The joy of six

Scott Loftis

Producing a weekly newspaper is a labor of love, but it isn’t always easy. There are early-morning deadlines to meet and after- hours meetings to cover. Occasionally there are angry readers or, more frequently, public officials or candidates who don’t like the facts that we’ve presented to our readers.

But every now and then, we get to take a little time out and congratulate ourselves on a job well done. This is one of those times.

On July 22, the Carroll County News was awarded first place for general excellence among medium-circulation newspapers in the Arkansas Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Editorial Contest. I note with great pride that it’s our fourth consecutive firstplace plaque for general excellence — which is, essentially, an overall honor based on our performance in more than 20 individual categories. It’s also the sixth time we’ve won the first-place honor in the past seven years.

I take pride in those achievements because I’m very competitive by nature. If I’m going to fully commit to something, I want to realize every ounce of my potential at it. But more than that, I believe the real owners of this newspaper —the people of Carroll County — deserve nothing less than the best weekly newspaper we are capable of providing.

We don’t do what we do to win awards, but we’re proud of our consistent success and we believe it’s one way that we can measure our performance in carrying out our ultimate mission, which is to provide the people of Carroll County with the information they need and deserve about what’s happening in their communities.

As I said, sometimes public officials and candidates for public office don’t appreciate seeing certain facts in print for the community to see. One such occasion happened about a year ago now, when I called former Green Forest mayor Charlie Reece to offer him an opportunity to comment on tax liens filed against him and on an order of protection obtained by his wife.

Mr. Reece pointed out, correctly, that the order of protection was later dismissed according to his wife’s wishes. He also made a statement that I suppose could be interpreted a lot of ways.

“I will take very serious if that, if everything in that is put out in the newspaper,” Mr. Reece said.

“You should take it seriously,” I replied. “It’s a serious matter.”

I’m not sure if Mr. Reece thought his statement might persuade me not to publish the story. If so, his thinking was incorrect. We published the story because at the time Mr. Reece was a candidate for his old office as mayor of Green Forest. The story was objective and fair. We simply presented the information — all of it obtained through public records — so that our readers could form their own opinions. I can’t tell you what those opinions were, but I can tell you that Mr. Reece finished last among three candidates in the Green Forest mayoral race, with less than 11 percent of the vote. An informed citizenry is a powerful citizenry.

Given all that, I can admit to being quite pleased when the story I wrote regarding Mr. Reece won first place for News Story in the APA contest’s medium weeklies division. I was shocked, however, when it was awarded the Charles Gordon Newman Prize as the top news story entered in the contest by any newspaper in Arkansas — including the “big dailies.”

I love working for a “community newspaper” and letting our readers know about all the good things happening in our community, but part of being a responsible newspaper is also letting our readers know about things that might not be so “positive.” I spent most of my career before I came to Carroll County at those big daily newspapers and as a journalist my favorite stories to tell are still those that someone doesn’t want me to tell. That’s especially true if it seems as if they are being vaguely threatening.

Of course, what we do is a team effort, and every person at this newspaper deserves to be recognized for what we’ve accomplished. That goes for my partners, David Bell and Steve Johnson, reporter Rick Harvey, freelance photographer Charlie Chappell, office manager Melody Strodtman, advertising coordinator and circulation manager Rhonda Worrall and driver Mary Kay Abbott. It takes every one of us pulling in the same direction to accomplish our mission.

That’s about enough self-congratulating. As I say every year, it’s time to get back to work, because what’s better than six first-place plaques? Seven.

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Scott Loftis is editor and publisher of the Carroll County News. His email address is SLoftis@CarrollCoNews.com.