Walter Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and chairman of Wehco Media of Little Rock, startled the local media word by donating $25 million to the journalism school of his alma mater, the University of North Carolina.
It’s the largest donation in the school’s history, and it emblazons the third-generation publisher’s name onto the Hussman School of Journalism & Media. The gift, creating the campus’ fifth named school, also drew pointed remarks from a few present and former Wehco employees, who groused about the company’s parsimony with workplace upkeep and salaries.
The Hussman School will preach the publisher’s core values of impartial reporting, which appear every day in the chain’s 10 daily newspapers, including the Little Rock flagship, which is making a risky transition to printing only on Sundays only while furnishing subscribers with an iPad for accessing a digital replica edition.
More on all this next week.
