Record leads in Madison County coverage

The Record staff has been planning ahead, making sure we keep the news coming to you during the holidays, even when things slow down and our staff takes time off to spend with families. 

Even though Christmas is Monday, our Editor Dan Marsh plans to work that day, making sure Tuesday’s press day is less hectic.

In preparation for the New Year, we’re putting together a recap of stories that happened in 2023. 

We covered a lot of news and have seen some changes here.

Our former editor, Rod Harrington, retired in August, but we’re really excited to have Dan to keep the ball rolling.

Dan has covered at great length a lot of important stories just in the last half of the year, including bids on the proposed county jail and the closure of Cooks Venture. 

He was the only reporter recently at a meeting with Cooks Venture’s growers and state officials able to report what the officials said and how growers felt about the state’s response. 

Our steady hands behind the scenes remain dedicated to our community: General Manager Shannon Hahn, who handles each and every problem that comes our way; Operations Manager Opal “Opie Grace” Dennis, who creates all the clients’ award-winning ads; and the person greeting you each day, Cida Dupwe. 

This year, our paper has broken a lot of local and statewide stories.

Other statewide news outlets and TV stations quickly picked up our news and followed our lead not only on our local stories but also on stories pertaining to tourism, specifically our coverage of the possible re-designation of lands around the Buffalo National River.

Just this week, another media outlet — when writing about Cooks Venture’s closing and the effects the closure had on our local growers — appears to have taken our lead by reading our stories, which we published two weeks ago, then contacting all the sources we did when writing its story. 

We’re happy to take the lead on news affecting our county and other statewide stories.

We’re also thankful for news outlets, such as the Arkansas Times and Arkansas Advocate, who are quick to acknowledge our work and give us credit. 

We’ve read a lot recently about the demise of small-town papers and the effects of not having local news in a community.

Without this local paper, our citizens wouldn’t have known as soon as they did about the possible changes in the Buffalo River area or land purchases in Kingston. 

Studies show the lack of a good newspaper leads to more corruption, partisanship and divisiveness. 

We’re thankful for our advertisers and our readers. We know without you, we wouldn’t have a local paper. 

Please keep up your support and we’ll keep up our reporting. 

We wish all of our readers a very happy holiday season and we look forward to continuing to cover stories for you next year.

Thank you for taking the time to read our award-winning paper. 

And, always remember, if you have a news tip, we’re ready to investigate and hold people accountable.

Ellen Kreth is publisher of the Madison County Record and can be reached at ekreth@mcrecordonline.com.