Best & Worst 2001

This year started with a new president taking office and ended with the nation at war with the government of Afghanistan.

Along the way, the United States slipped into what many economists believe is a recession. Business also slowed down in Northwest Arkansas but probably not by as much as the rest of the nation.

The area’s largest businesses — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville and Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale — are pretty much recessionproof. Chicken is cheap, and people are always going to need the staples provided by Wal-Mart at “everyday low prices.”

During the year, we saw Tyson Foods, the world’s largest poultry producer, become the world’s largest meat producer with its reluctant acquisition of IBP Inc.

We saw accountant Jack Frost finally convicted of the shameless theft of about $1.8 million from Bernice Jones, the Springdale philanthropist, who said she trusted him like a son.

We saw Asa Hutchinson get promoted to drug czar and John Boozman, an eye doctor, be elected to fill Hutchinson’s position in Congress.

We saw lots of construction, particularly in Rogers, and watched in sadness as the last wall of the World Trade Center in New York City was taken down in December.

On Christmas eve, we will watch the sky, not for a flying sleigh, but for a sign of hope.

Word is that it will come during the second quarter in the form of increased consumer spending and stronger confidence in the market.

Here’s a quick look back at some of the best and worst news items and moments of 2001 as we get ready to ring in the New Year.

Best Coverage of Sept. 11

Television news had an obvious advantage over newspapers during the week of Sept. 11. When the second of two jetliners flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the cameras were rolling. Many people watched that second attack live on television, and the national networks aired coverage of the developing story 24-hours a day for several days after that.

Newspapers could not match the live events featured on television. Even the earliest “extra” editions published the afternoon of Sept. 11, were outdated by new developments breaking on TV.

An example of the dominance of TV reporting on Sept. 11 can be seen on Page 1 of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette‘s eight-page extra published that afternoon.

Under the headline “Who Would Do This?”, the D-G extra contained the worst quality picture we have ever seen on the front page of any publication. The reason? The 11.5 by 12.5-inch photograph was taken from a television set. The logo of Little Rock’s KARK-TV, Channel 4, an NBC affiliate, can be seen in the lower right hand corner. The photo was credited to The Associated Press.

Best Charity Ball Guest

Arvest banker Dick Trammel may need to buy a bigger mailbox this time next year. We suspect the invitations to nonprofit fundraisers will need to be delivered by truck.

On Dec. 7, St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation hosted its 8th annual charity ball, and Trammel was among the more than 500 guests who attended the event.

During a break in the live auction, Trammel asked the crowd to pledge a total of $5,000 to purchase a transcutaneous monitor that uses light waves to measure the blood oxygen levels of babies. The concept of raising money to purchase the monitor was called Let Them Sleep Peacefully, because without the machine, nurses must use needles to take blood samples from the babies’ feet every 30 minutes.

A transcutaneous monitor costs about $10,000, but St. Mary’s auxiliary had already agreed to give half of the money. Trammel’s goal was to raise the remaining $5,000 in 10 minutes.

He didn’t need that much time. In 10 minutes, the crowd donated $14,400.

All told, the event raised $105,000, the most in eight years.

Worst Case of Buyer’s Remorse

Tyson Foods’ $4.6 billion buyout of IBP Inc. was one of the biggest deals and oddest transactions in the nation this year.

The deal made Springdale’s Tyson Foods the largest provider of protein in the world. It now controls 28 percent of the U.S. beef market, 23 percent of the chicken market and 18 percent of the pork market.

The deal was struck Jan. 1 when IBP accepted Tyson’s original offer to buy the Dakota Dunes, S.D., meatpacking giant. Tyson got cold feet and announced on March 29 that it wanted out of the deal following a lengthy investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission into one of IBP’s subsidiaries’ accounting practices. IBP took Tyson to court to complete the deal, and Delaware Chancery Judge Leo Strine eventually forced Tyson into the marriage.

The deal was finally completed Sept. 28.

There were some unpleasantries exchanged during the trial, but all seems calm as former IBP CEO Bob Peterson and President Dick Bond have joined Tyson’s board of directors. Bond even purchased a home at Rogers’ Pinnacle Country Club.

IBP has more than 60 production sites in North America; joint venture operations in China, Ireland and Russia; and sales offices throughout the world.

Tyson has plants in 17 states and Mexico.

Worst Corporate Security

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hired a fake Navy SEAL to guard the royal family of Bentonville.

George Hardy was ousted from his job as assistant director of the company’s security detail after a story about his faked resume was published in the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal.

Best Quote

“Benjamin Franklin is my prophet now. He looks good on a $100 bill,” said Fred Kouchehbagh, owner of The Dome Restaurant & Bar in Fayetteville.

Best Sports Quote

We caught this quote in The Morning News from Shiloh Christian girls basketball coach Bobby Smith. His Lady Saints had just ended Greenland’s four-year conference winning streak on Jan. 15 with a 48-37 victory:

“I’ve been to two Worlds Fairs and seen hogs born, and I thought I’d seen everything.”

Worst Public Relations

A few years back, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was the undisputed king of ignoring the local media while simultaneously bending over backwards to give national and out-of-area outlets more access than an MTV Web cam. But that seems to be changing.

Jay Allen, Wal-Mart’s minister of spin, deserves some kudos for encouraging his army of spokesfolks to pay more attention to the local media and of all things, actually return phone calls. Despite being under daily siege with hundreds of media inquiries, Wal-Mart has made tremendous strides in this area that are greatly appreciated.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. was penciled in to become the local poster child for bad P.R. Despite a very helpful investor relations department, Hunt’s P.R. crew has basically been dissolved in recent years and the Lowell trucking firm has been extremely unsavvy with its media relations. Basically, it has none.

But then Hunt went and hired Elise Mitchell of Mitchell Communications Group Inc. in Fayetteville to do some marketing for Hunt’s Dedicated Contract Services division.

We know from previous experience that Mitchell is good to work with, and that Hunt’s P.R. can only improve. We hope that Mitchell’s September coup — landing Hunt on the cover of Transportation & Distribution Magazine — is indicative of a friendlier corporate mentality.

The only other office capable of competing with the big boys of unresponsiveness and poor media management is that of Bentonville Mayor Terry Coberly Black. Among the area’s public officials, she is the least accessible.

Best Public Relations

Tyson Foods’ marketing department is the most efficient and professional that we deal with whether the stories the Business Journal is following are viewed by the company as “positive” or “negative.” Archie Schaffer and Ed Nicholson are gentlemen and pros, and it shows.

David Humphrey at Arkansas Best Corp. in Fort Smith is a very close second.

Worst City for Dining Out

Fayetteville.

With one of the highest sales taxes on prepared food in the nation — 10.125 percent — dining out is an expensive proposition in Fayetteville. The total sales tax on restaurants in Fayetteville is higher than in New York City, Los Angeles and New Orleans.

Two percent of that amount is actually taxed by the city of Fayetteville. The rest is from the feds, the state and Washington County.

Best City for Dining Out

Fayetteville. Two-hundred restaurants. Need we say more?

Best Moo-ving Cover Story

We learned how to raise a better steak in July with a story on a registered Angus beef farm in Lincoln.

Tom Hulls and his wife, Dr. Diane Balich, use wireless technology to help show when a cow comes into heat and how many times she is mounted by a bull. We also learned about follicle stimulating hormone shots and the use of surrogate cows and prized-bull semen.

We think Hulls summed it up best when he said, “You’re screwing with mother nature. You just hope the embryo gods smile on you.”

As for the cover bovine — Cow 102 — on our July 23 issue, we’re not sure how she has adapted to her new found fame. Her whereabouts were unknown. We just hope that she was not shunned as badly by the rest of her herd as we were by our corporate office for running a giant cow on our cover.

Best Way to Lose 8,000 Readers

Merge your newspaper with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and pretend it’s a separate “edition.”

The August 2000 merger between Community Publishers Inc. of Bentonville and Wehco Media Inc. of Little Rock caused 8,000 cancellations. But it also gave the combined “alliance” newspaper enough readers to take the Sunday lead in circulation by 5,959 from The Morning News.

Meanwhile, the Northwest Arkansas Times and the Benton County Daily Record are now “editions” of the D-G. They look like local news sections to us.

Worst Case of Egomania

It’s a close race between Jim Hendren, the early front runner for the 3rd Congressional District’s vacated U.S. House seat, and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette political reporter Bill Simmons.

Hendren was incredulous when the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal verified his extramarital affair and notified him that the newspaper would be going forward with the story. In the 11th hour before its publishing, Hendren even threatened to sue the Business Journal if we said he admitted being an adulterer.

One day after our paper hit the streets, Hendren summoned Simmons and Brenda Blagg of The Morning News to hear his supposed exclusive confession.

The truth is, Hendren only confessed because he got caught.

Blagg did a professional job of reporting the facts. But Simmons, apparently embarrassed about getting beat, wrote his story as if Hendren came forward in a benevolent act of volition.

When we got to Simmons’ part about Hendren choosing to tell the D-G about his infidelity “because of the newspaper’s integrity,” we couldn’t help laughing.

Best and Worst Political Move/ News for the Times

Lucas Roebuck resigns from the Northwest Arkansas Times to build a political machine in Siloam Springs.

Best and Worst Use of a Wal-Mart Gift Card

To pay for a date in Fort Smith via Worldwide Escorts. Apparently, you can get a real ho, ho, ho for the holidays!

Best and Worst Office Joke Material

Osama bin Laden in general, Lucas Roebuck’s editorial sermons and Bill Simmons’ integrity.

Worst Management

While we’re sure that Memphis-based FedEx Corp. will take Harrison’s American Freightways to new heights, Master Graphics of Memphis should have never come to Northwest Arkansas.

Master’s major financial problems forced it to close the doors on the former Phillips Litho plant in Springdale. Phillips Litho had built a strong, 30-year relationship with clients. It took Master Graphics just over two years to tear it down, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and finally dissolving the business altogether.

Founder Phil Phillips even tried to get the company back when he realized Master Graphics was failing miserably. But the company couldn’t work out a deal. Phillips felt a strong sense of loyalty to his former employees.

“If Phil Phillips was still running the show this would have never happened,” said Perry Webb, president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce. “It’s been tough to see a company that had been built up for a 30-year period get bogged down in a corporation. It’s very frustrating.”

Best Understatement

Ed Fryar, former CEO of Twin Rivers Group and cofounder of the new Ozark Mountain Poultry, explained his departure from Twin Rivers in 2000:

“There was a difference of opinion on the direction the company should take. I wanted to go one way and the other three wanted to go another, so we split the sheets.”

Best Music P.R.

Trout Fishing in America, the fun-loving music duo of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet, have a worldwide audience thanks to their aggressive self-promotions.

Trout Fishing released its 10th album earlier this year with inFINity. The local group has passed on offers from major labels to do their own producing and promotions, which includes a mailing list of more than 20,000 to keep fans abreast of its news.

Trout Fishing has become especially big with children, and perhaps more importantly, the children’s parents with their “safe” sound.

Trout Fishing has sold more than a quarter million albums.

Best Way to Shaft Shareholders

Pay yourself $1 million in severance pay while shareholders take a bath on your stock. Remember Clete Brewer, the former CEO and current chairman of Edgewater Technology Inc.?