Arkansas Publisher Weekly: September 22, 2023

By Kevin Slimp

Late Gov. Rockefeller to be honored at Press Freedom Gala 1967 Freedom of Information Act a valentine to the people of Arkansas

When elected as Arkansas’s 37th governor in November 1966, Winthrop Rockefeller promised to usher in an “Era of Excellence.” Indeed, Rockefeller’s major achievements as governor include several laws enacted during the 1967 legislature: adopting the state’s first minimum wage, tightening lax insurance regulation, and, perhaps most importantly, adopting a law to guarantee freedom of information, giving the public and the media the right to examine and copy public records and to be present whenever governmental bodies met.

For his support of government transparency and for signing the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act of 1967 into law on February 14 of that year, Gov. Rockefeller will be presented posthumously with APA’s Freedom of Information Award, to be accepted by his family, at the Press Freedom Gala on October 12 in Little Rock.

During the 1967 legislative session State senator Ben Allen and state Representative Leon Holsted were the lead sponsors on the original bill, Act 93, and had the support of Gov. Rockefeller. But, according to the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the passage of the Arkansas FOIA did not come without a legislative struggle.

The bulk of the opposition to the passage of the law, and those initiating early court challenges to the law once passed, were those desiring to preserve the status quo of doing the public’s business behind closed doors and out of view of the taxpaying public. Gov. Rockefeller disagreed with this viewpoint. “We have taken the government out of the smoke-filled rooms and returned it to the people,” he said of the Arkansas FOIA.

Shortly after Gov. Rockefeller signed the bill into law, the FOIA was tested in court in a lawsuit, W. F. Laman, et al. v. Robert S. McCord, et al., that went all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court. There the

justices ruled unanimously in favor of preserving the Arkansas FOIA as written.

The Arkansas Supreme Court’s opinion, written by then-associate justice George Rose Smith, read: “It is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner. We have no hesitation in asserting our conviction that the Freedom of Information Act was passed wholly in the public interest and is to be liberally interpreted to the end that its praiseworthy purposes may be achieved.”

When Gov. Rockefeller left office in 1971 he pointed to the passage of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act as one of the crowning achievements of his administration.

Rockefeller was born May 1, 1912, the fourth son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. Affectionately known as “Win” to family and friends, he entered Yale University in 1931, but left school in 1934 to work in the Texas oil fields as a roughneck and roustabout for the Humble Oil and Refining Company.

Rockefeller returned to New York City by 1937, but after a series of executive positions he felt the call to serve and enlisted in the Army as a private in January 1941. During World War II he participated in the assault landings on Guam, Leyte, and Okinawa in the Pacific. Aboard the troop transport Henrico, en route to Okinawa, he was wounded in a kamikaze attack. Among his decorations were the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Purple Heart. He was discharged in 1946 at the rank of lieutenant colonel.

After the war Rockefeller returned to the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company of New York, but did not enjoy the position and the highsociety life that came with it, and resigned in 1951. While visiting

Winthrop Rockefeller

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Rockefeller

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his Army friend Frank Newell in Little Rock, he fell in love with Arkansas. By 1953 he had settled permanently in Arkansas, purchasing a 927-acre tract atop Petit Jean Mountain he called Winrock Farms, later growing it into an internationally-recognized Santa Gertrudis cattle operation. Winrock Farms is the site of the present-day Winthrop Rockefeller Institute.

When elected in 1966 he became Arkansas’s first Republican governor since 1874. Rockefeller died of pancreatic cancer on February 22, 1973, in Palm Springs, California, where he had traveled to escape the cold weather at Winrock. His ashes were returned to Arkansas buried atop Petit Jean Mountain. In death he continues to have an impact on Arkansas by his legacy of the Freedom of Information act, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, which concentrates on economic development and education as well as economic, racial and social justice, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to continuing Rockefeller’s collaborative approach to creating transformational change.

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Whether chronicling the history of a community and its people, or standing as the watchdog for truth and integrity, journalists are passionate about making a difference for others.

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Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller signs the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act into law on February 14, 1967, as Rep. Leon Holsted, Sen. Ben Allen and Bob McCord of the North Little Rock Times look on.

Justin Moore, Headliner of the Year

Rex Nelson, Distinguished Service Award

Rusty Turner, Distinguished Service Award

Late Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, Arkansas Freedom of Information Award

Mike Masterson, Golden 50 Service Award

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Long-time Publisher White announces September 30 retirement

Tom White, publisher of the AdvanceMonticellonian in Monticello and the Eagle Democrat in Warren, announced on Wednesday he is stepping down as publisher of the newspapers and as president of the parent organization, Drew County Newspapers, Inc., at the end of this month.

White has been with the AdvanceMonticellonian since 1996, when Frank and Mary Jackson retired and sold the newspaper to Smith Newspapers, Inc. Prior to the move to Monticello, he was co-publisher of the McGehee-Dermott Times-News

In 2022, he purchased the Eagle Democrat from Danny and Pam Cook, who were also retiring. As a child and teenager, he worked at the Eagle Democrat when his late grandfather, W. L. Love, and later his late father, James P. White, Sr. were publishers.

White plans to remain with the organizations on a part-time basis as a consultant, according to the announcement.

“I am very proud of what we have accomplished at the newspapers

since taking over the operations in Monticello over 27 years ago and more recently in Warren. Any success we had has been due to the outstanding employees that I have had the pleasure to work with over the years. We would also not have been able to accomplish anything without our avid readers and the businesses in the area that have supported us with their undying loyalty and advertising dollars,” White said.

Current General Manager/Advertising

Manager Ashley Hogg will be named publisher of the newspapers and president of the corporation upon White’s departure on September 30.

“As I have aged and started contemplating retirement, my goal has been to make sure I leave the newspapers in better shape than I found them, and that includes leaving them in capable hands,” White continued. “I am confident that I have found that with Ashley Hogg. … I think she is as well versed and prepared for the challenges ahead as anyone I have ever known. She has earned this opportunity.”

Former NEA editor McIntosh dies at 58

Former Clay County Courier Managing Editor James Lee McIntosh of Lakeview died September 8 at Hospice of the Ozarks Inc. in Mountain Home. He was 58.

McIntosh was born in 1965 in Norwalk, California. He started his 18-year career with the Clay County Courier in July 1999 as a reporter covering news and sports. Prior to joining the Courier he had been with Concord Publishing in Berryville.

McIntosh replaced Fred Martin as the managing editor of the Courier upon Martin’s retirement in 2015. In July 2017, Jim took over the position of logistics operations manager of the Corning and JV Rockwell Publishing Companies and was responsible for the logistics across the country of all its printed publications.

He and his family moved to Baxter County

in 2021. In March of that year he became the co-owner of Dynamic Greenscapes, a landscaping business. He also owned McIntosh Logistics, LLC and was a territory manager and distributor at EleVate Hydrogen Water.

McIntosh was preceded in death by his son, Dustin McIntosh, his father, John Riley McIntosh, his brother, Bobby Bouche and his sister, Cherryl Bouche.

He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Angela Potts McIntosh, son and daughter-in-law Chord Anthony McIntosh and Jennifer McIntosh of Lakeview, mother Mary Kruger McIntosh, sister and brother-inlaw Michelle Cox and Gary Cox of Piggott, two grandchildren and two nephews.

Funeral Services were held September 12 in Pollard.

Jim McIntosh

Ashley Hogg and Tom White outside the Advance offices in Monticello

How will you celebrate Oct. 1 - 7 National Newspaper Week?

“A free press is the guardian of democracy. In whatever form, it must be preserved.”

– Charlotte Tillar Schexnayder (19232020), member of the Arkansas House of Representatives and publisher and editor of the Dumas Clarion, Dumas, AR

This year marks the 83rd celebration of National Newspaper Week, October

1-7. Since 1940, Newspaper Association Managers has sponsored and supported National Newspaper Week, a week-long promotion of the newspaper industry in the United States and Canada.

The theme, logo and ad materials for this year’s observance have been created by APA and disseminated nationwide for publication at no charge. 2023’s

NNW theme is “In Print. Online. For You. #NewspapersYourWay,” built around the evolution of newspapers and the fact that newspaper readers are from all generations, community leaders and voters. Visit nationalnewspaperweek.com to learn more and download advertising and social media materials, plus editorial columns and cartoons.

Reminder: Oct. 1 is deadline for newspapers to file statement of ownership with US Postal Service

Arkansas Press Association member newspapers who send Periodicals Class Mail must file an annual Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (PS Form 3526) with the U.S. Postal Service on or before October 1.

Publication owners are also required to publish the statement according to the following timetable, depending on the frequency of publication:

• Publications issued more frequently than weekly must publish no later than Oct. 10. This applies to daily, semiweekly, and three-times-per-week publications.

• Publications issued weekly or less frequently, but not less than monthly, must publish the statement by Oct. 31. This includes weekly newspapers.

• All other publications such as quarterlies must publish in the first issue after Oct. 1. Owners may include paid digital subscriptions as circulation in postal statements. A paid subscriber, whether digital or print, may only be counted once. Form 3526 serves as the method for the U.S. Postal Service to establish whether a publication meets standards for the periodicals mailing rates.

The form is available at about.usps.com/forms/ps3526.pdf.

Younger readers might not know what I’m writing about when I mention Facebook “memories.” Still, most of you are familiar with those daily reminders that pop up each morning to remind you of what you were doing one, two, or even ten years ago. Not long ago, a memory on Facebook reminded me of a post I’d created in 2014: “Over the next three weeks, I’ll be speaking in Minneapolis MN, Sioux Falls SD, Edmonton AB, Syracuse NY, and Phoenix AZ.”

It’s hard to imagine I used to spend that much time on the road. It seems like a different lifetime. Don’t get me wrong. I still speak at conventions occasionally, but not nearly as frequently as I did a few years ago. These days, I spend as much time redesigning newspapers as anything else. I’m learning that the more papers I redesign, the better I get at finding ways to make the pages draw readers without sacrificing content.

Guest Column: Making more space: Simple changes invite readers to pick up your paper

By Kevin Slimp

Clients often express concern about losing content at the beginning of the redesign process. One universal goal of redesign seems to be to get as much text on the pages without increasing page count. Whenever I redesign a paper, I do something to reassure the client. I create an entire issue of the newly designed newspaper using the content from a recent issue.

I’m thrilled to show the publisher, editors, and others on staff the issue with bigger headlines, bigger photos, and easierto-read text. For a moment, I feel like a magician. Unlike any magician you’ve seen, I will share a few of my “tricks” with you.

Headlines

Use bigger fonts with fewer words. Instead of “Central High School beats AustinEast to end 6-year losing streak,” I might

use “Central ends streak!” in a big, bold font. Underneath, I might include a light subhead (generally in sans serif) describing the headline. I often use the original headline for the subhead:

Bobcats end streak!

Central High School beats Austin-East to end 6-year losing streak

The new headline (and subhead) often takes up no more room than the original headline yet appears to fill more space.

Photos

Since the pandemic, I’ve noticed in-person training has become a rarity. I lead a lot of webinars, yet I miss being in person with students. With less training, younger designers often haven’t learned the basic rules many of us learned long ago. One of

See Guest page 10

Better cropping makes images appear larger while taking up less space. The picture is the layup, not the other players standing around.

Guest

Continued from page 9

these is the “shoulder rule.”

The shoulder rule goes like this: Most photos should be cropped to the shoulders. Cropping is one method I use to create more space for bigger headlines and more white space. It’s interesting how a cropped photo might take up less room on the page but appear larger. I often take photos of basketball players shooting a layup surrounded by other players, referees and empty space and crop them to just the shooters’ upper bodies, tossing the ball with their outstretched arms toward the basket. I’ve heard the response, “That looks much better,” more times than I remember after cropping a photo like this.

Nameplate/Flag

My first step in redesigning any newspaper is creating a new flag for the front page. I often spend several days building the new nameplate. A newspaper’s flag is crucial. It either invites someone to look closer at the page or screams at them to throw the paper down.

Interestingly, many nameplates are much larger than they need to be. I think part of the reason for this is that many flags were first designed when bulkier fonts were in style. Newspapers often used multiple lines with “The,” “Press,” and “Chronicle” stacked. In 2023, clean is in. By placing the flag on one line stretching across the width of the page, the reader is invited to look closer. Updating

the flag makes the page more inviting by offering a cleaner, more dignified look.

My Other Secrets

I could go on at the risk of sharing all of my secrets. I’m nearing the end of my allotted space, however, and this should give you and your staff enough material to make some simple yet noticeable improvements to your paper’s design right away.

Kevin Slimp is a popular consultant, advisor and trainer in the newspaper industry. From 1997-2018, Kevin directed The Newspaper Institute of The University of Tennessee. He currently serves as CEO of Market Square Publishing and Chief Guru at NewspaperAcademy.com. Email him at kevin@kevinslimp.com

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