Stephanie Highfill
When digital ad sales surged at the Hot Springs Village Voice in 2018, General Manager Jennifer Allen had no trouble pinpointing the reason: Stephanie Highfill.
As the weekly newspaper’s multimedia sales executive, Highfill helped digital revenue grow 70 percent in 2018 over 2017, and her work won Best of Show in the 2018 Arkansas Press Association Better Newspaper Advertising Contest.
Still, Highfill was surprised to learn that she’d been named one of Editor & Publisher magazine’s 25 Under 35 honorees. The program recognizes young professionals in publishing. “Jennifer Allen called me up and said she had great news, that I’d be in a national magazine,” Highfill told Arkansas Business.
And there she is on Page 46 of the April issue, clutching an ironing board she uses to press tablecloths for events hosted by the Hot Springs Village Area Chamber of Commerce, where she’s a member of the board.
At 29, Highfill “does not hold back raising up creative ideas for problem-solving and moving projects forward,” Allen told E&P. But the honoree herself deflects praise. “It’s really not about me, but about the businesses that I serve.”
A Cabot High School graduate, Highfill sold commercial car parts before going digital. “At a basic level, they’re the same,” she told Arkansas Business. “Someone comes to you with a problem, and like a doctor you diagnose what’s wrong, then devise a plan to overcome or fix or solve that problem.”
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