A teenager bought his town’s newspaper. Now he’ll cover his politician father.

Hayden Taylor has never taken a journalism class in his brief life. He’s never written for a newspaper before. He has yet to graduate college.

But now, he’s the main source for local news in Brinkley, Arkansas.

In recent months, a fire ravaged the offices of Brinkley’s sole local newspaper, the Central Delta Argus-Sun. While the fire did not completely destroy the building, it did convince the paper’s longtime publisher, Katie Jacques, that it was time to move on. So she sold the paper’s assets to Taylor, who is 19 years old and has no formal training in publishing a newspaper, for $5,000, per Arkansas Online.

As a result, Taylor is now the owner, publisher, editor and reporter for the Monroe County Herald, Arkansas’s newest weekly newspaper. He graduated high school in 2015 and attended college for one year, where he did not declare a major but studied history, economics, politics and religion, but not journalism.

“I think I’m more concerned about management and administration how to make the bottom line work,” Taylor told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about his background, or lack thereof, in reporting.

Still, he said he plans to buy a few textbooks about reporting and learn as he goes, focusing more on local sports while avoiding too much editorializing, per Arkansas Online.

“People have been spouting their views at me, especially this year, so I don't think I really want to spout mine back at them,” he said.

If and when Taylor does cover local politics, he might a significant conflict of interest in his own house — his father, Larry Taylor, was elected to the city council this past November, per the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Not that Taylor plans on taking it easy on his dad when he does weigh in on local politics.

“I don't cut him any break anywhere else,” he told CBC Radio. “I'm probably, honestly, going to be harder on him than anybody else.”

Per Arkansas Online, the Herald will have a circulation of about 1,800, built on the list of subscribers to its predecessor. Aiding Taylor in his new business venture will be his mother, Beth, who owns a cafe nearby and will serve as advertising director for the new paper.

“He'd certainly be one of the youngest we know of, and maybe that's what the industry needs now —that young blood," Tom Larimer, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association, told Arkansas Online.

Per CBC, the Monroe County Herald is set to launch next week.

This story was originally published January 6, 2017 at 9:25 PM with the headline "A teenager bought his town’s newspaper. Now he’ll cover his politician father.."