D-G Style

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette recently bumped two of its veteran columnists from prime spots on the daily feature section front. As of Aug. 2, Richard Allin’s Our Town and Charles Allbright’s Arkansas Traveler columns have moved to Page 4 of the newspaper’s feature section.

The two columnists were primary features of the Arkansas Gazette, with Allin’s Our Town premiering in 1965 and Allbright taking over the Arkansas Traveler column in 1974. Both columns were continued after Walter Hussman purchased the Gazette and created the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 1991. For most of their existance, the columns ran on section fronts.

Allin says the columnists asked to be moved inside where they would have “dressed-up presentation.” Executive editor Griffin Smith jr. had offered to “reduce our workload” by one column a week, Allin says. Allin and Allbright together write seven columns per week, alternating daily on the Style section’s front page.

“Two or three columns per week is normal for columnists on major dailies,” Allin says.

Instead of cutting back one column per week, Allin says, he and Allbright opted to go to the inside page, where the columns will be featured prominently. The section front is to be devoted to a different subject on each day of the week, he says, and the move will reportedly allow for better design and continuity of the section front.

When Gannett Co. sold the Gazette’s assets to the Arkansas Democrat in 1991, Allin and Allbright were the only Gazette editorial employees immediately offered positions with the new paper, the D-G.

The Aug. 2 change coincided with the D-G’s revamping of its Monday Style section, now renamed Health & Fitness with an emphasis on those subjects.