New Arkansas Business EIC: Our mission won’t change

Lance Turner, the new editor of Arkansas Business, writes about taking over the top spot of the publication after helping start its website in 2000.

Turner writes, “I tagged along with Hankins and Brent Birch, our newly hired chief information officer, to regular meetings with Aristotle, the Little Rock web design firm that built the first version of the site. In December 2000, the site launched, and I clicked ‘send’ on the market’s first daily business email newsletter.

“I used to joke that I’ve had the same job for 20 years. But so much has changed in those two decades in how we do journalism, and the internet has grown so much, that that’s incorrect. The title’s been pretty much the same, but the duties have expanded and, at times, contracted. Over the years we’ve added other websites, digital products, social media, video, TV.

“But the core of what I’ve done — what we all do at Arkansas Business — is the same: to provide meaningful content that our business audience can’t get anywhere else.

“The delivery mechanisms — print, email, website, television, live events — aren’t ends unto themselves but simply the tools we use to accomplish that goal. And the thing to understand is that the tools will change but the mission won’t.”

Read more here.