No Numbers

Eagle-eyed readers may notice something missing from this issue, our annual media and marketing issue.

Our lists of Largest Daily Newspapers and Largest Weekly Newspapers are absent.

The reason? The metric used to rank the papers in those lists — circulation — was not provided this year.

With a significant leadership change in the local newspaper industry earlier this year, we weren’t too surprised about that.

Todd Nelson, president of Northwest Arkansas Media and vice president and general manager of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette’s Northwest Arkansas edition, was hired in January. Unlike his predecessor, Jeff Jeffus, Nelson chose not to make internal circulation numbers available to the Business Journal.

Lists in previous years published statewide circulation numbers for the ADG — which are available from the Alliance for Audited Media — as well as information specific to the four-county area (Washington, Benton, Madison and Carroll counties). The Democrat-Gazette’s numbers for that area include The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas Times and Benton County Daily Record, which are inserted into the Democrat-Gazette.

AAM data showed the Dem-Gaz’s statewide circulation dropped 5 percent last year. But a year-to-year comparison of subscribers in the four-county area was not possible without NWA Media information, and it was the same for a rank of subscribers to seven weekly newspapers owned by NWA Media.

NWA Media was formed in 2009, the result of a joint venture between WEHCO Media Inc. and Stephens Media, which published The Morning News.

The two each own a 50 percent interest in NWA Media and share in the revenue.