It Took a Few Tries (EDITORIAL)

Finally.

After years of juggling an unwieldy assortment of small-town newspapers and newsrooms — in effect trying to be all things to all people — Northwest Arkansas Newspapers at last decided that one name, one paper and one mission were fitting for a region in excess of 500,000 people.

Creation of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, unfortunately, did not happen without a little bloodletting. As many as 15 people lost their jobs. But it also meant that the Northwest Arkansas Times, Springdale Morning News, Rogers Morning News and Benton County Daily Record would no longer be folded into the larger newspaper.

I worked as a reporter for WEHCO Media in 2009 when it merged with Stephens Media to create Northwest Arkansas Newspapers. The only real structural change was that a lot of people up here lost their jobs. In 2012, more employees were downsized, but, surprisingly, the practice of printing all four daily newspapers and inserting them inside a fifth daily, the Democrat-Gazette, continued.

Two years later and Northwest Arkansas Newspapers was still leaking oil, so for a third time it was taken down to the shop to see what was happening underneath the hood. The spreadsheet guys must have choked on their data filters when they realized it’s a lot cheaper to print one daily newspaper than it is to print five. And thus you have the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

It took a few tries, but they finally got it right.