The University of Arkansas News Bureau (sometimes called “the News Service” or “the Publicity Department”) was responsible for publicizing faculty, student, alumni, and institutional activities. News Bureau files include press releases, communications from faculty, staff and media, newspaper clippings, research material, and drafts of stories. The stories range from announcements of upcoming events to opinion pieces, often connecting the university to contemporary off-campus issues. There are frequent stories about agricultural, engineering, and teacher-education programs as well as sports, debates, Home Demonstration courses, YMCA and YWCA, the university radio station, library, and museum. Press releases were often ganged together and mass-produced for distribution. The mass-produced press releases—sometimes called clip sheets—were divided into 13 volumes. Occasionally exclusive stories were written for a particular media outlet.

There were six directors of the News Bureau in the period covered in these files: Norman E. Radder (1917-1919), Maurice E. Votaw (1919-1920), Murray Sheehan (1920-1924), J. Wymond French (1924-1926, 1927-1928), Victor R. Portmann (1926-1927), and Walter J. Lemke (1928-). In addition to News Bureau responsibilities each director taught the journalism courses offered by the university. During summer months publicity was often handled by temporary employees, including Pearl Cox, Mrs. Frank Peel, Kenneth B. Hewins, and Robert A. Leflar. Dr. John C. Futrall, the president of the university, oversaw the News Bureau.