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Arkansan Nat Rea has been elected president of America’s Newspapers, the leading national organization that champions the industry and shares best practices to promote the growth of newspapers in the United States.
Lee is president and chief executive officer of WEHCO Media, the parent company of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“This is our main place to share information and learn from other publishers and business owners,” Lee said Wednesday of the services provided by the national organization. “The idea exchange and best practice information elements are very important to WEHCO Media, which is why it made sense to join this organization.”
America’s Newspapers was founded two years ago by a coalition of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association and the Inland Newspaper Association. The organization’s primary efforts are promoting newspaper industry advocacy, marketing, membership, programming, and education.
Mr. Lee succeeds Alan Fisco, president and chief financial officer of The Seattle Times, who will continue to serve the group as immediate past president.
Beyond its core mission, the organization will focus on “finding sustainable business models for newspapers in a highly dynamic and changing market,” Lee said.
Newspaper companies have been suffering financially for decades, suffering from declining readership, circulation and advertising revenue. In 2020, weekday newspapers had a print and digital circulation of 24.3 million, and Sunday newspapers had a circulation of 25.8 million, according to the Pew Research Center. By comparison, weekday newspaper circulation in 1990 was 63.2 million, and Sunday newspaper circulation was 62.6 million.
To combat industry changes, the Democrat-Gazette pivoted to a digital-centric circulation model in 2019 and reduced daily delivery of print newspapers across Arkansas. The paper is giving away free iPads to subscribers so they can access daily content through the paper’s website and an app that provides a digital replica of the newspaper.
Lee has served as President and CEO of WEHCO since 2016 and has held several key leadership roles since joining the company in 2002. He has served as president and general manager of the Democratic-Gazette, general manager of Pine Bluff’s cable operations, and general manager. He is in the El Dorado News-Times and Hot Springs in The Sentinel-Record.
America’s Newspapers has more than 1,600 newspaper members, and all newspaper employees are eligible to participate in programming and education conducted by the organization.
Founded in 1909, WEHCO Media is a family-owned newspaper publishing, cable television and digital services company. The company operates daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, and cable television companies in six states.
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