D-G Recovers, Keeps Sunday Lead

It appears that the dust has settled since the August 2000 “alliance,” and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is recovering from the 8,000 cancellations it suffered immediately after merging its Northwest Arkansas edition with two daily newspapers owned by Community Publishers Inc. of Bentonville.

“We’re up 4,200 daily and 2,680 Sunday from Jan. 1 to Nov. 1,” said Hector Cueva, circulation director for the D-G’s Northwest Arkansas edition.

Cueva said circulation for the alliance newspapers bottomed out in January 2001 as readers who subscribed to both the D-G and one of the CPI dailies canceled the extra subscription.

Since the alliance, CPI’s daily Northwest Arkansas Times of Fayetteville and the Benton County Daily Record of Bentonville have been included with the D-G in Washington and Benton counties, respectively.

Many area residents subscribed to both the D-G and one of the CPI dailies, and about 8,000 readers canceled duplicated subscriptions in the six months following the alliance. But the move allowed the D-G to count the combined product as one newspaper in the eyes of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which monitors newspaper circulation nationwide, and thus take the Sunday lead in circulation. The bump to first place was a victory for the D-G from an advertising sales position.

(Click here to see the list of newspapers by daily and weekly circulation.)

For the month of November, Cueva said, the D-G’s circulation in the four counties of Northwest Arkansas was 44,837 on Sundays and 34,460 during the week. But one-month totals aren’t counted by ABC.

Instead, area newspapers furnish circulation figures to ABC for the six months ending every March 31 and Sept. 30, and ABC audits the numbers later.

For the six months ended Sept. 30, 2001, it’s pretty much impossible to make an apples-to-apples comparison for the D-G because the comparable period of 2000 was pre-alliance.

But for the period ending Sept. 30, 2001, The Morning News’ circulation was up 6.8 percent to 37,718 on Sundays and up 3.5 percent to 36,295 during the week.

According to unaudited publisher’s statements filed with ABC, the D-G had a circulation of 41,991 on Sundays. That’s 11.3 percent more than the Morning News’ figure of 37,718.

On weekdays, the Morning News led with 36,295, 17.9 percent more than the 30,796 circulation the D-G had during the week.

Both newspaper operations are based locally in Springdale with parent companies in Little Rock. The D-G is owned by Walter Hussman’s Wehco Media Inc., and the Morning News is owned by Stephens Group Inc.

The Morning News historically has been strongest in Springdale and Rogers, with the zoned edition of the D-G alliance attacking from Fayetteville in the south and Bentonville in the north.

For this comparison, we’re using circulation figures for the four counties in the northwestern corner of Arkansas: Washington, Benton, Madison and Carroll.

The vast majority of circulation for both newspapers, however, is in Benton and Washington counties. All of the Sept. 30 total for the D-G was in Washington and Benton counties except for 2,228 on Sundays and 1,748 on weekdays. The Morning News says it has a smattering of circulation in Madison and Carroll counties but doesn’t release those figures.

The D-G’s Northwest Arkansas edition is distributed to a total of 12 counties. If all 12 counties were included for the comparison, the Morning News people argue, we’d have to count circulation for The Southwest Times-Record of Fort Smith with the Morning News total because Stephens Media Group also owns the Fort Smith paper, and it would be within the D-G’s 12-county circulation zone.

Cueva is quick to note that the Sept. 30 number is an average of circulation for the entire six months preceding that date. Since the merging and purging of the alliance, he said, “we have rebounded incredibly.”

Weekly Warriors

Seven of the nine weekly newspapers in the two-county area had a decrease in circulation from Sept. 30, 2000, to Sept. 30, 2001.

The Rogers Hometown News was the main exception, posting a circulation increase of 30.2 percent from 2,606 to 3,393.

“2000 was the first year we started taking it to fully paid circulation,” said Mike Brown, publisher for CPI. Previously, the Hometown News was free or sold on a voluntary-pay basis, he said.

The Weekly Vista of Bella Vista was the only other weekly in the area to post an increase, with an addition of only 35 readers (up 0.8 percent), to bring the total to 4,579.

Both newspapers are owned by CPI, as are the weeklies in Siloam Springs, Gravette, Pea Ridge and Gentry.

The weeklies in Prairie Grove, Lincoln and Farmington are owned by Stephens Media Group.