Central Arkansas
Owner: WEHCO Media Inc. / Stephens Media LLC
Effective: Aug. 3, 2012
The photography departments for the Northwest Arkansas Newspapers were combined; five employees were laid off. WEHCO and Stephens each own half of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC, which was created in November 2009. Stephens is responsible for editorial control of the northwest Arkansas papers; the WEHCO controls advertising, business, production and circulation, and retains editorial control of the Democrat-Gazette. The Stephens papers include the Benton County Daily Record, the Morning News, Rogers Morning News, Springdale Morning News, and the Northwest Arkansas Times. “We didn’t anticipate the severity or duration of the economic recession we were in,” Northwest Arkansas Newspapers President Jeff Jeffus wrote in a memo to employees. “It just didn’t make sense for us to continue duplication in some areas.”
Source: NWA Online via Paper Cuts tip
