D-G ‘s Hustle Pays off for Sunday Package

Jeff Krupsaw, deputy sports editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, surely had a hand in his section’s Feb. 10 feature package on the University of Arkansas’ NCAA woes. The effort was so thorough — complete with solid reporting, multiple angles, good use of timelines, sidebars, clever photos and graphics — that it could only be the brainchild of Krupsaw.

In addition to running his department’s day-to-day operations, we know from personal experience that “Krup” makes extra efforts to help sportswriters develop both the written and visual aspects of their stories. We have over the years come to admire his knack for keeping the D-G’s sports section creative, informative and easily the best designed daily section overall in the state.

Assistant sports editors Mike Suchan and Steve Goff also help make the section a front-to-back eye pleaser.

In addition to being well done, the Feb. 10 package was the first comprehensive report on the now 19-month probe into Razorbacks athletics. The D-G’s sports department took the initiative to use a request under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act to obtain 500 pages of NCAA mumbo jumbo and turn them into a snapshot of the investigation.

The Northwest Arkansas Business Journal in June became the first publication to report that the NCAA probe, written off by the state’s dailies, was ongoing and turning more serious. But the D-G’s Feb. 10 follow-up took the story to another level, to a field where serious journalists are able to inform and entertain with the same dexterity. Our hats are off to Krup and company.

This kind of hustle — whether it’s by a reporter chasing a scoop, an account executive selling advertising or a circulation manager gaining a new area foothold — will ultimately be the deciding factor in Northwest Arkansas’ ongoing newspaper war.