Happy birthday to us – The Daily Record turns 100
October 6-12, 2025
By Jay Edwards
“Serving Central Arkansas since 1925.”
I came to work for the Daily Record in December of 2003. It was a career change for me and the owners decided to take a chance on someone with no experience working at a newspaper. I hadn’t really been looking for a job, but probably should have been as the mortgage business and I hadn’t really clicked. And so, one day a good friend, Mark Nichols, who I played golf with, and who happened to be one of the Daily Record owners, suggested I talk to Don Bona, the managing partner at the paper. The third owner was Bill Rector.
Soon I was at a lunch with Mark and Don, and not long after that, drinks with Don and Bill. And not long after that they had offered me a position at the paper. I’m still not sure exactly why. Maybe those drinks were stronger than I thought.
I’ll be entering my 18th year with the paper here in a few months. If the math doesn’t work for you it’s because there was a five year quasi-sabbatical in there that ended three years ago. I can highly recommend a five-year sabbatical, if you think you can convince your spouse it’s a good idea.
My office at the paper at the beginning was right next to Rector’s, which I felt pretty good about since he was the majority owner at the time. The way Cody Lynn Berry tells it in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Rector, and his company, Business Information Group, purchased the Daily Record on August 25, 1987.
It’s previous owner was John Wells, who also had interests in other publications in Central Arkansas.
Wells was from Little Rock and after graduating from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville he returned to his hometown. From 1930 to 1936 he was a reporter and city editor for the Arkansas Gazette. In 1941 he was publishing the Daily Legislative Digest, which summarized news from the legislature when they were in session. In 1949he started the Arkansas Recorder.
Berry wrote in his article for Encyclopedia of Arkansas that “In 1953, Wells took over editorial control of another publication called the Daily Legal News. After a legal squabble with Governor Faubus, Wells lost the state’s patronage of his Legislative Digest in 1958. The same year, the Arkansas Printing and Lithographing Company merged with Wells’s publishing company to form the General Publishing Company, Inc. Wells was elected its first president. The company published a number of small newspapers at the time, including the Daily Record, and the Arkansas Recorder. In 1959, Wells sold the Recorder to state representative J. H. Cottrell Jr.”
“In 1985, Wells sold the publishing rights to his Legislative Digest to Roger Potts, one of his business associates. Wells reportedly had already sold the rights to another publication he owned, the Arkansas Supreme Court Advance Sheets, to Darby Printing Company of Atlanta, Georgia. The Arkansas Gazette reported on February 26, 1987, that Wells had died ‘in a one car accident’ in the 2200 block of Cantrell Road in Little Rock.”
Later that year the Daily Record was sold to Rector and his group.
“In 1990 Rector said that it would begin publishing the official newsletter of the Pulaski County Bar Association, the Bulletin, in the Daily Record on Fridays.”
“The first editor for the paper was Douglas Blackmon, who would later leave the state and go on to write a Pulitzer Prize–winning book; the second editor was Mark K. Christ.”
We were putting out four issues a week when I came in 2003 and it was a great place to work. I became involved with the Arkansas Press Association, of which we were a member and during those times got to rub shoulders with some real inky-blooded journalists and newspaper people around the state of Arkansas. It was a true pleasure.
We hope you enjoy this issue celebrating our 100 years. We have included photos of friends through the years along with some old columns we thought you might like. There is even a photo of the front page of The Daily Legal News from 1931.
Most of all we want to thank all of you, our faithful readers. We couldn’t have done it without you and we look forward to continuing to serve you for years to come. Who knows, maybe another 100.
Source: Encyclopedia of Arkansas
