Talk Business & Politics has expanded its coverage of the Fort Smith metro with an expanded regional landing page that includes more news about the region, obituary postings, and feature stories about area high school teams and athletes.
Updating the metro news page was pushed in large part by several members of the business community who believe local news coverage is lacking because of newspaper industry declines, and local television stations relocating studios out of Fort Smith.
Of the 100 largest dailies by print circulation, 40 were no longer publishing seven days a week in print as of 2020, with more than 2,860 newspapers closing since 2004. And according to Penelope Abernathy, a visiting professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism who focuses on studying news deserts, many of the nation’s more than 1,200 daily newspapers are so small they could be called “ghost newspapers.”
“The business community, led primarily by BHC Insurance President Marty Clark, asked us what we could do to boost our coverage. We had several meetings with people from area businesses, and had enough interest to support an expanded news effort. We hope to soon connect with more business owners and individuals who want to help us, through advertisements and sponsorships, deliver more regional news,” said Michael Tilley, a Fort Smith-based reporter and president of Talk Business & Politics.
Businesses directly supporting the expanded news effort are the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, BHC, Burford Distributing, Carrington Creek, Five Rivers Distribution, MAHG Architecture, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, and WeatherBarr Windows and Doors.
Veteran reporters Tina Dale, Tilley, and freelance reporters David Bradford and Buck Ringgold are part of the expanded news effort.
Dale has more than 30 years of journalism experience, having worked in newspaper, television and radio. She has won several awards for print and broadcast journalism, including for humor and lifestyle columns, editorials and news writing. She has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and bachelor’s degrees in journalism and English from Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas.
Bradford, a fourth-generation Fort Smith resident, graduated from Southside High School and Baylor University. While attending graduate school at Indiana University he began writing freelance stories for local publications, eventually becoming music editor and staff writer for a weekly newspaper. After relocating to Austin, Texas, he continued to write occasional freelance articles for various local publications.
Ringgold has more than 30 years of experience as a sports writer, sports editor and regional sports editor. He worked as a sports editor for newspapers in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, and was a sports writer for the Times Record in Fort Smith from 2000-21. He also spent three years as a regional sports editor for a high school sports website. A native of Ashdown, Ark., Ringgold has run a half-marathon in all 50 states.
Link here for the updated Fort Smith Metro Daily News landing page.