High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Joe Dorsey Smith, Jr. (April 6, 1922 - March 20, 2008), was the former general manager, president, publisher, and chairman of the board of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk in Alexandria, the largest newspaper (circulation 40,000) in central Louisiana. Smith became publisher in 1962. After a half century of service, he retired from The Town Talk in March 1996, and the paper was sold for $62 million to Central Newspapers, Inc., of Indianapolis, Indiana. Smith died suddenly at his Alexandria residence three weeks after the newspaper observed its 125th anniversary on March 17, 2008. He was a former chairman and president of the trade associations, the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. He was a former officer of the Associated Press news-gathering organization. Known for his acute civic-mindedness, Smith advocated reform in state and local government. He was a former president of the Public...