?Alliance? Sees First Profit In June

The circulation “alliance” between Wehco Media’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Community Publishers Inc. had its first profitable month in June. The alliance has been in place since August 2000.

Walter Hussman, publisher of the D-G, and Paul Smith, general manager of the newspaper, traveled to the alliance’s three Northwest Arkansas newsrooms on July 23 to deliver the news.

Hussman told the D-G staff in Springdale that the alliance had a profit of $58,946 in June after all expenses, depreciation, interest and taxes. That profit will be divided by the 314 full-time employees in Northwest Arkansas, and each one will receive a bonus of $187.73.

“Our profits in June weren’t enough to wipe out the losses we had earlier in the year,” Hussman told the Springdale staff. “But our operating losses were 50 percent less than they were in the first six months of last year.”

“You expect that it’s going to take a while to start making a profit,” Smith told the staff. “You did it a lot quicker than we did in Little Rock with the Democrat-Gazette.”

Hussman told the staff that it took him 10 years to have a profitable month after purchasing the Arkansas Democrat in 1974. “We started off farther behind there,” he said, “and we didn’t have this robust market.”

Hussman said he gave each employee a $42 or $44 bonus when the Arkansas Democrat had its first profitable month in 1984. Hussman purchased the assets of the Arkansas Gazette in 1991 and incorporated the name into that of his other newspaper to form the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.”

“We made our first profit in a month when The Morning News cut ad rates by 60 percent,” Smith said, referring to the alliance’s primary competition in Northwest Arkansas.

“I’m a bit surprised June hasn’t been a profitable month for them in the past,” Tom Stallbaumer, publisher of The Morning News said via e-mail. “The Wal-Mart shareholders edition they publish in June probably generates well in excess of $100,000 in revenue, with the bulk of that from advertisers outside the market.”

Stallbaumer said The Morning News had its annual “Full-Page Mania” promotion in June.

“This promotion offers full-page ads at discounts from 54 percent to 55 percent from regular earned rates,” Stallbaumer said. “This promotion was for full-page ads only, and didn’t affect rates on any other ads in the newspaper.”

The alliance includes the D-G, the Northwest Arkansas Times of Fayetteville and the Benton County Daily Record of Bentonville.

Hussman told his Springdale staff that there had been “minor disagreements” with CPI but that they “were resolved quickly.”

“CPI has been a great business partner for us,” he said, adding that the alliance would “continue into the future.”