This one just means more

      Loftis

It has become a bit of an annual tradition to devote this space — once a year — to celebrating the accomplishments of this newspaper and its staff.

It’s a couple of weeks overdue this year, but here it is.

It was my great honor, on Saturday, June 29, to accept the Carroll County News’ fifth consecutive first place award for general excellence in the Arkansas Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Editorial Contest. It was our seventh general excellence win in the past eight years.

Every one of those seven plaques means a lot to me, but the latest one is even more meaningful. That award was based on work we did in 2023, after I became the majority owner of the newspaper. The Carroll County News is now 100 percent locally owned, and I’m proud of that. But ownership comes with its own unique set of challenges. For the first eight and a half years that I worked here, I was able to focus virtually all of my attention on our news product. Over the last year and a half, my responsibilities have multiplied. Not only am I still responsible for making sure we produce a quality newspaper, but now I also have to keep a close eye on the business side of our operation. Even though this is truly a labor of love for me, it’s also a business. Tending to that aspect of our operation takes time, and sometimes I worry that I’m being pulled in too many directions. Bringing home that general excellence plaque helped reassure me that we are still giving the people of our community the quality newspaper that they deserve.

Of course, none of this would be possible without our employees and freelance contributors. Reporter Rick Harvey, photographer and minority partner David Bell and freelancer Charlie Chappell all brought home individual first-place awards. And all of that work is supported by our office staff — Julia Borkowski, Melody Strodtman and Rhonda Worrall — and driver Mary Kay Abbott. They’re the folks who make sure that our subscribers get their paper each week, that our social media pages are active, that the classifieds are correct. This operation would not work without them.

While I’m handing out thank yous, the biggest ones should go to the people who support this newspaper. Our readers, our subscribers, our advertisers. It’s because of you that Carroll County still has a newspaper when so many places in America no longer do. My pledge to you is to work as hard as I can to make sure that never changes. Thank you all.

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