NAT LC Appeals

A lengthy appeal over ownership of the Northwest Arkansas Times of Fayetteville kept the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette from aggressively pursuing its goals in Northwest Arkansas, D-G Publisher Walter E. Hussman Jr. said in a recent interview with Arkansas Business.

The D-G appears undaunted by the fact that NAT LC, the loser in a fight over ownership of the Times, is seeking a rehearing on the sale of the paper. The D-G appears to be proceeding with plans to develop its anticipated zoned edition.

NAT LC was the entity made up of interests of the Stephens family in Little Rock that bought the Times from Thomson Newspapers Inc. in 1994. Stephens Group Inc. is the owner of Donrey Media Group, which owns the Springdale-based Morning News of Northwest Arkansas.

Community Publishers Inc., the parent company of The Benton County Daily Record, filed suit to stop the sale of the Times to NAT LC. CPI was joined by the U.S. Justice Department and Northwest Arkansas businessman Jim Shearin in the suit. Neither Hussman nor the D-G joined the suit, but Hussman and CPI partnered in a bid to buy the Times.

U.S. District Judge H. Franklin Waters rescinded the sale of the Times to NAT in 1995, saying newspaper competition would be eliminated because of the Stephens family’s interest in the papers in Springdale and Fayetteville. The Times was then purchased in 1995 by American Publishing Co. of Illinois.

NAT appealed Waters’ ruling to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the decision earlier this year. Attorneys for NAT have petitioned for a new hearing in District Court.