MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
Dozens of cities around the country and Canada were courting Amazon last week from Atlanta to Los Angeles, submitting bids to land Amazon's second headquarters and tens of thousands of new jobs, but not the city of Little Rock, Ark.
MARK STODOLA: (Reading) Hey, Amazon. We need to talk. It's not you, it's us.
BLOCK: Little Rock didn't meet Amazon's criteria to house their headquarters. So the city's Chamber of Commerce took out a full-page ad in The Washington Post, a "Dear John" letter of sorts.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STODOLA: We decided we would break up with them before they broke up with us.
BLOCK: It was a publicity stunt, of course, admits the mayor of Little Rock, Mark Stodola.
STODOLA: We use this as a launchpad to get attention to our city and to the people who are wanting to either locate or relocate their businesses.
BLOCK: Amazon and the Washington Post are both owned by Jeff Bezos. And we should note Amazon does give financial support to NPR. While it was bowing out of the competition for the new headquarters, Little Rock told Amazon it's leaving open the possibility of hooking up in the future.
STODOLA: If an expansion opportunity comes up and they're ready to join our visionaries, dreamers, romantics and our idealists, they ought to give us a call.
BLOCK: That's Mark Stodola, the mayor of Little Rock, Ark.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.