Weekly Newspaper
Hits South Washington County
February 4
Next month, West Fork and neighboring towns, Greenland and Winslow, will once again, have a weekly newspaper. West Fork Zephyr Executive Editor, Steve Winkler and Features Editor, Susan McCarthy have formed Seventyone South Publishing, Limited Liability Company (SSPLLC) and plan to begin publishing a weekly newspaper early next month, but it won’t be under the name, West Fork Zephyr.
Winkler and McCarthy will be reviving the name of the Washington County Observer, a successful, locally published newspaper that served southern Washington County for 27 years, but printed its final issue December 30, 1999. Winkler says the Washington County Observer was the gold standard for community journalism and hopes to bring back in-depth local news coverage. The new Washington County Observer will serve the cities of West Fork, Greenland, and Winslow, as well as surrounding communities of Brentwood, Hogeye, Strickler, Bug Scuffle, Blackburn, Sunset, Wyola, and Devil’s Den State Park, an area with approximately 4000 households. The paper will cover city council, school, civic, church, sports, community and social news, announcements, and coming events in the three-town area.
The paper will be published every Thursday beginning February 4, 2010. McCarthy says the paper will be mailed free to every residence in the coverage area during the first four weeks of publishing in hopes of generating community support and subscribers. A one-year subscription will cost $26 and the paper will be delivered via US mail. The paper will also be available in news racks in various locations in Greenland, West Fork, and Winslow. All current subscriptions to the West Fork Zephyr will be automatically transferred at no additional cost and will be honored for a full year from the original subscription date.
Steve Winkler will continue to serve as Editor in Chief and Susan McCarthy will assume the role of Managing Editor. Betty Hutcheson, who started the original Washington County Observer August 24, 1972, with her late husband, Harold, will serve as the paper’s Editor Emeritus. Winkler has been consulting with Hutcheson for months, scouring back issues of the Washington County Observer and discussing how to bring forth many of the paper’s attributes to the new paper. Several contributing columnists will be featured, including Zephyr columnist Steven Worden who writes about matters of faith in “Fire on the Mountain”. Naturalist and co-author of Arkansas Birds: Their Distribution and Abundance, Joseph C. Neal will also be a regular columnist. McCarthy is planning to visit both West Fork and Greenland schools in coming weeks in hopes of tapping students to write school news, which will be featured in every issue. The paper is also recruiting “correspondents” in the various smaller communities to report on the everyday lives of ordinary people in the readership area.
Both Winkler and McCarthy have long-time ties to West Fork. Ironically, Winkler operated a produce market, Hawker Trading Company, more than 35 years ago in the same building that will house the Washington County Observer. McCarthy grew up in West Fork, daughter of John and Dorothy Carney, and graduated from West Fork High School in 1981.
The duo has published the West Fork Zephyr since June, 2009, which started as an on-line newspaper at www.westforkzephyr.com and then expanded to include a monthly printed newsletter. Winkler said the experience has made him realize what a need there is for in-depth community news, adding, ”Towns with a local newspaper are a better place to live.”
