Arkansas Blog

Is the Arkansas Times a Stephens property? For some reason I thought that was the case. If I am wrong, please correct.

ARK. BLOG For the umpteenth time, no.

The Ark Times a Stephens property? Are you kidding?..Stephens wouldn't touch this socialist rag with a 40 foot pole...they have to give it away now to get anyone to read it. How would Srephens make any money on that? Of course the price may be so cheap they might buy it for the office equipment, etc.

Stephens Media under the auspices of the Pine Bluff Commercial came out with a White Hall weekly several years ago in a presumed attempt to put the established White Hall Journal out of business. I know the Journal is still chugging along since I see it every week. I don't know the status of the Stephens weekly but if it's still around I haven't seen it in a while.

Sorry, should have said "through the offices of the Pine Bluff Commercial"

The Sherwood Voice stinks as a paper. I am glad as everyone in Sherwood should be!

The Sherwood Voice has been a local fixture for over thirty years. I love it and am sad that it is being taken over by a media giant. This is a sad day for all of the local communities that are affected by this sale.

Glad to see SOMEONE challenging Hussman! I hope the Stephen's group will support and improve the local news. Do they have any plans for statewide circulation?

As a NWA paper reader (both Stephens and Hussman) it is a delight to have an all out newspaper war here, and there is a stark comparisson in the coverage of new and editorials. It is nice to read 2 sides virtually every morning.

To Doigotta, you are thinking of the White Hall Progress, published under the umbrella of the PB Commercial. It is still being published weekly, and has roughly half the circulation of the White Hall Journal. Source: Arkansas Press Association.

To everyone, what do you bet the Voice and Patriot are put out of business and the NLR Times becomes the North Pulaski Times and goes twice- or thrice-weekly? That's where my bets are going.

I think it's obscene that anyone has a newspaper monopoly. Where's the anti trust lawyers?

They broke Bill Gates up for having a computer monopoly, no wait, that was for contributing to Democrats right?

The Sherwood Voice is horrible for local news. Warren Watkins was so one sided in what he covered, you could tell what he was thinking. The North Pulaski Leader is a model for what a local newspaper should be.

Stephens Group...please, please, please either buy the Baxter Bulletin or start a paper to go head to head with them. their local political and news coverage is outrageously bad.

They are driven by two things. The allmighty dollar and vengence for/against certain locals. The publisher is the worst and many of the reporters are incompetent.

They are currently being sued for firing their last editor for age/gender discrimination. It seems they have a patter of trying to force out people whe are getting older or who have health problems.

c'mon...I said please.

Say what you want to about free newspapers, but they're worth every penny of what they cost.

I am glad that someone else has the money to print newspapers in this state besides Hussman. The DG has become so one-sided that I don't bother to read it most days. I don't believe that a newspaper should let their personal convictions influence the news they print. That, sadly, is the way of the world nowadays. At least we have the Times to offset it here in Central Arkansas.

"they have to give it away now to get anyone to read it."

Uh, a lot of us outside the LR area PAY to receive the Arky Times by mail. And it's well worth the cost. I wouldn't line my dog pen with any of the Hussman rags out of fear the dog might become a republican.

Okay, I have to chime in here. As a former writer for the Voice (but not in the past 6 years), I have some thoughts on this sale.

Actually, I think it will be a good thing. Finally, someone can put money into the paper instead of using the Voice's sales to fund other less successful newspapers -- such as the Patriot.

And, if like an earlier poster suggested, that the Stephens Co. melds the central Arkansas weeklies into one entitiy -- as long as the local coverage is provided -- then the readers are served.

Newspapers are businesses, they do have to make a profit.

And for those of you who keep nattering on how the Arkansas Times is free -- if you think for one moment that Alan Leveritt would keep on publishing a money-losing proposition -- think againl. Max & Co. must be doing something right to keep the newspaper in the black!

Inside baseball
This move probably signals the end of Feldman's newspaper. Probably about a quarter of the copy in any edition is from Stephens and that will all go away.
And that doesn't include the rewrites of Bureau copy.
The Leader had its day every now and again, but it won't be able to compete against someone organized and not so much on the news end, but for advertising. One-stop shopping for ad buys for all points north and east of Little Rock would be attractive.
If I were Stephens, I'd make a bid for Benton and have it in the fold by the end of the year. I'd then talk shop with Morris and work a swap for Conway, maybe Columbia?
I don't think you wouldn't be able to refinance debt that way, but it would make for a better ad buy.
As far as a free daily tab in Little Rock, that could happen. Nashville's The City Paper is one model and it isn't making money, but it isn't losing either. They don't have to worry about circulation costs with free distribution and they job out their printing to Gannett Offset.
One of its biggest expenses is copy, but between the Bureau and the reporters at the other papers in the chain, you would have most of that covered in Little Rock. You still need some production people, and newsprint expense is another story. It just depends on how the debt could be restructured from such a move, and how much Warren really wants to spend.

And Mountain Homers take note, the Bulletin was one of the papers that was considered for a move to the Gannett Foundation and then sold to another media company. That's how the Foundation is self-sustaining.
But the BB didn't make the cut and instead the mighty Muskogee something or other did. The Okie paper is now a NHI property. Newspaper hounds remember NHI as CNHI or Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., they were the ones that snatched up all of the old small Donrey papers during the great fire sale of whenever it was.

I wouldn't count out Garrick Feldman just yet. The Leader has been whipping the Jax and Cabot Magie papers in quality and circulation for years. The Stephens buy will certainly make for a more competitive market in the short run.

But the Feldmans do have a large and successful commercial printing business that pays the bills for the newspaper, so that should keep him in the game for a while, I would think.

Word round the campfire was that the Magies had been looking to sell for a while...and that Garrick thought he had won the newspaper battle there so had no need for the assets of the Magie papers. In hindsight, it would've probably been a strategically smart purchase for him...then the Stephens could've come made a deal with him.

It would take some group like Stephens to save the flagging Log Cabin Democrat in Conway.
Staff morale (not to mention numbers, let alone wages) is at an all-time low.
The out-of-state ownership and clueless photographer-turned-editor have run off no fewer than 12 capable (many award-winning) members of the newsroom in the past 18 or so months.
Where has the LCD looked for replacements for these experienced journalists?
Why, it has raided area colleges for J-students, and is even looking to Conway High School for contributions, of course.
Whatever keeps that bottom line where it needs to be!
Sad times for a mid-size daily that was once very good.

Rumor a while back is that Magie offered to sell Feldman the Patriot and he laughed at the idea... word not too long ago as well was that Stephens was interested in buying the Leader. If so, I guess Feldman turned that down, too. This will be interesting.

>>Rumor a while back is that Magie offered to sell Feldman the Patriot and he laughed at the idea... <<

While on a much smaller scle, that may go down as similar to Patterson's laughing at Hussman when he proposed a JOA.
And the old Gazette hands know how that worked out.
I'd imagine that Feldman is in panic mode about now and if I worked there, I'd be doing some resume polishing. Yeah, sure the commercial print business is what keeps it floating, but the Leader does make some revenue off advertising and the ones who have received preferential treatment in coverage, like Knight Grocery whose daughter has been busted for drugs, but nary a word in print, will stick with Feldman. A few others like that floating around as well, but if Dennis does it right, Stephens will dominate.
Feldman will be able to limp along but eventually it will be either keep printing a money-losing paper and not able to maintain his expensive blues habit, or be in such a position of weakness he sells to Stephens as well or just call it quits and up being a commerical printer.
Feldman's a Jew and he'll make the money decision.

"In hindsight, it would've probably been a strategically smart purchase for him...then the Stephens could've come made a deal with him."... in response to this comment,
The Magies would have never even considered selling to the likes of Feldman.
I personally think that this will be a great move for the Magie Newspapers, as now they will be even stronger with a larger corporation to come in and back them. i think the Magies di d what what their father, the late Cone Magie would have wanted... they looked out for their employees, and found what would have been the best for the future of the 7 papers in the business---the children and their spouses took what their father began, built it as far as they could take it, then sold to someone who could carry the torch further.
As far as the problems with the quality, I'm certain that once Stephens has full control, and can invest the money into a newer press that all the papers will see significant changes.

Again, the Magies would rather run the paper straight to hell before they would allow Feldman to touch it..so rumors of anyone "laughing" in anyones face are completely unfounded.

"Feldman's a Jew and he'll make the money decision."

Good to see Anon keeping Cabot's reputation for diversity strong.

Hey C, I've got it on good authority that Mark DID try to sell to Garrick. But Garrick wasn't farsighted enough to buy him out.

He'll rue the day he passed on the offer. Meanwhile, look for GF to dump his Stephens content and run AP. As if it really matters.

I had the unfortunate experience watching the Jacksonville Patriot dwindle from a daily with a staff 5 writers and an office in Jacksonville to a biweekly with so many editors going in and out of the Cabot-based office and never became immersed into the city they were reporting on. It was a sad to see a thriving paper go so wrong but there were a couple of us along the way trying to make it work against the odds. Also, saw the Arkansas Gazette go by the wayside. It appears nowadays no one does anything simple for the love of it. It is only about the bottom line----MONEY!

I had the unfortunate experience watching the Jacksonville Patriot dwindle from a daily with a staff 5 writers and an office in Jacksonville to a biweekly with so many editors going in and out of the Cabot-based office and never became immersed into the city they were reporting on. It was a sad to see a thriving paper go so wrong but there were a couple of us along the way trying to make it work against the odds. Also, saw the Arkansas Gazette go by the wayside. It appears nowadays no one does anything simply for the love of it. It is only about the bottom line----MONEY!