Daily Paper Comparisons Show Trends in Coverage

When it comes to daily local news coverage, the region’s two largest local newspapers are cranking out virtually the same amount of copy.

But in a recent week’s sampling, The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas printed about 100 more pages than the Northwest Arkansas Times, its Fayetteville-based rival, which has a news staff about one-third the size of the News.

That means a difference in advertising and, most likely, profits. The Morning News devoted 60 percent of its space that week to advertisements, compared with just 45 percent for the Times.

For the week of Dec. 8-14, the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal researched newspapers from each of the four dailies serving Northwest Arkansas: The News, the Times, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Benton County Daily Record.

Not surprisingly, the statewide Democrat-Gazette published more pages than any of the other publications — 494 for the week. The percentage of news space column inches — the measurement commonly used in the newspaper industry — devoted to Northwest Arkansas news produced by local staffers was the smallest at 8.45 percent, or 3,007 column inches.

For the same week, the Morning News devoted 34 percent of its news hole, or 6,170 column inches, to local news written by its staff. The Times had 35 percent, or 6,275 column inches, of local news content.

The Morning News, however, covers a larger region than the Times. The Morning News was created three years ago when The Springdale News merged with the Rogers newspaper, the Northwest Arkansas Morning News, to become a regional paper. It now bills itself as “the largest daily newspaper exclusively serving Northwest Arkansas.”

But, during the past two years, the Democrat-Gazette has beefed up its Northwest Arkansas news staff, primarily by raiding the staff of the Morning News. That move and the construction of a multimillion dollar printing plant in Lowell has fueled speculation that the Little Rock-based paper is gearing up to produce a regional publication.

The much-smaller Northwest Arkansas Times, whose ownership has been the subject of a long-running legal dispute, appears to be a formidable competitor for the News at least in terms of volume. During the week surveyed by the Journal, the Times published 252 pages, of which 35 percent of the news hole was copy produced by its staff of about 13 reporters (including sports reporters).

The News, with a reporting and sports staff nearly three times that of the Times, published 350 pages during the same period, of which 34 percent of the news hole was written by its staff.

“I have known what ya’ll have proven for some time,” says Mike Masterson, editor of the Times. “I’ve always been enormously proud of this staff and the morale here.”

Masterson says his staff isn’t overworked, though.

“I wouldn’t call it stretched thin,” he says, “but they’re busy. I don’t see any dead wood in my newsroom right now. For a small daily, we’re as well staffed as we can hope to be.”

“I’m a little surprised by [the statistics],” says Rusty Turner, managing editor of the Morning News. “Our staff concentrates on putting out quality news stories that are well researched, factual, accurate and actually have some impact on our readers. That’s the focus of our newsroom, to put out meaningful stories that tell readers things they need to know and how events affect them.”

Susan Scantlin, who oversees the Northwest Arkansas news operation for the Democrat-Gazette, says the percentages don’t really pertain to that paper because it has statewide circulation.

“I don’t really have any comment at all about any alleged newspaper war,” Scantlin says.

The fourth contender, the Benton County Daily Record, published 230 pages of which 4,593 inches, or 26 percent of the news hole, was produced by its staff.

(For the purposes of this study, sports news, obituaries, editorials, brief announcements, calendars and staff columns were counted as local news. Gift guides and other promotional special sections commonly used as advertising vehicles weren’t included, nor was copy produced by the papers’ reporters outside the region. When classification was questionable, the Business Journal tried to err in favor of the newspaper being surveyed.)

Advertising content for the papers that week totaled 28,181 inches for the Democrat-Gazette, 27,012 for the News, 14,802 inches for the Times and 12,200 inches for the Daily Record.

The Morning News advertising content was consistently the highest of the four newspapers, averaging 60 percent for the week. That’s a typical percentage, experts say.

“The rule of thumb is most newspapers operate with 60 percent to 65 percent of a paid base or [column] inches taken up by advertising,” says Richard Parker, senior fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center for Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Parker, director of a program on economics and journalism, says that 60 percent has been “relatively stable” since the post-World War I period.

That may mean Northwest Arkansas residents are getting a good deal for their dollar as far as news quantity is concerned. The advertising content of the other three area papers ranged from 41 to 45 percent.

“If you figure three-fifths of every newspaper you read is taken up by advertising, you get some sense of what’s going on,” Parker says. “You might be talking about 15 percent of pages in an average daily newspaper being dedicated to the actual delivery of hard news,” Parker says.

Parker wasn’t familiar with the specifics of the Northwest Arkansas market but says a population of about 250,000 probably couldn’t support four daily newspapers.

“You would expect the market to consolidate quickly to two or likely one newspaper. The idea of four papers dividing up the advertising base in Arkansas, a state with low per-capita income and a low gross state product … I’m surprised they’re able to do it.”

But Parker also says the real threat to metropolitan papers is suburban or community newspapers.

“I think you’d make a hell of a lot more money if you owned several of those rather than one metropolitan daily,” he continues.

Another industry expert who agrees that community newspapers are “the hottest thing going” is George Harmon, a professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

“You find community papers beefing up all over the place. I think the economics seem to work very well for them,” says Harmon.

That’s true, at least in part, because national and international news is available from so many sources, he explains.

“You’ve got umpteen ways of finding out about Princess Diana or the pope in Cuba, but there are a lot fewer ways of getting to know what’s going on locally,” says Harmon, adding that competition is complex.

Styles compared

Of course, quantity doesn’t mean quality, but those judgments can be subjective, so the Business Journal made no attempt to judge in that regard.

The big loacl story the week of Dec. 8 was the hiring of Houston Nutt as the University of Arkansas’ new head football coach. The hiring of a new coach is always big news, and the four papers all played it as such.

The story got a six-column front-page banner headline, “Hut, hut, it’s Houston Nutt,” in the Morning News. The Democrat-Gazette and the Daily Record each gave the story five columns across the top of page 1. In the university’s hometown of Fayetteville, The Times gave the story second billing with a two-column “Houston, finally we have a go” headline. The lead story in the Times that day was about an abandoned water plant in the city.

The Daily Record, however, used an Associated Press wire story for its front-page coverage instead of an article from a staff member. For additional coverage of the story in the sports section, the paper relied on copy from the Northwest Arkansas Times, with which it has a news-sharing agreement.

In addition to its front-page story, the Times published three staff-written articles in its sports section about Nutt’s hiring.

By comparison, the News had five staff articles and columns about Nutt, and a front-page piece. The Democrat-Gazette published 11 articles, in addition to the front-page piece, as well as a timeline of Nutt’s career and 15 inches of quotes from coaches and readers.

More to come

Local news watchers believe the picture may change once the court case involving ownership of the Times is settled. Once owned by the Fulbright family, the paper had in recent years been part of the Thomson Newspapers Inc. chain. But in 1995, the paper was purchased by NAT LLC, a group controlled by the Stephens family, who also own Donrey Media Group — parent company of the Morning News.

The sale was challenged by Community Publishers Inc., controlled by the Walton family of Bentonville and owner of the Daily Record, and by WEHCO Media, which publishes the Democrat-Gazette.

U.S. District Judge H. Franklin Waters heard the case and overturned the sale that same year. Subsequently, American Publishing Co. purchased the Times, although the court case remains on appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Many observers believe that WEHCO has stalled plans to publish a zoned edition of the Democrat-Gazette until the case is decided.

“I think it’s been stated over and over, everything depends on what comes out of the 8th Circuit,” says Scantlin.

Circulation declines

Circulation, meanwhile, is declining at three of the papers. According to the latest figures available from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Times’ paid circulation as of Dec. 31, 1996, was 14,368 for Monday through Saturday, down from its peak of 15,269 in December 1995. During the trial in 1995, the paper’s annual revenue was estimated at $5 million.

The Daily Record’s latest circulation, according to the ABC, was 9,686 for Monday through Saturday and 10,174 on Sunday. That compares with about 8,000, or 14 percent of the market, during the trial. The paper’s revenues were estimated at $2 million.

The Morning News circulation as of Sept. 30, 1997, was 34,650 for Monday through Saturday, down from its high of 35,270 as of June 30, 1996. Revenues were estimated during the trial at $8 million annually.

Local circulation figures for the Democrat-Gazette aren’t available, but, statewide, morning circulation was 173,079 as of March 31, 1997, down from its peak of 183,835 as of March 31, 1994. During the trial, it was estimated that the paper held about 10 percent of the Northwest Arkansas circulation market. n

Patricia May, Bill Bowden and Margie Alsbrook compiled this report.