A time to celebrate and be inspired

One of my favorite events each year is the annual Arkansas Press Association convention. It’s a chance to see old friends, learn more about our industry and enjoy some good-natured competition for awards.

This year’s convention was combined with the Tennessee and Mississippi press associations, which we do from time to time. We all gathered in Memphis for an event that combined camaraderie and a sense of celebration with an opportunity to learn and be inspired.

One of the biggest things that I took from this year’s convention was the need to embrace technology and to improve our websites. That was already on my agenda, but the convention reinforced how important that is.

We will be launching new and much improved websites for both the Carroll County News and the Eureka Springs Times-Echo before the end of the year, and also hope to debut a website for Eureka! Magazine, a new project we started last spring that has been a big success.

On a similar note, there was some discussion of Artificial Intelligence and how — used properly — it can help small newspapers combat shrinking staffs and remain competitive with our larger counterparts. Another topic was the public’s growing distrust of traditional media, and how we as an industry can respond to that. The short answer to that is that we can do our best to be accurate, objective and accountable to our readers.

We brought home some awards again this year, although our five-year streak of winning first place for general excellence among small weekly newspapers came to an end. That’s a little bittersweet; of course, I wanted to win. But I can tell you, there are some really good newspapers in Arkansas, and they’re getting better. Over the years, I’ve gotten to know many of the editors and publishers we “compete” with, and I’m sincerely happy to see them succeed. That’s good for our industry, and it’s good for the people of Arkansas.

It’s my privilege to serve on the APA’s board of directors and see firsthand the hard work the association does on behalf of our industry. It’s also inspiring to listen to other editors and publishers and hear them talk about the mission of newspapers. Yes, it’s a business and we have a bottom line just like any other business. But at its core, the newspaper industry is about serving our communities.

I feel very blessed to serve this one.

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