system in the state solely dedicated to caring for children, and is driven by four core values: safety, teamwork, compassion, and excellence. These values inform every decision and every action, from the aggressive pursuit of zero hospital infections to treating each family with dignity, kindness, and concern. For more than a century, Arkansas Children’s has continuously evolved to meet the unique needs of the children of Arkansas and other states. Today, the system includes two hospitals, a pediatric research institute, a foundation, clinics, education and outreach, all with an unyielding commitment to making children better today and healthier tomorrow.

Booth #8: UAMS The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences was founded in 1879 as the first medical school in the state and today

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

consists of six colleges, seven institutes, several research centers, a statewide network of community education centers, and the UAMS Medical Center.

UAMS is the largest public employer in the state with more than 10,000 employees, and is Arkansas’s largest basic and applied research institution, with a total budget of $1.3 billion and more than $100 million in annual research funding, grants and contracts and internationally renowned programs in multiple myeloma, aging and other areas. The Myeloma Center alone has treated more than 17,000 patients from every state and more than 50 countries.

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Arkansas Blue Cross and its family of affiliated companies have more than 3,200 employees. A not-for-profit mutual insurance company, Arkansas Blue Cross offers health and dental insurance policies for individuals and families who purchase their insurance directly as well as those whose insurance coverage is provided through their employer. Arkansas Blue Cross also offers a full portfolio of health management tools and resources designed to improve the health of its members, no matter where they fall on the care continuum from healthy to chronic to acutely ill.

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July 22, 2023

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Jeremy Gulban owns more former Gannett papers than anyone; says success is ultimately up to communities paper until it winds up coming to the office after it’s printed.’ ... I think the biggest thing that that happened is they eliminated all the local publishers, so there is no one ... you can call to talk about the paper. There’s literally no one.

Everything flows up in these vertical silos, which leads to a lack of integration, a lack of working together. And, as you all know, you can’t have your salespeople off doing one thing and editorial people doing another. There’s got to be that collaboration which, you know, really doesn’t exist. ... If people want to place an ad. They’ll call an 800 number, and they’ll go online and do it. And we all know in small towns that won’t happen.”

By Al Cross This article was originally published by The Rural Blog, which is produced by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. Reprinted with permission.

The owner of dozens of “ghost newspapers” bought from Gannett Co. says he is trying to revive them by returning editorial decisionmaking to local people while still taking advantage of the economies of scale that have led to consolidation of newspaper ownership.

But he says his new chain’s fate is not in its own hands.

Jeremy Gulban

“The success or failure of these rural newspapers is on the local people,” CherryRoad Media CEO Jeremy Gulban said Friday, July 7, 2023, at the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, sponsored by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, publisher of The Rural Blog. His remark fit the Summit’s research question: “How do rural communities sustain local journalism that supports democracy?”

The downward spiral of news, ads and circulation has left ghost papers with two kinds of subscribers and regular single-copy buyers, Gulban said: “People who just like the ritual of getting the paper and really don’t care what’s in it ... and people who hold a position in town where they feel like they need to get the paper. ... The people who were truly looking for news had just given up and kind of moved on.”

One example of a community sustaining rural journalism was the first paper that Gulban started, the Rainy Lake Gazette in International Falls, Minnesota, where the paper had closed, and the Chamber of Commerce reached out to him because he had recently bought his first paper in Grand Marais, also in northern Minnesota.

That caused most retail advertising to vanish, and “dependence on legal [ads] and obituaries,” Gulban said. “When we looked at at these financials, the revenue from obits, legal and classified, was nearly double the display advertising in a lot of cases, you know, which is totally upside down. ... So really, what you have is you got a ghost newspaper, right? It really has no relevance in the community. And you know that’s a vicious cycle, right? The less relevant it is. So. This is kind of the cycle that we found most of these papers to be in.”

“They got a whole bunch of different stakeholders in town, and we all met, and it was really kind of an amazing meeting for me, because I had never seen that kind of enthusiasm, that kind of spirit, to solve a problem,” Gulban said. Three weeks later, they had a paper. “People really embraced it,” he said. “We quickly got to more subscribers than, you know, the old paper had.”

In addition to returning editorial control, “We tried to take out all of the regional or national content that was being put in there primarily as filler,” Gulban said. “We still have some national content in some of the more-than-once-a-week frequencies. But anything weekly really has nothing but local content in it. We invested more in editorial positions. ... We’ve actually been able to find someone in every one of those markets, which has not been easy.”

That brought the information-technology entrepreneur to the attention of the nation’s biggest newspaper company, which is trying to unload small papers that add little, if anything, to its bottom line.

“Gannett was looking for an organization that was strong enough technically to be able to do these migrations that would have to happen, and probably blissfully ignorant enough to take on this challenge of selling their worst papers, basically. So we took the leap.”

On the business side, “We’ve really tried to make sure we have a local ad rep in every market, with some success,” he said.

Now his company, less than three years old, has 77 papers in 17 states, more than 50 of them former Gannett papers, and many of them “ghost newspapers,” he said. [The term ghost newspaper refers to papers that do not have enough staff to provide a basic level of local news coverage. These publications have diminished to the point that they are “ghosts” of their former selves. Ed.]

“That’s not an easy position to hire for, particularly if you’ve got a tough product that you’re trying to sell into. So we’ve had a hard time getting people. ... Our biggest source of talent, believe it or not, is just people who used to work at the paper, and see that it’s improved and want to come back.” As staffs are rebuilt, Gulban said, “some people are going to step up and be leaders in this. And some people aren’t. And so there’s a direct correlation between

Making the papers substantial and sustainable began with returning control to local people.

“When we took over, the editors would say, ‘We send in a few articles, and we don’t see the Arkansas Publisher Weekly

See Gulban page 11

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Gulban Continued from page 9

the circulation person’s there, you can go meet with them. We’re trying to be as creative as possible just to keep that physical real estate cost down.”

the leadership ability of the local usually editor, sometimes the salesperson.”

But local has its limits. Local ad and page designers are “a luxury that we can’t afford,” Gulban said. “And we’ve built our own circulation platform. That’s entirely web-based so that we can have people in different locations serve circulation needs across markets.” All printing is outsourced, but he said the company might build a plant because so many are closing: “We do believe that a printed product has to be part of the long-term solution” to the problems of local papers.

The Google listing for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune says it’s “temporarily closed.”

Gulban’s other example was the Hamburg Reporter, in Iowa’s southeast corner. Fremont County “had a catastrophic flood in 2019 and basically half the town’s population left, so the population is now 890. We have 132 print subscribers and two digital, but we just put the paywall up two weeks ago,” Gulban said. But its ad revenue averages $9,200 a month, and “this is the best revenue per population of anything in our whole organization.”

Just east of Stephenville on US 67 south of Fort Worth, Texas, the Glen Rose Reporter serves a town of 900 people with 320 print subscribers, “which was under 200 when we took over, and 108 digital subscribers, which was zero [before the purchase] because there was no paywall,” Gulban said.

The paper’s mothership is the Nebraska City News-Press, across the Missouri River; the one person “who was basically doing everything” died last month, “so we have to figure out how to handle that. But the model here still holds. ... We have one person who is about town, knows everybody, is able to do a lot of different things,” Gulban said.

“This paper was absolutely horrible. It had literally nothing in it. When we took over, two really dedicated freelancers stepped up and said, ‘We will make this paper be successful,’ and so they produce all the content between the two of them. They take it upon themselves to go around town, try to get people to advertise, try to drive additional subscribers. ... This is so much better of a paper than it was a year ago, and the results show.

And while those numbers are small, in percentageincrease terms, they’re really huge. ... Truthfully, if we didn’t take this paper over, it wouldn’t be there anymore, because the markets, too small for anybody to really be interested in doing anything here.”

“Our vision, which is a little bit out there, is: If you want to advertise in Hamburg, Iowa, we’re the place you should be doing it through, not through Facebook, not through any other technical solution. Because we know Hamburg, Iowa. ... We want to leverage our local staffs and their credibility to drive revenue in this new digital world.”

And America’s newest newspaper-chain owner had one broad thing to say about consolidation of newspaper ownership: “I believe strongly in distributed ownership of the news, because I don’t think the country is founded on the idea that three or four groups or people would control all the information. The vision was thousands of individual people controlling the flow of information.”

One way to define a ghost newspaper is that it has no local office open to the public, or is open only a few hours a week: “That just leads to no community goodwill efforts, no sponsoring events, no joining the Rotary Club, none of that,” Gulban said. “That’s so essential in a small-town newspaper.”

______________________________________________________ Al Cross is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which is based at the University of Kentucky. He is also a professor at the university.

But not so essential that he has offices in some small markets.

In Stephenville, Texas, rent was too high, so “we’re trying to pioneer like a shared office, you know, with a Chamber of Commerce, maybe even a local restaurant, you know, we’re open for lunch. Three days a week we go in there, the editor’s there,

CherryRoad Media CEO Jeremy Gulban sits on the APA Board of Directors.

LIST YOUR JOBS

LETS GET SOCIAL

The Arkansas Newspaper Connection is a weekly newsletter published by APA connecting freelance and independent writers, editors, photographers and designers with Arkansas newspapers in need.

@ArkansasPressAssociation

@ARPressAssoc

Lists available job openings and other opportunities at Arkansas newspapers and associate member organizations.

Send your listings to info@arkansaspress.org.

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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July 22, 2023

Report for America opens newsroom applications, expands the opportunity to hire more journalists in underserved markets National service program recruits talented, diverse reporters; helps fund salaries Report for America announced on July 10 that applications are now open for news organizations interested in partnering to host emerging and experienced journalists in their newsrooms for up to three years, beginning next summer.

Report for America is a national service program that places talented journalists— corps members—into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Through the program, host newsrooms receive:

● Diverse, talented slate of candidates to choose from

● Subsidized salary support for up to three years

● Local fundraising coaching and

resources, including the opportunity for fiscal sponsorship to accept donations

● Extra training and mentoring for

“We understand the challenges today’s newsrooms face, not only finding talented journalists but also providing the mentorship and support they might seek,” said Earl Johnson, vice president of recruitment and alumni engagement at Report for America. “By partnering with Report for America, local newsrooms are better positioned to cover important issues, diversify their newsrooms, and grow sustainable, local support within their communities.”

While all local news organizations are eligible to apply, Report for America looks to expand its reach into rural areas, as well as newsrooms owned or led by journalists of color. Prospective newsrooms must identify specific gaps in coverage in the community, drawing attention to under-covered communities or issues.

Beats to consider can include but are not limited to healthcare, education, communities of color, immigration, economic development, local government, religion, obituaries, military and veteran affairs, or even sports reporting.

Since the Report for America program started, three reporters have served in Arkansas: Catherine Nolte covered food insecurity and poverty in Fort Smith for the Southwest Times Record, Anna Pope covered booming growth and its effects on northwest Arkansas for KUAF 91.3 FM public radio in Fayetteville, and My Ly is currently on the health and poverty beat for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock.

Report for America will hold online information sessions for interested newsrooms throughout the application period. The application process can be started at reportforamerica.submittable.com/submit/266686/ 2024-2025-rfa-host-newsroom-application.

The application deadline is Sept. 18, 2023, and newsrooms will be publicly announced in December. More information about how the program works can be found at reportforamerica.org/news-rooms/ To learn more visit reportforamerica.org or send an email to recruitment@reportforamerica.org.

journalists

Steve Eddington

501-228-1383 | steve.eddington@arfb.com

Jason Brown

501-891-1475 | jason.brown@arfb.com

For photos, video, news, commetary and more, visit www.ArFB.com

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

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July 22, 2023

Guest Column: Ad Libs Don’t sell your clients short

By John Foust

Gene told me about an experience he had when he was fundraising for the Boy Scouts. “I was young and completely sold on the value of scouting because some years earlier I had earned the designations of Eagle Scout and Order of the Arrow,” he said. “My boss asked me to visit a Mr. Jones, who had been a big contributor to scouting for a long time. I knocked on his door, and he welcomed me with a big smile. When we sat down in his living room, I thanked him for his support and asked if he would like to make a generous contribution of $2,500 for that year. He enthusiastically agreed, pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check.

“When I got back to the office and proudly showed the check to my boss, he patted me on the back and said, ‘Gene, Mr. Jones is such a loyal supporter that he would have written a check for just about any amount you suggested, even more than $2,500.’

“That was in the days before computer spreadsheets and easily access to previous years’ records,” Gene explained. “But I still felt responsible for not doing some advance research. My boss never told me what happened next, but I wouldn’t be

Arkansas Publisher Weekly

surprised if he asked Mr. Jones to increase his contribution. It was an important lesson.”

Gene’s story applies to anyone in sales.

Just about all of us have undersold our products and services at times. When you’re upselling, here are some points to keep in mind: 1. Research. As soon as his boss told him about the missed opportunity, Gene realized that he should have done some homework. In today’s world, we have lots of research tools, including in-house records on years of advertisers’ budgets and expenditures, spreadsheets, online searches of company histories and growth plans, and notes from others in your advertising department.

2. Build up to the ask. After you’ve done your research and arrived at a fair and reasonable ask – whether it’s a long-term marketing proposal or a single ad in a special section – put some thought into how you’re going to present the idea. After all, you know it’s more than your client has spent on similar things in the past.

In your presentation, begin with sincere thanks for the client’s business in the past.

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Then take a minute or two to describe the specific benefits of looking at a new approach to their marketing. Next, compare the benefits of the old way to the new way.

3. Reassure. Your recommendations may be a stretch for your client. As a result, it’s important to reassure them that you – and your newspaper, which has years of experience – are confident in the plan you are presenting.

4. Be flexible. Be sure to tell them you will be happy to work with them to adjust the plan once it is underway. After all, the captain of a ship sailing across the ocean continually needs to tweak the course as it goes.

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

John Foust 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. Email for information: john@johnfoust.com

July 22, 2023