Accelerator program to serve Delta in '17
Local First Arkansas will host a small business accelerator program in early 2017 for businesses in the Delta.
The Delta Spark Accelerator will help businesses use technology and data analytics to find new customers. Identifying new customers is "one of the primary challenges for" small business owners, according to a news release issued by Local First Arkansas and the Delta Regional Authority.
Participants in the program will focus on data-related marketing, improving business plan models and job creation. Experts in search engine marketing, e-commerce and social media will be among those coordinating the online program.
Applications are being accepted. For more information visit deltasparkonline.com.
Local First Arkansas is a nonprofit organization that works to grow locally owned small businesses.
-- Chris Bahn
Argent media buys 2 state newspapers
A newlyformed company has purchased the Forrest City Times-Herald and the Marianna Courier-Index, the publisher of the papers said Thursday.
The buyer, Argent Arkansas News Media, is affiliated with other companies that own and operate more than 175 publications in the United States and Canada.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Times-Herald Publishing Co. decided to sell the papers because of "shrinking revenues and increasing costs," publisher Weston Lewey said.
"It wasn't profitable anymore," Lewey said. "It's very, very difficult in today's environment for a small independent newspaper to remain so."
The papers have been in Lewey's family since 1942, she said.
Roland McBride, an officer with Argent, said no immediate changes are planned at the newspapers.
-- David Smith
State index up 1.18; 11 stocks post gains
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 1.18 to 362.06 Thursday.
Eleven stocks advanced and seven declined.
Shares of Bank of the Ozarks rose 2.7 percent in heavy trading.
ArcBest gained 2.1 percent on active volume.
Windstream fell 2.8 percent on low volume.
Murphy Oil fell 2.7 percent in active trading.
ArcBest, J.B. Hunt Transport and Simmons First National again reached 52-week highs.
Total volume for the index was 22.9 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 12/02/2016