View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Aquila Digital Community The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Fall 12-2012 "If It Ain't Broke, Break It": How Corporate Journalism Killed the "Arkansas Gazette" Donna Lampkin Stephens University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Journalism Studies Commons, Mass Communication Commons, and the Publishing Commons Recommended Citation Stephens, Donna Lampkin, ""If It Ain't Broke, Break It": How Corporate Journalism Killed the "Arkansas Gazette"" (2012). Dissertations. 496. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/496 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi “IF IT AIN’T BROKE, BREAK IT”: HOW CORPORATE JOURNALISM KILLED THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE by Donna Lampkin Stephens Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2012 ABSTRACT “IF IT AIN’T BROKE, BREAK IT”: HOW CORPORATE JOURNALISM KILLED THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE by Donna Lampkin Stephens December 2012 Ownership is an increasingly critical issue for newspapers as they face the latest threats to the industry’s survival. Local, engaged, enlightened ownership is preferable to that of a distant corporation, but economic realities have decreed that corporate ownership has become the norm. The Arkansas Gazette was one of the most honored newspapers of twentieth-century American journalism under independent local family ownership, having provided brave leadership during the Little Rock Central Crisis, but its wounds from one of the country’s final fierce newspaper wars — against another local owner, Walter Hussman and his Arkansas Democrat — in the 1980s, combined with those changing economic realities, led to the family’s decision to sell to the Gannett Corporation. Whereas the Heiskell/Patterson family had been committed to quality journalism and was willing to pay for it, Gannett, like all public companies, was focused on the bottom line. The brash arrogance that many Gannett imports brought to Arkansas led the giant corporation to shift the Gazette’s focus from editor-driven to market-driven, reversing the Heiskell/Patterson philosophy of giving readers what they needed to be engaged citizens rather than what they wanted to do in their leisure time. In many ways, the chain trivialized the Gazette’s mission, although the Gazette retained its superior quality until the end. Instead, financial reasons made the difference in Arkansas’s newspaper war. As the head of a privately-held company, Hussman had only himself to ii answer to, and he never flinched while spending $42 million in his battle with the Pattersons and millions more against Gannett. Gannett ultimately lost $108 million during its five years in Little Rock; Hussman said his losses were far less but still in the tens of millions. Again, he had only himself to pacify; Gannett had to answer to nervous stockholders, most of whom had no tie to, nor knowledge of, Arkansas or the Gazette. For Hussman, the Arkansan, the battle had been personal since at least 1978. For Gannett, the Arkansas Gazette was simply a business proposition. It is no surprise that Gannett blinked first, and the Arkansas Gazette died on October 18, 1991, the victim of corporate journalism. iii COPYRIGHT BY DONNA LAMPKIN STEPHENS 2012 The University of Southern Mississippi “IF IT AIN’T BROKE, BREAK IT”: HOW CORPORATE JOURNALISM KILLED THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE by Donna Lampkin Stephens A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: David R. Davies__________________________ Director Christopher Campbell______________________ Kim M. LeDuff___________________________ Gene Wiggins____________________________ Fei Xue_________________________________ Susan A. Siltanen _______________________ Dean of the Graduate School December 2012 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank the dissertation director, Dr. David R. Davies, and the other committee members, Dr. Christopher Campbell, Dr. Kim LeDuff, Dr. Gene Wiggins, and Dr. Fei Xue, for their guidance, advice, and support throughout this project and my entire USM experience. They are devoted scholars and caring educators and role models. Thanks also go to Dr. Bruce Plopper and Dr. Christina Drale at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Dr. Sondra Gordy at the University of Central Arkansas for their roles in the completion of this journey. Special thanks go to Kevin Clark for seeking out the story of the Old Gray Lady in the first place and starting me down this path. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 Rationale Literature Review Database and Methods/Sources Consulted Outline II. EARLY HEISKELL FAMILY OWNERSHIP, 1902-1946 ..................... 27 III. A NEW TRIUMVIRATE TAKES CONTROL: J.N. HEISKELL, HUGH B. PATTERSON, HARRY S ASHMORE AND CENTRAL HIGH, 1947-1959 .................................... 58 IV. THE AFTERMATH OF CENTRAL HIGH, 1960-1970 .......................... 98 V. HEISKELL’S DEATH AND THE TRANSITION OF OWNERSHIP TO THE PATTERSON FAMILY, 1970-1974 ....................................... 123 VI. A CHANGE ATOP THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT, THE ENSUING NEWSPAPER WAR, ANTI-TRUST LAWSUIT AND SALE TO GANNETT, 1974-1986 ................................................ 143 VII. GANNETT OWNERSHIP, 1986-1990 .................................................. 213 VIII. THE DEATH OF THE NEWSPAPER, 1991 .......................................... 288 IX. LESSONS LEARNED ............................................................................ 342 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 365 v 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The death of the almost one hundred seventy-two-year-old Arkansas Gazette, one of the country’s most respected newspapers, on October 18, 1991, is a story with far more than just local ramifications. As a newspaper facing decline because of competition, ruthless business practices, and inept corporate tactics, the Gazette is reflective of an industry that has found itself unable to cope with the most substantial changes since the invention of the printing press. The newspaper industry today is facing the biggest challenge of its history — a myriad of constantly evolving facets of the world of the Internet. The industry has faced the twin demons of change and competition since its existence, but changing economic realities have put the onus on another C — the corporations that have become the vast majority of American newspaper owners. In the case of the Arkansas Gazette, the Gannett Corporation proved to be no better at facing competition than the family owners had been. A look back at the industry’s previous experiences, although different from the current ones in specifics, can only give perspective as the business faces today’s minefields. The newspaper industry must recognize that much of the past is mirrored in the present and future, and even if its responses to previous challenges were wrong, the knowledge of those responses and the ensuing results can help inform the tactics used in the battles of today and tomorrow. This dissertation tells the story of the glory days and demise of the Arkansas Gazette from the time of the Heiskell family’s 1902 purchase until the newspaper’s death in 1991, with particular attention to its heyday following World War II, including its suffering and ultimate triumph during and after the Central High Crisis, and Arkansas’s 2 newspaper war, until its death in 1991. But it is not just a story of one newspaper. This dissertation uses the Gazette as an example of what has happened to newspapers under long-distance corporate ownership and offers lessons from that experience for the industry today. It is built upon a vast array of primary sources, including the rich holdings of the Heiskell Personal Papers and Arkansas Gazette Papers at the Arkansas Studies Institute, particularly for the time period 1902-1972; newspaper accounts from across the country of the final eighty-nine years of the Gazette’s life; oral histories making up the Arkansas Gazette Project and the Arkansas Democrat Project of the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History at the University of Arkansas; and, particularly for the time period of the 1978-91 newspaper war, thirty-four interviews by the author with key players. Arkansas’s newspaper war featured three ownership models — the Heiskell/Patterson family’s enlightened, engaged local ownership of the Gazette (until 1986); Walter Hussman’s local family privately-held chain ownership of the Democrat (1974-91); and Gannett’s distant publicly-held corporate ownership