There may be a testy northwest Arkansas newspaper war and assorted regional brouhahas in other parts of the state.
But nowhere else in Arkansas is the local newspaper war more personal than in Nashville, where the splintering last year of Graves Publishing Co. Inc. has also created a most unusual media battle.
The southwest Arkansas city is not only the setting for the 10-month-old Nashville Leader to take on the 125-year-old Nashville News, but for two sons of the late Louis “Swampy” Graves to duke it out from behind their publisher desks.
“I can’t think of any other families (like this) in 25 years,” said Dennis Schick, retiring executive director of the Arkansas Press Association. “This is rather unique, that two factions of a family would split off and start up another newspaper in the same town and compete in the same community.”
So far, the News is doing “extremely well,” said Lawrence Graves, whose family elected him publisher last June and voted out brother Louie Graves.
“For a twice-weekly newspaper to lose an editor, assistant editor, managing editor and summer intern all in two weeks and never miss an issue speaks well of us,” Lawrence Graves said. “We were here for their great-grandparents, and we’ll be here beyond the current generation.”
Which, of course, is good news for Louie, who still owns a piece of Graves Publishing. Their father bought the newspaper in 1950.
Since June, the paper has added four-color printing capability, produced its first significant special insert in years — 24 pages of full-color on the poultry industry — and rebuilt a staff that walked out the door to help Louis start up the Leader.
Since Lawrence Graves took over, the News has maintained circulation of about 4,200 and a 75-cent cover price, but the annual subscription rate went to $27 from $22, and advertising rates went up 10-15 percent.
Lawrence Graves said his brother’s new newspaper had some impact on the News, but Graves Publishing Co., of which Lawrence is president, is bolstered by revenue from its other newspapers — the Murfreesboro Diamond, Glenwood Herald and Montgomery County News, which have a combined circulation of about 5,600.
Lawrence says the weekly Leader is frequently behind the news cycle because the News comes out twice a week and that Louie’s newspaper is losing money.
“They’re losing money,” Lawrence Graves said. “If (they) want to stand on the corner and tear up $20 bills, that’s their business.”
Louie Graves said the upstart Leader — which he threatened many times to launch during disputes with his nine siblings — is also doing all right. His wife, Jane Graves, came with him from the News.
When asked whether his paper was in the red, Louie Graves politely declined to answer.
Louie also didn’t want to talk about the family dispute that led to his founding of the Leader.
“It was a notorious thing that happened,” said Louie Graves, who had been publisher of the News since September 1979. “Everybody had their own version of what happened.”
The war’s roots go back to long-simmering bickering among the eight sons and two daughters of Swampy Graves, who bought Graves Publishing Co. from their father.
Lawrence Graves criticized the paper last year for becoming “flabby” and losing its gusto for real news. Family members also were tired of Louie Graves’ bullying and routine threats to quit and start his own paper, Lawrence Graves has said.
Louie Graves said the Leader’s circulation was up to about 8,000, with 32 pages each edition. And the normally free newspaper had about 1,200 subscribers voluntarily paying $15 annually. They have no racks and instead hand-deliver about 1,000 papers through business districts and mail the rest as third-class mail.
He has six full-time employees, prints the paper at the Texarkana Gazette shop about 60 miles away and also distributes it at the same cities as Graves Publishing’s other newspapers.
The Leader has to publish for a year before it becomes a full APA member, Schick said. Then, it could enter as a free newspaper — the only other is the Arkansas Times — and become eligible for lucrative advertising contracts the APA negotiates at group rates for its member newspapers.
To qualify for a periodicals class discounted shipping rate, more than half of the Leader’s circulation will have to be paid, and Louie Graves said it will be a while before that happens.
Other small community weekly publishers have said the monopolistic nature of newspapers probably means one of the newspapers won’t last.
But, there’s still hope for reconciliation.
“Obviously there is some stress with the rest of the family,” Lawrence Graves said. “I keep it on a business level. I still love my brother; he’s a good man.”
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