Southwest Times Circulation Rises

The Southwest Times Record of Fort Smith had an average daily paid circulation of 39,538 for the six months ended March 31, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The Monday through Friday circulation grew 1.27 percent from the same six-month period a year prior, greater than the Saturday or Sunday circulation growth rate.

The paper’s designated market area is all of Crawford and Sebastian counties and just a small part of LeFlore County in Oklahoma.

Stephen Kelsey, director of circulation for The Morning News and the Southwest Times Record, said he attributes most of the growth to good customer service.

“Once you get a subscriber, you try to take care of them,” he said.

Sunday circulation grew to 43,560, up nearly 1 percent for the same period.

As a comparison, The Morning News’ total Sunday circulation in Northwest Arkansas (Benton, Washington, Madison and Carroll counties and a sliver of McDonald County in Missouri) for the same period was 40,109 (up 1.68 percent from the previous year) and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Northwest Arkansas Sunday circulation was 44,524 (down 0.62 percent from the previous year and doesn’t include McDonald County).

The Southwest Times Record and The Morning News are owned by Stephens Media LLC, which is headquarted in Las Vegas, but owned by the Stephens family of Little Rock.