By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Let’s say you’re 72 years old and worth millions of dollars, and you own one of Arkansas’ most important and recognizable companies. However, your entire industry is in a state of upheaval based on economic, societal and technological factors you can’t control.

Do you:

1. Sell your assets, retire, and live out your days in leisure and luxury?
2. Embark on a bold, revolutionary plan that could save your company and light the way for others like it – or it could cost you millions while consuming a chunk of your remaining years?

If you are Walter Hussman, owner of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, you choose (B). And because of your sheer audacity and public-spiritedness, you are the Arkansan of the year.

Hussman has been defying expectations for decades. The Arkansas Democrat publisher won the newspaper war against the older and more established Arkansas Gazette, which had won two Pulitzer Prizes in 1958, got bought by Gannett, and became a shell of its former self, once running a movie review on the front page. Then when many other publishers tried to capture readers by giving away their entire product online for free, he refused, instead making people pay for his.

The result has been a quality statewide newspaper that has continued to practice real journalism and cover important stories. Meanwhile, many other major newspapers, beset by challenges from Facebook, Google and the rest of the internet, responded by cutting staff, fluffing up, selling out and/or going out of business.

Despite taking the high road, Hussman could not overcome the market’s prevailing winds. He also faced special challenges trying to serve an entire state rather than a single city or county. He had to distribute the newspaper far and wide, but unlike a local newspaper, he couldn’t sell ads to smaller, hometown businesses. He began losing money, too. And this is where things really became interesting these past few years.

He could have sold his newspaper, perhaps back to Gannett, and then there’s little doubt what would have happened next: The Democrat-Gazette would have looked like the Arkansas Gazette had begun to look before Hussman won the newspaper war.

Instead, he bought millions of dollars’ worth of iPads and began changing his readers’ lifelong habits. Starting with the state’s outlying areas, he ended daily distribution of his print product everywhere but the state’s northwest counties, while training readers to consume their news online. The new Arkansas Democrat-Gazette looks the same on the screen as it did on paper. His goal was a 70% conversion rate, which seemed ambitious. He recently told Talk Business & Politics that he had reached that number or was close in most of Arkansas and exceeded it in parts of Little Rock. In two areas of that city, he’s actually gained readers.

That’s good news because a newspaper – like the one you’re reading – is more than just a business, but it’s also a vital part of our democracy. The press is explicitly protected by the First Amendment because the Founding Fathers recognized its importance. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

If Hussman’s gamble pays off, two things will happen. First, Arkansas’ most important news provider will continue to thrive. (Meanwhile, keep reading your local newspaper, the best source of news about your community.) Second, he might show other larger publications elsewhere how they can serve their cities and states in the internet age.

And if he fails? At least he’ll go down swinging, and he’ll still be rich.

After a lifetime of reporting the news, Hussman has been making it, and people are watching. For spending millions to save the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette when he could have sold it for millions, and for his commitment to journalism and to an informed citizenry, he is the Arkansan of the year.