Walter E. Hussman Jr.

Last updated
Walter E. Hussman Jr.
Walter E. Hussman Jr.jpg
Born
Walter Edward Hussman Jr.

(1947-01-05) January 5, 1947 (age 77)
Texarkana, Arkansas, U.S.
Education University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Columbia University
Occupation Chairman of WEHCO Media
SpouseRobena Kendrick Hussman
Children3
Parents
  • Walter E. Hussman Sr. (father)
  • Betty Palmer Hussman (mother)

Walter Edward Hussman Jr. (born January 5, 1947), is an American newspaper publisher and chairman of WEHCO Media, Inc. He is the publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, which is the largest newspaper in Arkansas. Hussman directs a chain of smaller newspapers, including the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Texarkana Gazette , and owns cable television companies in four states.

Contents

Early years and education

Hussman was born in Texarkana, Arkansas, but moved in 1949 to Camden, Arkansas, with his parents, Walter E. Hussman Sr. (1906–1988) and the former Betty Palmer (1911–1990), and two older sisters. Hussman Sr. published The Camden News, which he had purchased from his father-in-law, Clyde E. Palmer (1876–1957). [1]

Hussman graduated from the Lawrenceville School in 1964. [2] He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and his master's of business administration from Columbia University. In 1970, Hussman worked as a reporter for Forbes magazine. Later he became his father's administrative assistant, then general manager of The Camden News. He moved to Hot Springs in 1973 to become vice president and general manager of the Palmer Newspapers, which became a division of WEHCO Media. [1]

In 1974, Hussman left Hot Springs for Little Rock when WEHCO purchased the Arkansas Democrat and he was named publisher. [1]

Newspaper work

Hussman moved the Arkansas Democrat to a morning paper in 1979 and began using color 1982. [3] He fought a newspaper "war" with the competing Arkansas Gazette. The two papers merged into the joint Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in October 1991. [3] Hussman was opposed to newspapers providing free content online, writing in a 2007 Wall Street Journal op-ed column that newspapers should stop providing such free content, calling the posting of so much of the newspaper product a "self-inflicted wound." [4] He implemented a shift from delivering newspapers in print to delivering them on iPads in 2018. [5]

Hussman is a former chairman of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association (SNPA) and was the first recipient of SNPA's Frank W. Mayborn award, [6] given in honor of the late publisher of the Temple Daily Telegram in Temple, Texas.

Awards and honors

Hussman School of Journalism & Media at UNC

In 2019, Hussman wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "Journalism schools need to adopt similar statement of core journalistic values." [10]

Controversies

Hussman raised concerns with University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill leadership about hiring Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Black journalist who developed The 1619 Project. [11] After its initial delay in voting on her tenure, on June 30, 2021, the UNC board of trustees voted to grant tenure to Hannah-Jones. [12] Hannah-Jones subsequently announced she would join the faculty of Howard University as the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Reporting, having secured $15 million for the institution from foundations. [13]

Personal life

Hussman lives in Little Rock with his wife, the former Robena Kendrick (b. June 26, 1946). They have three children.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camden, Arkansas</span> City in Arkansas, United States

Camden is a city in and the county seat of Ouachita County in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city is located about 100 miles south of Little Rock. Situated on bluffs overlooking the Ouachita River, the city developed because of the river.

<i>Arkansas Democrat-Gazette</i> Daily newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell. It is distributed for sale in all 75 of Arkansas' counties.

The Arkansas Gazette was a newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas, that was published from 1819 to 1991. It was known as the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River. It was located from 1908 until its closing at the now historic Gazette Building. For many years it was the newspaper of record for Little Rock and the State of Arkansas. It was Arkansas' first newspaper.

John Robert Starr was an American journalist and newspaper columnist. Starr was noted for his role in the demise of the Arkansas Gazette during the 1980s and his criticism of President Bill Clinton including popularizing the term "Slick Willie".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KTAL-TV</span> NBC affiliate in Texarkana, Texas

KTAL-TV is a television station licensed to Texarkana, Texas, United States, serving the Shreveport, Louisiana, area as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KSHV-TV ; Nexstar also provides certain services to Fox affiliate KMSS-TV under a shared services agreement (SSA) with Mission Broadcasting. The three stations share studios on North Market Street and Deer Park Road in northeast Shreveport; KTAL-TV maintains a secondary studio on Summerhill Road in Texarkana, Texas, and transmitter facilities northwest of Vivian, Louisiana.

<i>Chattanooga Times Free Press</i> Newspaper in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States

The Chattanooga Times Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's major newspapers and is owned by WEHCO Media, Inc., a diversified communications company with ownership in 14 daily newspapers, 11 weekly newspapers and 13 cable television companies in six states.

WEHCO Media, Inc., based in Little Rock, AR is a privately held media company with holdings that include newspapers, cable television systems, and internet service. Walter E. Hussman Jr., is the president. Hussmann is the grandson of Clyde E. Palmer, whose media holdings formed the basis of WEHCO Media. WEHCO is an acronym for Walter E. Hussman Company.

Stephens Media LLC was a Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, diversified media investment company. It owned stakes in the California Newspapers Partnership and the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

<i>Texarkana Gazette</i>

The Texarkana Gazette is a daily newspaper founded in 1875 and currently owned by WEHCO Media, Inc. It serves a nine-county area surrounding Texarkana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media</span>

The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media is a nationally accredited professional undergraduate and graduate level journalism school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The school, founded in 1950, is ranked competitively among the best journalism schools in the United States. The school offers undergraduate degrees in media & journalism as well as advertising & public relations. It offers master's degrees in journalism, strategic communication, and visual communication and doctoral degrees in media & communication.

Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a daily newspaper in Fayetteville, Arkansas owned by Northwest Arkansas Newspapers and has circulation of 17,807 copies.

Rust Communications is an American privately owned media company based in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The Southeast Missourian is its flagship publication.

Hussman is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikole Hannah-Jones</span> American journalist (born 1976)

Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones is an American investigative journalist, known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. She joined The New York Times as a staff writer in April 2015, was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2017, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2020 for her work on The 1619 Project. Hannah-Jones is the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at the Howard University School of Communications, where she also founded the Center for Journalism and Democracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Roush</span>

Chris Roush is a journalism professor and author in the United States. He was dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, from 2019 to 2023.

The Hot Springs Sentinel-Record is a newspaper in Hot Springs, Arkansas, currently privately owned by WEHCO Media, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penny Abernathy</span> American journalist (born 1951)

Penelope Muse Abernathy is an American journalist, former media executive, author and researcher who specializes in the study of news deserts. In 2008, after senior management roles at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, she became the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2021, she was appointed a visiting professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

A Master of Journalism is a master's degree awarded to students who have studied journalism at a graduate level. Like other master's degree programs, master of journalism programs are typically between one and two years.

The Observer is a student newspaper of the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's College and Holy Cross College. The Observer is distributed in print across the three campuses and is funded by both advertising revenue and a campus fee paid by students attending Notre Dame, Saint Mary's College, and Holy Cross College.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Walter E. Hussman Jr. (1947–)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  2. ↑ "Notable Alumni". The Lawrenceville School. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  3. 1 2 "Arkansas Democrat-Gazette". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
  4. ↑ Hussman Jr., Walter E. (2007-05-07). "How to Sink a Newspaper". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  5. ↑ Monteith, David (2019-11-26). "Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Nearing Completion Of Digital Rollout". www.ualrpublicradio.org. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
  6. ↑ "Hussman wins first Mayborn Leadership Award". Plainview Daily Herald. 2004-10-13. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
  7. ↑ E&P Staff. "Walter Hussman Jr. Named 'E&P' Publisher of the Year – Editor & Publisher Magazine" . Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  8. ↑ "Walter E. Hussman, Jr". Arkansas Business Hall of Fame, Walton College, University of Arkansas. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  9. ↑ "Walter E. Hussman, Inducted 2014". NC Media and Journalism Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  10. ↑ Hussman, Walter Jr. (2019-09-10). "Opinion | Impartiality Is the Source of a Newspaper's Credibility". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  11. ↑ Robertson, Katie (23 June 2021). "Nikole Hannah-Jones Says She Won't Join U.N.C. Faculty Without Tenure". New York Times. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  12. ↑ Ellis, Nicquel Terry (30 June 2021). "UNC board grants tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones amid outcry from Black faculty and students". CNN. CNN. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  13. ↑ "Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones declines UNC job after tenure controversy". www.cbsnews.com. 6 July 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.