Newspaperman who helped launch Mini Page has died at age 91

A retired executive at The News & Observer who helped the newspaper launch The Mini Page in 1969 has died at the age of 91.

William Davis “Dave” Jones III graduated from Broughton High School and UNC-Chapel Hill and worked for newspapers in Enfield and Wilson before coming to The N&O in 1949 to sell advertising. He spent the next 42 years at the paper, eventually becoming a member of the board of directors and retiring as associate publisher in 1991.

Jones was The N&O’s advertising manager when Betty Debnam was approaching editors and executives at the paper with her idea for a news page for children. Debnam was teaching first and second grades at Clarence Poe Elementary School in Raleigh when she decided that kids and their teachers alike would benefit from a newspaper written for them.

Jones was the first to see promise in the The Mini Page, which debuted as an advertising supplement on Aug. 31, 1969. It became syndicated nationally in 1972 and was carried by hundreds of newspapers nationwide.

Jones was inducted into the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame in 1994; Debnam, who became Betty Debnam Hunt, was elected to the hall in 1999.

A full obituary for Jones can be found at www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/raleigh-nc/william-jones-7940529. 

A digital archive of The Mini Page, with hundreds of topics ranging from 101 Dalmations to Zoos, can be found at dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/topics/collection/minipage/.

This story was originally published July 27, 2018 at 4:58 PM.