PROFILE
Newsboys with Corporate Bowties
BY ABIGAIL FOWLER
08 NOVEMBER 2024
From humble beginnings, Mitch Bettis' current life as owner of the multi-million-dollar publishing company, Arkansas Business Publishing Group, is a stark contrast from his newsboy days.
Photo: Arkansas Business Publishing Group Provided to East Initiative Article | Photo of Mitch Bettis with his iconic bowtie.
Mitch Bettis is prepared for this interview. It’s apparent this isn’t his first rodeo. He has the behavior of someone who has made interviews a well-oiled machine: requesting that I book a Zoom call with him through his scheduling program so he’ll have host access; having well-thought answers to all questions that still somehow seem rehearsed like an elevator pitch; and ensuring that every facial expression is made with a smile to never show a negative or worn down demeanor on camera. All traces of his origin as a small-town newsboy seems a stark contrast to the man I’m chatting with at the start of our interview. Only glimpses are shown now as we discuss how he got to where he is today.
“This is going to sound hokey,” he chides, “... I fell in love in the 7th grade with the [publishing] business.” Starting as a newspaper boy for our shared hometown’s paper, then called The Daily Siftings Herald, he found so much joy in being his own boss. Crafting subscription services, buying wholesale from the paper then riding his bike throughout town to deliver to his dedicated readers. It is apparent from his joy discussing his humble beginnings that Bettis’ discipline and determination were dominant personality traits from the start: he discusses his roles of making sure to provide a quality service by not only sending replacement papers to those whose original roll he accidentally flung on a roof but having to adamantly collect from grown-ups as a pre-teen.
Mitch is now the owner and president of Arkansas Business Publishing Group. Founded in 1995, ABPG is now an award-winning digital marketing and media company. They’ve recently expanded in Arkansas’ bordering states of Mississippi and Texas according to their site. Bettis joined the company in 2014 and bought it in 2019 as told by their competitor, The Arkansas Democrat Gazette. East Initiative’s website, where Mitch has previously been on the board of, touts that the company produces more than 30 weekly, monthly, semiannual and annual titles in addition to contract publications and websites.
“This is going to sound hokey,” he chides, “... I fell in love in the 7th grade with the [publishing] business.”
It seems he has done every job for the publication industry under the sun: writing, delivering, sales, layout design, management, and now owning. His time is spent, now, taking care of the managers to ensure they have everything they need to take care of their team and talking with the company’s bankers and lawyers on a regular basis.
As we’re discussing his old newsboy job and what he calls, “refrigerator journalism,” which is pieces in the paper such as an honor roll notice that proud parents stick to the fridge with a magnet, it is clear he still gets as much joy from his days peddling that bike route as he does with a new magazine launch now. He has clearly always had a passion for journalism. It is his “heart space” as he now calls the publications he produces.
Bettis loops Arkansas Business Publishing group back in to say that quite a few of their magazines, such as their duck-hunting focused publication, Greenhead, were made from someone’s passion being put into writing. “We sort of have that philosophy and many of our magazines came from somebody’s heart space… we get to sort of live that here,” he admits.
Starting his writing career as a teenager for the local paper, the same one he used to fling to neighboring houses on his bike, he discusses his lead up to his current lifestyle as “opportunities” he seized on that simply happened to make him “look intelligent” while he simply got to write and fulfill his passion as a journalist. From his outlook, it’s evident that writing about anything is his passion, so he created a company that fueled other people’s passions through actions of his own.
If he could go back to writing, he confided, his dream subject to write about is a tie between vintage British cars as his $12,000 1965 Jaguar annoys his wife while it constantly sits in their garage; and his favorite hobby, napping.
Arkansas Business Publishing Group's Magazines: an incomplete list.
As there are far too many to fit in this segment!
ARKANSAS BRIDE
GREENHEAD
ARKANSAS BUSINESS
SOIREE
NEXT
Photos by Arkansas Business Publishing Group | Covers from previous magazines they publish.
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