Big Business

It looks like longtime Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter Cyd King has left Northwest Arkansas to work at the paper’s flagship newsroom in Little Rock.

From what Whispers heard, King didn’t apply for the job on the business desk at 121 E. Capitol Ave. According to our source, veteran Little Rock editor Jack Weatherly abruptly left the Dem-Gaz business desk to take a job at the Mississippi Business Journal in Jackson. Shortly after Weatherly’s awkward departure, the edict was issued: King would fill the vacancy left by Weatherly.

Editor of the NWA edition of the Dem-Gaz Profiles section for a decade, King left the paper in 2010 and worked at CJRW and The City Wire before returning in 2012, primarily to cover Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

As we understand it, those job responsibilities will fall to Dem-Gaz business reporter Chris Bahn.

The bigger story, of course, is what’s going on at the local bureau of the Dem-Gaz. Back in the good old days, before the Great Recession, and before the merger that created the five-headed hydra known as NWA Media, the Dem-Gaz business desk had four reporters, two editors and a clerk. We’re not certain about today’s personnel numbers, but we know for sure that the business desk isn’t what it used to be.

We know, we know. It’s a new world and we all have to do more with less. We’ve heard that tired mantra too many times. Still, moving King down to the capital is a big deal. Her experience and institutional knowledge took years to cultivate, and the Little Rock brass had to know that pulling her would weaken the paper’s ability to produce biz news up here. Will she be replaced? And if so, will it be someone who knows less and is paid less?

King’s departure makes you question the Dem-Gaz’s commitment to covering the state’s most vibrant economy.