Hooten’s Hears a Hog, Hits Publishing Paydirt

No cheering in the press box, the sportswriting rule goes, but we can forgive Chris Hooten if he pulls a little for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

As publisher of Hooten’s Arkansas Football, the preseason bible for the state’s high school and college fans, Hooten sees the Hogs as his bread and butter, or at least the ham in his sandwich.

“They are the bell cow in this state,” Hooten told Arkansas Business, describing how Razorback coverage rescued his publication early and helped it refine its business model. The 27th edition of Hooten’s yearbook, now a tradition, hit the magazine racks a couple of weeks ago.

“When the Razorbacks are not good, and the last two or three years have been really forgettable, high school football in this state suffers,” Hooten said. “While some great programs never seem to slip, attendance at other places ebbs and flows.”

Struggling Razorbacks also mean sluggish sales for Arkansas Football.

“Yes, it definitely affects sales,” said Hooten, who started the publication in a bedroom in 1993 and has seen sales top 15,000 copies in good years. The cover price, $5.99 in 1993, is now $16.99.

Hooten’s has always relied on a largely reader-financed model, one he noted has saved a few foundering newspapers. “We do sell ads, and we treasure those relationships, but sales are critical to revenue.”

As the football Razorbacks’ fortunes plunged under previous coach Bret Bielema, sales slipped. “It has hit us in the last seven years, but I don’t believe it’s a ‘death of print’ scenario when it comes to us. It’s just been the Razorbacks.”

Last year, anticipation for coach Chad Morris’ first season “bumped sales up 11% over what was a pretty bad year in 2017 when there was zero anticipation and buzz,” he said.

Hooten, his brother Chad and two core deputies poured six months of sweat into this year’s edition, now available at bookstores, supermarkets and discount stores, and online at Hootens.com. The 432-page guide polls coaches in every high school conference, compiles statewide rankings and names “super teams” in each high school classification. All high school and college schedules are in one handy place.

“We interview every high school football coach in the state, probably an hour on average, and all the college coaches, too,” Hooten said. “So it’s really closer to a reference book than it is to a magazine.”

As Dudley E. Dawson wrote for Hawgs Illustrated, something of a competitor: “Hooten’s does a tremendous job in covering the entirety of football in the state with all of the football-playing colleges and a comprehensive look at the state’s high school programs.”

Hooten saw an opening for his “goofy idea” after the Razorbacks left the Southwest Conference, domain of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, in 1992. That publication, founded in 1960 by Waco sports editor Campbell, had spun off a successful sister, Dave Campbell’s Arkansas Football. However, its owner at the time, Host Communications, discontinued it after 1991, considering a Southeastern Conference-bound Arkansas team an outlier in its all-Texas lineup.

So Hooten, a Texas Tech graduate, took $17,000 his wife had saved in four years of marriage and dived in. He had spent five years as a newspaperman in Texas and New Mexico, and was tired of working for others.

So he found himself back in Arkansas, where he and Chad had grown up in Sheridan, and where Chad had gone to UA and worked in broadcasting. “Chad was in a hospital PR job when this started,” he said. “I was the only full-time person, and Chad moonlighted. Later we added [writing stalwarts] Barry Groomes and Chuck Livingston. “The idea was to do a high school book and have the schools, coaches or boosters sell ads locally. It quickly became clear that wasn’t happening.”

By 1995, Razorbacks were on the cover, and coverage of all the state’s football colleges was coming. “There was a niche to fill, but it required us to work really hard and not make much money for a long time,” Hooten said. “Without the Razorbacks, we weren’t going to survive.”

These days, a website and events bolster Hooten’s revenue. Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield sponsors a season kickoff event, and Farm Bureau Insurance caps the year with a postseason awards program to honor top players and coaches. Hooten’s also produces a weekly fall Hogs TV preview show and a syndicated high school radio show.

“It was very scary 27 years ago, staking it all on Arkansas Football,” Chris Hooten said. “But God was very gracious.”