Jonesboro Right Now, the online news site that veteran radio man Trey Stafford launched in April, is getting a new editor-in-chief and chief reporter.
But Stafford, president and general manager of the Jonesboro Radio Group, said the news outlet isn’t struggling, despite some talk otherwise. Advertising and community support for the free-to-readers site has been strong, and it has been breaking news, Stafford said.
Joe Schratz has departed as chief reporter, and top editor Rachel Anderson will be taking a position at Arkansas State University on Nov. 1, Stafford said. But he has already hired a new chief reporter and has a couple of good prospects to fill Anderson’s spot.
Schratz, a former assistant managing editor of the Jonesboro Sun with 35 years of daily newspaper experience, “didn’t work out,” Stafford said. “Very unfortunate.”
Anderson, a social media expert and former Jonesboro police officer, has taken a job as social media director for Todd Clark, the new chief marketing and communications director at A-State.
“I’m sad about that one,” Stafford said. “She has done a terrific job building this thing.”
Stafford hired longtime Sun reporter Nena Zimmer as chief reporter, and she started on the new job last week. Stafford is glad that she will have two months to learn the ropes under Anderson.
“We passed a million page views last month, which I know probably doesn’t sound like a lot to [Arkansas Business Publishing Group], but that was a big number for us,” Stafford said. “And it’s still growing.”
Anderson built a team of five part-time reporters that’s “doing great supporting her,” Stafford said, adding that he’s in the “on-call” reporting rotation on weekends.
“This weekend was my weekend on call,” and a gunman opened fire on Poinsett County sheriff’s deputies and Poinsett County District Judge Ron Hunter at the judge’s home. “It was a great weekend for me,” Stafford said with mirth.
It was precisely the kind of story Stafford built the news site to tell: immediate, of great public interest and ongoing. The shots hit the judge’s house on Friday night, Aug. 23, setting off a multiagency manhunt. Sheriff’s deputies, the Arkansas State Police and the FBI arrested Christopher Ford, 35, of Harrisburg, at 3 p.m. the next day.
Stafford conceived Jonesboro Right Now to be a free-of-charge, immediate and updatable news outlet in a growing and vibrant area. The Sun, a solid newspaper owned by the Paxton chain of Paducah, Kentucky, cannot get news into its next day’s print edition unless it happens before 3 p.m. Schratz cited that handicap when he joined Jonesboro Right Now five months ago.
Stafford said support from readers and advertisers “has been outstanding.”
His strategy of using his group’s radio stations to promote and drive readership to Jonesboro Right Now has been “working perfectly.”
Stafford said he remains devoted to the site’s founding philosophy: “No logins. No paywalls. Always free. Always updated.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
