A runaway youth who found his niche and his first few dollars in the Indian Territory became the patriarch of the family that has operated The Jonesboro Sun for 97 years.
“My grandfather ran away from home as a young boy and some way learned to shoot pictures, actually shot pictures of the Indians, and made enough money to buy his first newspaper, which was in Spiro in the Indian Territory,” John Troutt Jr. recalls. “He made the decision Spiro [Okla.] wasn’t going to grow — he sure as hell was right there, it never did — and started scouting around.
“Somewhere on his travels after he left his home in Kentucky he had stayed here a year or so as a child — really a teen-ager, and he stayed just north of here. He found out a paper was for sale in Jonesboro and that’s how the family got here.”
The Jonesboro Sun actually began in 1883 and had several owners before W.O. Troutt bought the paper from the Cone estate in 1901. It served as an afternoon paper until 1982, when John Troutt Jr. decided to go to mornings and make it a more regional paper. It’s one of only 300 or so independent papers left in the country.
John Troutt Sr. and brother Fred Troutt operated the paper with their father. John Troutt Sr. died in 1948, Fred in 1980.
John Troutt Jr. had delivered papers when he was 10. After seven years away from home in college and the Army, he returned for good in 1954.
John Jr., now 69, runs the paper with his sons, Bob and Ed, who are assistant publishers. Bob and Ed are also involved in golf course and real estate development in Jonesboro and at Port Charlotte, Fla.
Troutt says all the family has “tried to do is put out a good newspaper. That’s basically been the whole guiding principle to the Sun — not to put out the most profitable newspaper, we’re not, but to put out a good newspaper.”
The Sun has grown with Jonesboro.
“When I started carrying papers in 1939, this was a tiny town, probably 10,000 people maybe, and there was a competing paper here then — it went out in 1943 — circulation was about 3,500. Now it’s over 30,000.
“We seem to be doing very well and growing. That’s always good news. The area is growing. And any newspaper is heavily tied to the city and area it serves. If the economy in the area goes in the tank, then the newspaper obviously hurts.”
No one but a Troutt has written editorials speaking for the paper in 97 years. He hopes to keep it that way for many years to come. Troutt has had offers to sell the paper, but he doesn’t invite them and plans to stay in charge “as long as I feel comfortable being the head of it.”
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