D-G Eliminates ?Weekend? Section

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has discontinued its “Weekend” entertainment section in favor of “What’s Up?” — the entertainment section published by the Northwest Arkansas Times.

Paul Smith, vice president and general manager of the D-G, said the change, which went into effect on March 2, was made to eliminate duplication between the two sections.

“We didn’t need two,” Smith said. “It seemed more people in Northwest Arkansas liked ‘What’s Up?’ better than ‘Weekend.’

“You think people want bigger newspapers, but our research in Northwest Arkansas shows us they don’t want more information. They sure don’t want duplicated information. … People tell us they don’t have time to sift through all the same information twice. We were just reacting to what readers tell us they like.”

The D-G entered into a joint operating “alliance” with the Times and the Benton County Daily Record in August. The Times and Daily Record are owned by Community Publishers Inc. of Bentonville. Since the alliance, the Times and Daily Record have been included as local sections of the D-G.

Smith said eliminating the “Weekend” section will save about $60,000 per year in newsprint costs, but the size of “What’s Up?” will be increased because some advertising will be moved from “Weekend” to “What’s Up?” He said the net savings in newsprint costs would be $40,000 to $50,000 per year. Smith said “What’s Up?” will now be circulated to the D-G’s full 12-county circulation zone in Northwest Arkansas. Previously, the section was available in only Washington and Benton counties.

Smith said the section wasn’t eliminated to save money, though, just to prevent duplication of information. Both entertainment sections published the same photograph on the cover of the Feb. 23 editions, he noted.

With the change, two of the three staffers of “Weekend” — Sandra Cox, editor, and Tim Stanley, a feature writer — will become copy editors on the newly created copy desk in the D-G’s Springdale office. Robert Evatt, the other writer on staff, said he had taken a copy editing test and, as of Feb. 28, was waiting to see if he would be offered a position on the copy desk. Susan Scantlin, who heads the D-G’s Northwest Arkansas operation refused to comment on the staff changes.