Editor's note: This month, the Arkansas Press Association will honor Arkansas Democrat-Gazette publisher Walter E. Hussman Jr. and columnist John Brummett for 50 years of service working in the newspaper business in this state. This is a Q&A that APA Executive Director Ashley Kemp Wimberley did with Walter E. Hussman Jr. for an article in its weekly newsletter Oct. 13, 2022.
1. As a third-generation newspaperman, what does it mean to you to have your daughter Eliza Gaines follow in your footsteps?
Of course, in any family business, you're pleased to see someone continue it for another generation. But I think this is even more meaningful to the people of Arkansas. Over the decades family ownership of newspapers has eroded, first with many family newspapers being sold due to the owners' estate taxes, then with the rise of publicly owned newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s, which often could not have the same community commitment as local ownership.
Today, with more than half of the circulation in America owned by private equity companies, there is even less community commitment. As one of the last statewide newspapers in America, the people of Arkansas are fortunate to have someone who has a sound education, experience in journalism in both large and small communities, and adheres to the traditional values that have stood the test of time, not the latest fad.
Eliza understands that in addition to any potential profit with ownership, the most important mission is stewardship of an institution, one of the oldest in Arkansas, that has its roots back over 200 years.
2. Other than winning the famous Arkansas Newspaper War, what are some of the most impactful moments of your career?
• Meeting Paul Smith, who was as important if not more important than anyone to the success of our newspaper businesses for four decades.
• Meeting Roy McDonald, owner of the Chattanooga Free Press, who convinced me that the No. 2 newspaper could become the No. 1 newspaper in a market, and do it by spending less money than your competitor. He also convinced me on the importance of a high story count and a large news hole, and the importance of avoiding discounting.
• Although I certainly didn't think so at the time, Gannett acquiring the Arkansas Gazette in 1986.
• Being elected to the board at the Associated Press in 2000, despite my failure to convince management and other board members to stop selling content to aggregators like Yahoo who gave away news to the public for free, undermining the newspaper business model.
• At her request, buying one of my sisters' interest in our family company on an amicable basis, and her remaining on the Board of Directors now for over 25 years.
• Becoming friends with Gannett's top executives, even after the newspaper war ended. When I was president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, they agreed to donate over $600,000 to the association's endowment.
• Sharing our companies' profits with our employees, many of whom realized far more than they expected upon their retirement.
• Receiving an unexpected letter one day from Warren Buffett and later having lunch with him, answering many of his questions about newspaper publishing, and continuing to correspond with him by email.
3. You were an early advocate for paywalls on newspaper websites, which caused a lot of discussion and even criticism 15 years ago, but which the industry has now almost universally adopted. What do you see as the future for both digital news platforms and print publications?
In today's world, I did not see how the economics of print could compete with digital. The cost of digital delivery is a fraction of the production and distribution costs of print. For any digital news product to be successful it must be reliable, accurate, and have curated content that is relevant to the readers, so they will see value worth paying for with their subscriptions.
So far I don't see how digital news sites can compete with large social media companies like Facebook and Google successfully for enough advertising revenue to sustain them. So subscriptions are key.
4. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the newspaper industry today?
I think the greatest challenges for newspapers today, at least for print publications, is the high cost of fuel for delivery and the high cost of newsprint. For all newspapers, whether print or digital copy, the greatest challenge for ad revenue is competing successfully with Facebook, Google, Amazon and other such websites. Another challenge is young people who grew up on free news, and their propensity to read on their mobile phones rather than printed newspapers.
5. What are your thoughts on the current state of freedom of the press and the future of journalistic storytelling?
Freedom of the press is enshrined in our Constitution. But it needs more than that. It needs public support. The public's confidence and trust in news reporting is it an all-time low. Gallup did a survey of 20,000 people, including those in all 50 states, and released it in February 2020. Only 23 percent had confidence in the newspapers reporting the news. The Gallup poll for this year dropped to 16 percent for newspapers and 9 percent for television--record lows. The public believes much of news reporting is biased, not objective and not impartial.
That is the very reason we adopted our core values in 2017, five years ago, which emphasize fairness, objectivity, and impartiality. It was also the primary reason behind our agreeing to the naming of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
My thought was if one of the major journalism schools in America would embrace these time-tested principles of journalism, then maybe we can get other journalism schools to do the same, and other news organizations, too.
And that way we could try to rebuild the public's trust in news reporting. Without it, I worry about freedom of the press in America.