Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Arkansas Times & Democrat-Gazette Embrace Donations to Support Local JournalismLock Icon

7 min read

When the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette announced in August that it would take donations from the public to bolster its journalism, it didn’t surprise Arkansas Times Publisher Alan Leveritt.

“I’m only surprised that they hadn’t done it earlier,” said Leveritt, whose team began accepting gifts via the nonprofit Arkansas Community Foundation nearly three years ago. 

Eliza Hussman Gaines

The Democrat-Gazette also partnered with the foundation, and the arrangement quickly paid off.

After the paper published a steady run of ads publicizing a goal of raising $100,000 in 100 days, Democrat-Gazette fundraisers reached it in just 17 days. By Dec. 9, the Community Journalism Project was very near reaching $200,000 after passing Day 100.

“We see this as kind of a third leg of the stool on the way to sustainability,” Publisher Eliza Hussman Gaines said in an interview. “We have subscriptions, we have advertising  and now we have philanthropy, all working together to provide a sustainable business. We are not going to rely on donations alone. We don’t think that’s realistic, but it will help keep us sustainable.”

The Arkansas Times, which publishes a monthly magazine and puts breaking news on its website, is on track to raise $300,000 in donations this year. It and the Democrat-Gazette are among the first publications in the state to solicit tax-deductible gifts, but papers around the country have used gifts as one way to shore up a collapsed business model.

“Metro mass market papers must somehow reinvent themselves in the age of the internet,” Arkansas Times Associate Publisher for Development Wythe Walker said. “The old model is toast.”

And what separates news entities from other private companies that might appreciate a donation?

Community news is a public good, Arkansas Community Foundation CEO Heather Larkin said, whereas “making a widget” isn’t. By working with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit like her group, donors can make tax-deductible gifts to a fund that newspapers can tap for approved work.

The Community Journalism Project also will let Gaines’ parents, Wehco Media Chair Walter Hussman Jr. and his wife, Ben, continue to give the paper cash infusions while benefiting from a tax break.

The money must be used to produce journalism that informs the community and benefits civic knowledge and decision-making. Funds cannot go for maintenance or management, or to cover fundraising expenses. (See sidebar)

Donors will not help shape the coverage they’re paying for, Gaines and Democrat-Gazette Managing Editor Alyson Hoge said. And donated money won’t pay for columnists or opinion content.

“We make it very clear that no donor has any say in editorial decisions,” Gaines said. “And they don’t see any story before it’s published. They have no editorial control at all.”

Success Elsewhere in U.S.

Staci Miller, the Democrat-Gazette’s former creative services director, is overseeing the Community Journalism Project for the D-G, working closely with Larkin.

Miller cited some success stories around the country. The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina, raised nearly $500,000 in its first 100 days of donations, in 2020. Through August, donors had given the Charleston paper $2.6 million.

The Seattle Times, which started taking donations in 2013, has “raised more than $10 million from community donations,” Miller said in a phone interview.

Walker said donations have helped the Arkansas Times double its newsroom staff and focus on topics like agriculture, school vouchers and diversity.

“We raised $100,000 in our first six months, mostly from friends of the publication,” Walker said. “The second year, we broadened that effort with numerous smaller donors and some grants from local foundations and hit $200K. In our third year, we started an editorial speaker series to extend the brand and create another source of support.”

The Times began fundraising for specific beats and reporters, including the Blue Hog Report by Matt Campbell, an agriculture-environment writer and a Black reporter. They also partnered with the nonprofit Report for America to add another reporter. “All of those funds have allowed us to grow our newsroom positions from five to 11, and soon to be 12, in a 30-month period,” Walker said.

Looking Northwest

Leveritt is considering using gifts to hire a northwest Arkansas reporter next year. “That is the fastest-growing, wealthiest part of the state, yet it is practically a news desert,” he said. “The local papers are gone and the northwest edition of the Democrat has pared down.”

Leveritt welcomed talk about a Walton family-funded online news operation in the works, but he sees a drawback. “The problem is, the Waltons are much of the story. There need to be independent voices covering that part of the state.”

Leverett said Walker, the scion of a prominent Little Rock family with an extensive contact list, has been “doing a great job” working with donors at all levels.

“The landlord knocked out a wall to add more space to the editorial department” in the Times’ offices downtown, Leveritt said. In addition to the gifts, “we now have over 4,000 full-access online subscribers at $120 a year. “These readers are actually supporters, determined to see a progressive political voice prosper and grow in Arkansas.”

Both the Times and the Democrat-Gazette report that individual donations tend to be small, but there were some outliers, into thousands of dollars. The Democrat-Gazette will publish the names of donors, unless they prefer to be anonymous, but has vowed not to include the amounts. So far, the philanthropy benefits only the Democrat-Gazette, and not its sister Wehco papers in Arkansas.

“Within the next year, though, the plan is to launch funds for all the Wehco newspapers,” Miller said. That would include the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Texarkana Gazette, the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record and others.

“Readers want to know what’s happening in Arkansas, more coverage than we can give to them about their community,” said Hoge, the top D-G editor. “That’s anything from feature stories to news analysis or data analysis. We have analytical tools that tell us what most people are reading on our website, and they’re reading local stories.”

Deeper Coverage

Gaines expects the donor money to allow deeper coverage of important subjects.

“In terms of our coverage, there are topics that are pressing in our state, that we need to cover better and more deeply that we can’t do right now in terms of travel and staffing,” she said. “This will really help with that.”

Leveritt and Walker said they’re pulling for a sustainable Times and Democrat-Gazette.

“I think a well-funded, locally owned newspaper is really important in Little Rock,” Leveritt said. “I don’t think anyone should own a newspaper in a town where they do not live. I think that is why the Democrat is a good newspaper, and I hope people will support it.

“I think Walter [Hussman] has a steeper hill to climb,” Leveritt added, “in that he is many times wealthier than most of his readers from whom he is soliciting donations.”

Send this to a friend