Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Former Democrat-Gazette executive Smith dies at 76
LITTLE ROCK — An essential figure in Arkansas’ newspaper history has died.
Paul Smith was instrumental in the Arkansas Democrat’s winning a David-and-Goliath battle against the Gannett Co. Inc. and its Arkansas Gazette in 1991. The result was the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which Smith helped guide until his retirement in 2013.
“If people appreciate that Gannett does not own the one daily newspaper in Little Rock, they can thank Paul Smith,” said Walter Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Smith, 76, died Tuesday of cancer, said his wife Elizabeth Smith. She said Alzheimer’s disease was a contributing factor.
A nurse told Elizabeth Smith her husband, a devout Christian, reached his arms up and smiled just before he died.
“I know there were angels in that room,” the nurse said.
Paul Smith was born Feb. 3, 1945, in Junction City, Ark., a small town straddles the Louisiana state line.
Paul Smith grew up working on small farms at Junction City, and he took that work ethic to the newspaper business, said Elizabeth Smith. She said her husband attended Draughon’s Business College in Shreveport for two years but he didn’t have a college degree.
“I’ve hired people who went to Harvard Business School,” said Hussman. “Here’s a guy who went to a two-year business college and he was probably better than anybody I could have hired from Harvard Business School. He had a lot of street smarts, savvy. He had a lot of humility. He had a great work ethic from doing difficult physical work on a farm.”
Hussman said his father first hired Smith, 19, in 1964 as a proof runner at the El Dorado News-Times. He soon become an advertising salesman, then advertising director and eventually the newspaper’s general manager. Smith also served as advertising manager and general manager at the Camden News. It was there in 1971 that he met Walter Hussman Jr.
“My dad told me ‘We’ve got a young man down in El Dorado you need to meet. About your age. A few years older. But he is really impressive,’” remembers Walter Hussman Jr. “I was so lucky to meet Paul Smith. I don’t know what my career would have been like if I hadn’t met him.”
When the Hussman family purchased the Arkansas Democrat in 1974, Smith joined the newspaper as its advertising director. The Democrat was struggling in the ’70s.
Elizabeth Williamson, originally of Camden, married Paul Smith in 1977. It was his second marriage and her first.
During their honeymoon in Pensacola, Fla., he came down with a bad case of “sun poisoning,” said Elizabeth Smith.
“He started swelling all over,” she said. “He got packed in ice until his swelling came down.”
When they returned to Little Rock, they had a total of $1.50 in their pockets. They bought a hamburger, split an order of fries and a Coke.
Luckily, when they got back to the apartment, Smith’s income tax refund had arrived in the mail.
In 1982, Smith was moved up to be vice president and general manager of the Arkansas Democrat. He retained that title after Oct. 18, 1991, when the Democrat’s owners acquired the Gazette’s assets and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette began publication the next day.
Smith later became president of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Inc. He retired as president of WEHCO Newspapers Inc. at the end of 2013.
WEHCO Newspapers Inc. is a division of WEHCO Media Inc., which operates daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and cable television companies in six states. Family owned since 1909, WEHCO is an acronym for Walter E. Hussman Company. WEHCO is the parent company of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Walter E. Hussman Jr. is now the chairman of WEHCO Media Inc.
“Paul and I were so close,” said Walter Hussman Jr.. “I spent my whole career with the guy and trusted him completely. Later on in both of our careers he came in my office one day and sat down and we were talking and he said, ‘You know, Walter, I feel like you’re my brother.’”
Hussman said he got choked up. He and Smith both had sisters but no biological brothers.
“Really, Paul was like a brother to me, too,” he said. “We had that kind of relationship.”
Smith was known as a hard-nosed businessman with a kind heart.
Smith had a magnetism that drew people to him, said Lynn Hamilton, general manager of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Inc., a WEHCO subsidiary that publishes the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“Paul and I worked together 40 years,” said Hamilton.
“He was a friend first and then later he became my boss. He was a man who led with his emotions, but he was a brilliant, level-headed businessman too. Paul expected high performance from all of us at the Democrat-Gazette but he was one of the most kind and empathetic people I’ve ever met in management.
“As a businessman, Paul was highly intelligent, a brilliant marketer, and driven to succeed. As a human being, he was authentic and up front about how he felt. He could be forceful when he held a strong opinion, but he was more often warm and gentle. He genuinely cared about other people, and he did his best to help improve the lives of those around him.”
Hussman said Smith was “one of the finest men I have ever known.”
“He had keen business instincts, great judgment, engendered tremendous loyalty and dedication, and at the same time was one of the most caring and compassionate persons you would ever meet,” said Hussman. “Paul had a deep commitment to his faith, and it defined his whole approach to life.”
Elizabeth Smith said her husband found Christ at Indianhead Lake Baptist Church in Sherwood in the 1970s.
During a crusade in Dallas in the 1980s, the Smiths saw a homeless man in the church, seeking warmth from the cold.
Paul Smith offered him a Bible, but the man said he couldn’t read it because he had lost his glasses. So the Smiths took him to get a new pair of glasses. They also bought him a meal at a McDonald’s restaurant and gave him some money.
When the Smiths tried to leave Dallas for the drive home to Arkansas, they began to cry.
“We were trying to go home but we couldn’t do it so we turned around,” said Elizabeth Smith.
They went back to the McDonald’s.
“And he was still there,” she said.
It took some doing, but they convinced the man to move to Little Rock. So he got in the car and rode home with the Smiths. He lived with them for six months before getting some income and his own apartment.
“John became a part of our family,” said Elizabeth Smith. “He was a blessing to us, as we were a blessing to him.”
At the time of his death, Smith was an active member of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. The couple lived in the Ferndale community of Pulaski County.
Larry Graham, vice president of circulation for the Democrat-Gazette, said Smith’s impact on the newspaper can’t be overstated.
“We would not be around today without Paul Smith,” said Graham. “He was a 100% pleasure to work for. What a fine Christian. What a great person he was. I leaned a lot from him. …
“Don’t get me wrong” said Graham. “He was a hardnosed businessman, very demanding. I don’t think I ever heard Paul say a curse word the whole time I worked for him, but he could sure get in your face.”
Wally Hall, the Democrat-Gazette’s assistant managing editor for sports, said Smith was a role model.
“I’ve never respected anybody more than I did Paul Smith,” said Hall. “He was a brilliant man. And he was incredibly honest.”
Hussman said there was little turnover among people who worked for Smith.
“He had an ability to motivate people,” said Hussman. “I think they loved him. They cared about him. They knew he’d always be fair with them.”