He’s been a publisher, an advertising director and a columnist at daily and weekly newspapers — and now works for a publishing company owned by his son. Throughout his long career in journalism, John Speck has always included Kid Scoop in newspapers in California, Texas and Arkansas for more than 25 years.
In Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he and his son, Adam, started The Fort Report, a “good news” monthly newspaper in 2020, the owner of the local Burger King franchise told Speck: “We’ll never stop advertising! We get hundreds of the coupons for a free ice cream cone back to us every month.” The Burger King ad appears in the banner space at the bottom of the Kid Scoop page on the inside back cover. Customers come for the free cone and buy more food items.
Speck is not surprised at the business response to Kid Scoop, but he heralds the educational value. “I could see the educational value in Kid Scoop right away when I first saw it in the mid-1990s. It educates kids how to use the newspaper all their lives,” he said.
“I was advertising director more than two decades ago when Vicki paid me a visit at the newspaper office in Ukiah, California, and showed me the youth feature she had created during her years as a teacher. I think we were the third or fourth newspaper to subscribe to Kid Scoop,” Speck related. ( Kid Scoop now appears in more than 300 newspapers.)
Speck said he’s always found ready sponsors for the banner space at the bottom of the Kid Scoop page. The local Burger King and Ace Hardware are two of his most loyal sponsors.
The Fort Report features news of business growth, upcoming events and charitable activities in the Fort Smith community. “No politics, no crime, just good news,” Speck said. The Fort Report is mailed to 29,000 homes on postal routes with median incomes of over $30K.
After the initial issue, Speck received a call from the superintendent of the school district. The educator’s nine-year-old daughter had discovered Kid Scoop in the paper and loved it. The school leader arranged for 200 copies of The Fort Report to be delivered to each of the six elementary schools in the district, in neighborhoods not receiving the paper by mail — 1,200 copies from a print run of 31,200 — so teachers could use Kid Scoop in the classroom.
Speck often receives bundles of letters written by teachers and children, forwarded from the school district office.
“The children write us that they are using Kid Scoop to help learn more about the subjects they were studying in their classrooms. Teachers love it because it’s free, and they don’t have to buy enrichment materials out of their own pockets,” Speck said.
Thinking back over his career in different states, he recalls the robust Newspaper in Education program during his stint as publisher of “a little 4,500 daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Texas. We sent 2,800 copies of the paper with Kid Scoop in it to the elementary and middle schools there.”
“Everywhere I’ve been, parents write us that they love sharing Kid Scoop with their children as a family experience,” Speck reported. “It’s another positive for our positive publication.”
The writer of this article is Ellen Creane. She is a freelance reporter for newspapers, an ESL college instructor, a former NIE manager at three newspapers and a marketing communications professional. To reach her for your project, email ellencreane@gmail.com. Also see her LinkedIn profile.
