Arkansas Blog: The Times of LR

Arkansas Business reports that Stephens Media will be consolidating production and various other aspects of Central Arkansas newspapers and activities in a building the Stephens family owns at Second and Main in Little Rock. This means that The Times of North Little Rock may not have an office in North Little Rock, come the day. Working for a North Little Rock native, I have some notion of the intensely local loyalties that prevail in NLR. Matches or beats anything you might find in NW Ark.

It did get me dreaming, too. The Stephens empire had the wherewithall to split the difference in high style. It could have converted the Junction Bridge to an office tower for its media empire. A Ponte Vecchio for Arkansas, touching both banks to avoid any parochial jealousies. That would have beat a pedestrian span all hollow.

PS -- I heard back from Dennis Byrd, who heads the Stephens operations in Central Arkansas. He says the move won't take place until March. He said it was still undecided on whether they'll continue to maintain an office in NLR when the move takes place, or if not, when they might reopen an office there. He notes the new location, which will also take in the Stephens' Capitol Bureau, is only a block from the bridge.

Somehow, all this suggests a paraphrase of the famous James O. Powell line that involved Fort Smith and Oklahoma -- So close to Dogtown, so far from God.

Comments

Ah, Arkansas' own Ponte Vecchio. We could become Redneck Venice! But I'm remembering that when the Stephens' were planning the ballpark in NLR they were quoted as saying you didn't let a drainage ditch (the Arkansas River) determine where you built something. I guess the same principle applies to the Times' offices.

I grew up in NLR. They won't take it well. Not that that matters. I suspect that almost all small-town papers are printed out of town nowadays and moving the offices is just the next step. Someday the bean counters will have you guys all working out of your homes anyway. Who needs an office?

Posted by: Perplexed | October 9, 2007 10:18 AM

James O. Powell was no doubt a mighty man of letters -- not for nothing was the New York Times often referred to as "the Arkansas Gazette of Manhattan" -- but his cleverriposte about Fort Smith was hardly original. Porfirio Diaz, the president of Mexico for 25 years at the end of the nineteenth century coined the original: "Pobre México! Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!" ("Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!") If he only knew.

ARK. BLOG: Thanks for that background. I figured he was knocking off someone, but I always enjoyed it. Along with his reference to Fort Smith "far from the civiling influences of Central Arkansas."

Posted by: Casimer Pulaski | October 9, 2007 10:52 AM

This "consolidation" sounds suspiciously like the first step toward forming a large central Arkansas daily. Dast they compete head-to-head with Hussman?

Posted by: 24fps | October 9, 2007 11:31 AM

What ARE the chances that Stephens Media will establish a Little Rock-based daily with statewide circulation? I pray it will happen and that I'll still be on the planet to witness it. I already have a name to propose. It's plain and simple: The Arkansan.

Posted by: durangokid | October 9, 2007 12:00 PM

If I were a gamblin' man, I would venture to say that the Stephens family didn't get rich by losing money. It has pretty much been proven that two daily papers can't survive in Little Rock can't , even when one is owned by "deep pockets" and the other by "even deeper pockets." However, if Stephens starts a daily, here's a billboard campaign in the opening salvo of the marketing war:

FREE OBITS!

(I mean, after all, touting "Daily Color Comics" worked for the bad guys (Boo, et al) once upon a time.)

Posted by: Quapaw | October 9, 2007 01:42 PM

FREE OBITS! "

Their flagship paper, The Morning News already does that, or am I missing the joke? TMN has two obits, one a freebie side by side with paid, deluxe, story-length obits.

Stephens Media does seem ripe for consolidation with 24 publications in Ark and operations in 9 states.

bluename for listing

Posted by: eLwood | October 9, 2007 02:15 PM

Thanks, ELwood. Yes, it was somewhat of a joke while also making a point:
The DOG charges the bereaved for obits.

Posted by: Quapaw | October 9, 2007 03:34 PM

I remember Powell's line as: "Fort Smith. So far from God, so close to Tulsa."

Posted by: Polecat | October 9, 2007 05:42 PM

I always thought J.O. Powell's line was funny, but just a tad disingenuous, being how close Little Rock is to Pine Bluff. I always felt Little Rock is more like Pine Bluff than some of its enlightened elite would care to admit.

Posted by: Polecat | October 9, 2007 06:28 PM

Arkansas Blog

The Times of LR

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