Walter Edward Hussman Jr. (born January 5, 1947), is an American newspaper publisher and chairman of

WEHCO Media WEHCO Media, Inc., based in Little Rock, AR is a privately held media company with holdings that include newspapers, cable television systems, and internet service. Walter E. Hussman, Jr. (born 1947), is the president. Hussmann is the grandson o ...

, Inc. He is the publisher of the ''

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell. It is distributed for sale in all 75 of Arkansas' counties. By virtue of one of ...

'' in Little Rock, which is the largest newspaper in Arkansas. Hussman directs a chain of smaller newspapers, including the ''

Chattanooga Times Free Press The ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's majo ...

'' and the ''

Texarkana Gazette The ''Texarkana Gazette'' is a daily newspaper founded in 1875 and currently owned by WEHCO Media, Inc. It serves a nine-county area surrounding Texarkana. History The newspaper was acquired through the consolidation of several newspapers in ...

'', and owns cable television companies in four states.

Early years and education

Hussman was born in Texarkana,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

, but moved in 1949 to Camden,

, with his parents, Walter E. Hussman Sr. (1906–1988) and the former Betty Palmer (1911–1990), and two older sisters. Hussman Sr. published '' The Camden News'', which he had purchased from his father-in-law, Clyde E. Palmer (1876–1957). Hussman graduated from the

Lawrenceville School The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Lawrenceville is a member of the Eight Scho ...

in 1964. He earned his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

School of Journalism A journalism school is a school or department, usually part of an established university, where journalists are trained. 'J-School' is an increasingly used term for a journalism department at a school or college. Journalists in most parts of the ...

and his

master's of business administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accoun ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. In 1970, Hussman worked as a reporter for ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' magazine. Later he became his father's administrative assistant, then

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of ''The Camden News''. He moved to Hot Springs in 1973 to become

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

and general manager of the Palmer Newspapers, which became a division of WEHCO Media. In 1974, Hussman left Hot Springs for Little Rock when WEHCO purchased the ''Arkansas Democrat'' and he was named publisher.

Newspaper work

Hussman moved the ''Arkansas Democrat'' to a morning paper in 1979 and began using color 1982. He fought a newspaper "war" with the competing ''Arkansas Gazette.'' The two papers merged into the joint

in October 1991. Hussman was opposed to newspapers providing free content online, writing in a 2007 ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' op-ed column that newspapers should stop providing such free content, calling the posting of so much of the newspaper product a "self-inflicted wound." He implemented a shift from delivering newspapers in print to delivering them on iPads in 2018. Hussman is a former chairman of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association (SNPA) and was the first recipient of SNPA's Frank W. Mayborn award, given in honor of the late publisher of the ''

Temple Daily Telegram The Temple Daily Telegram is the daily newspaper of Temple, Texas, serving Central Texas since 1907. The Telegram is locally owned and operated by Frank Mayborn Enterprises, under editor and publisher Sue Mayborn, the widow of Frank Mayborn. On ...

'' in

Temple, Texas Temple is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. As of 2020, the city has a population of 82,073 according to the U.S. census, and is one of the two principal cities in Bell County. Located near the county seat of Belton, Temple lies in ...

Awards and honors

* In 2008, Hussman was named Publisher of the Year by '' Editor & Publisher'', a trade publication. * In 2012, Hussman was inducted in the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame. * In 2014, Hussman was inducted into the NC Media and Journalism Hall of Fame.

Hussman School of Journalism & Media at UNC

In 2019, Hussman wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "Journalism schools need to adopt similar statement of core journalistic values."

Controversies

Hussman raised concerns with University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill leadership about hiring

Nikole Hannah-Jones Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones (born April 9, 1976) is an American investigative journalist, known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. In April 2015, she became a staff writer for ''The New York Times.'' In 2017 she was awarded a Ma ...

, a Black journalist who developed The 1619 Project. After its initial delay in voting on her tenure, on June 30, 2021, the UNC board of trustees voted to grant tenure to Hannah-Jones. Hannah-Jones subsequently announced she would join the faculty of

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

as the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Reporting, having secured $15 million for the institution from foundations.

Personal life

Hussman lives in Little Rock with his wife, the former Robena Kendrick (b. June 26, 1946). They have three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hussman, Walter 1947 births Living people American newspaper publishers (people) UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media alumni Columbia Business School alumni