Teen buys Arkansas weekly, starts newspaper anew:
The coolest story of the year so far (so far) ..
Katie Jacques has been publisher of the weekly newspaper that serves Brinkley and Monroe County for 20 years – longer than the county’s newest newspaperman has been alive.
Jacques last week sold the assets of the Central Delta Argus-Sun to Hayden Taylor, 19, whose family’s roots in the county go back five generations. Taylor is a throwback to the time decades ago when a few young men his age ventured into owning newspapers, but it was rare then and is almost unheard of now in the age of the Internet.
Following a “Man Bites Dog” theme, Taylor has never taken a single course in journalism.
He said he’s not deterred by his lack of newspaper experience or journalism study, but will buy a few textbooks to read up on the subject. “I think I’m more concerned about management and administration, how to make the bottom line work,” he said.
A 2015 graduate of Marvell Academy, he attended Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge for a year and never decided on a major.
“I’ve always enjoyed reading, and I’ve done well in history and politics, economics and religion,” Taylor told a visitor recently. “All those interests line up with writing.”
This guy deserves a prize .. he is trashing the social media portions of the paper..
One portion of the Arkansas Online story that most interested me: “My friends think Facebook is where they can get ‘local news’, and I just don’t believe that,“ Taylor said. “That ‘news’ isn’t always news, and it’s hardly ever really local.”
In my county, coal country USA, Schuylkill County PA, social media is actually quite dominant for people getting their new
Places like SKOOKNEWS.COM and the Skook News Facebook page are very popular..
nonetheless.. I wish this guy luck .. so amazing to think that in the 21st century NEWSPAPERS could become cool again
