Times Misses UA Dean’s Death (Outtakes Opinion)

The Northwest Arkansas Times apparently missed the story on Aug. 5 that Richard B. Atkinson, dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law, had died the previous day in Chicago.

The UA e-mailed a press release to the media on Aug. 4, but there wasn’t a word about it in the Times the next day. The story was covered thoroughly in the Aug. 5 editions of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The Morning News. The Times, which is circulated with the D-G in Washington County, frequently publishes a small note to tell readers of news events that are reported in the D-G but not in the Times. But Times readers didn’t even get that this time.

The Times published a death announcement from the funeral home on Aug. 6 and a paid obituary for Atkinson on Aug. 7.