Decade Of Change Unimaginable (Jeff Hankins Publisher’s Note)

My journey here with Arkansas Business began 10 years ago in June, so I’ve been reflecting on how much has changed for business in Arkansas, our company and me.

When The Kettle restaurant at Interstate 630 and Fair Park in Little Rock closed recently, I remembered that was the site — of all places — of my first interview with then-Publisher Wythe Walker. It was time for a career move, and I was confident that Little Rock was where I wanted to land.

Never did I imagine the editor’s job that I took would lead to my role today.

About six months earlier, I had made an ill-fated effort to become soon-to-be Gov. Jim Guy Tucker’s press secretary. Tucker and his chief of staff, Neal Turner, weren’t interested, and to this day I remain very grateful because we all know how their situations turned out. Later, I would realize that being a politician’s press secretary would never be suitable for me (or the politician, for that matter).

My first assignment at Arkansas Business was to plan for our office expansion into Northwest Arkansas. At the time people in the region felt like it had been overlooked by our statewide publication for too long, and we agreed. By 1997, we decided to start the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, which has grown along with the region.

I made it my mission early on to learn about every Arkansas business, business leader and business connection possible. When we launched the annual “Wealthiest Arkansans” feature, the research efforts took that mission to a new level.

The Clinton presidency — and specifically its impact on Arkansas businesses and people — generated lots of stories through the ’90s. So did the wave of bank consolidation that so dramatically impacted our financial institutions.

I’ve reflected on all the Arkansas-based publicly traded companies that we’ve lost — Hudson Foods, TCBY Enterprises, Fairfield Communities, First Commercial, Worthen and many more — during the past decade. Those are remarkable losses that, frankly, have challenged our editorial staff because there are fewer companies disclosing information regularly.

Then there’s technology. The Internet has transformed our business both internally and externally in a big way.

We were among the first publications in Arkansas to launch a Web site in 1995. The next year, we were preparing to add a daily news product that would be delivered via fax machine because some colleagues around the country were having success with it. We got sidetracked, which was fortunate because the concept of newsletters via e-mail came along as a far less expensive news-delivery option.

Today, we have 8,000 recipients of our wildly popular Daily Report e-newsletter and more than 30,000 unique visitors to our Web site each month, in addition to our traditional print publication readership. Our growth opportunities in this area will only continue to expand.

Somewhere amid all of this, during the 10 years I found time to hook up with an incredible wife and have a wonderful baby boy, with a daughter due to arrive in a few weeks.

I couldn’t have begun to predict the past 10 years. We knew Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was large and growing, but the largest company in the world? Tyson Foods Inc. selling more beef than chicken? More than $1 billion of investment in downtown Little Rock? The scope and scale of the Internet?

By the time Arkansas Business celebrates its 20th anniversary next spring, I will have been part of the publication for more than half of its existence. We have a loyal readership that demands quality, in-depth reporting and a product that accurately reflects business in the state.

My challenge is to lead the continued evolution of this publication just as business in Arkansas changes. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years hold for us all.