Fayetteville Ads to Go Up for bid

The city of Fayetteville plans to put its newspaper advertising contract up for bid in late February.

Peggy Vice, the city’s purchasing manager, said the decision was made because advertising prices had increased at the Northwest Arkansas Times.

“When the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette bought the Northwest Arkansas Times, the rates more than doubled for legal ads and display ads,” she said.

The official line is that the D-G and Times entered into a working and distribution “alliance” in August 2000 and the D-G has not purchased the Fayetteville newspaper. The Times is owned by Community Publishers Inc. of Bentonville. The D-G is owned by Wehco Media Inc. of Little Rock.

With the alliance, the Northwest Arkansas edition of the D-G increased its advertising rate because the newspaper was being delivered to more readers. But Vice said the legal ads the city is required to publish don’t need to reach the extra readers in Benton County.

According to state law, the ads must be published in a newspaper in Washington County, which means The Morning News of Springdale would do as would smaller weekly newspapers throughout the county.

Vice estimated that the city’s annual advertising budget is $25,000 to $30,000. She said about 85 percent of that accounts for legal ads. The rest would be job placement ads that the city would publish in the D-G statewide.

Vice said the city had been paying $13 per column inch of advertising before the rate hike.

“We’re trying to see what we can do to cause some type of competition to lower the rates,” Vice said. “I’m just trying to save money on advertising. Our budget has been really tight.”

Vice said newspapers will have two weeks to place bids. City staff will make recommendations, and action will be taken by the Fayetteville City Council, she said.