Donrey Buys 3 Washington County Weeklies
by November 27, 2000 12:00 am 74 views
Donrey Media Group has added three weekly newspapers in northwest Arkansas to its stable of properties.
The company, which owns The Morning News of Springdale, purchased the Lincoln Leader (1999 circulation: 1,405), the Prairie Grove Enterprise (2,023), and the Farmington Post (1,667), all in Washington County. The three weeklies were bought from Ozark Newspapers Inc.
Sherman Frederick, president of Donrey, didn’t disclose a purchase price but said the company would retain the newspapers’ employees.
“We’re really not into buying things and laying people off and dramatically changing,” he said, although he added that Donrey might try to improve the newspapers’ design and content.
Frederick said that owning the newspapers would help The Morning News’ coverage of Washington County. The newspaper is fighting a circulation and advertising war with Wehco Media Inc. (the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) and Community Publishers Inc. (the Northwest Arkansas Times and the Benton County Daily Record), which formed an alliance this year and bundled editions of their newspapers for subscribers.
With its latest purchases, Donrey said it would offer subscribers to the three weeklies a joint subscription to The Morning News, which publishes editions in Springdale, Fayetteville, Bentonville and Rogers.
“Probably if you’re a subscriber to Prairie Grove, Lincoln or Farmington, you’ll get the Fayetteville Morning News Sunday edition for no extra charge,” Frederick said. “And then you will also have an option of receiving the Fayetteville Morning News seven days a week for a small extra fee.”
Frederick said Donrey hadn’t yet determined subscription prices for the newspapers.
The company is continuing work on its new printing plant in Springdale, which Frederick said could be operating in the spring. The plant will house two, 18-unit Dauphin presses. Adding the presses will allow editors to have later deadlines and to remake more pages for each of The Morning News’ editions, Frederick said.
Donrey Media Group is owned by the Stephenses of Little Rock. It also publishes the Southwest Times Record of Fort Smith and the Pine Bluff Commercial.