Terry Jones is a second-generation Publisher of the New Orleans Data News Weekly Newspaper. His father Joseph “Scoop” Jones began publishing in 1966 as mainly an entertainment vehicle for the thriving nightlife scene in Black New Orleans. The younger Jones laughs when reminiscing of how he first began working with the fledgling publication. “My father started the paper and it was the first or second issue, at the time he was connected with a lot of people in the entertainment business and I interviewed and wrote a cover story on the Godfather of Soul James Brown because he was friends with one of the promoters who came to town.”

 As he took the helm of Data News in 1985, he learned that the skills needed to run a business of this size requires most of if not all of your time. It is unlike a normal job where you work a certain number of hours then you punch out for the day. Speaking of his normal work day he says, “The problem with this kind of work with public relations it’s a 24/7 thing.” Continuing he says, “I made the commitment early on that this was not a job but a way of life. I consider it a way of life particularly in a City like New Orleans, everybody knows who you are and you always have to be on always. And because we are so connected to the community I am always thinking what I can do to improve the paper to impact our people in a positive way.”