Pica Pole : Lite? I don’t think so
Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
A note from a subscriber arrived in the e-mail in-box Tuesday morning.
The writer noted," It seems to me that the amount of local news in the NW Arkansas edition is going down. Several cases in point is the elimination of the news pullout in the Sunday paper, and now the elimination of the lawsuits filed and restaurant inspections in the Monday Benton County Daily Record."
He noted that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Sunday business magazine has been eliminated, yet the competition's business section has been increasing, and the competition's Sunday business section has openings and closings of area businesses, with no equivalent in the ADG.
"It would be interesting to lay the competing newspapers (Morning News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ) side by side and compare column inches of local stories. I read both papers every Sunday, and quite often during the week, the Morning News carrier throws a complimentary paper. It seems to me that on a regular basis, the Morning News has longer articles than the Democrat, and that there are numerous occasions where a story is not printed in the Democrat, or if it is, it is several days later. If this perception is actually true, then you may want to consider a name change to something along the lines of Arkansas Democrat Lite.
"My Arkansas Democrat subscription will expire in several weeks, and I am seriously considering dropping it and changing to the other newspaper."
Perception: Indeed, to the perceiver, it is reality.
I won't venture to address much about news coverage, other than to agree that our Sunday business magazine has been eliminated in favor of boosting coverage in the daily product, Sunday included: Remember, there is still a business section in the Sunday paper, just not a business magazine. Everything that was in the magazine will remain in the paper.
Mr. Writer notes that lawsuits filed and restaurant inspections have been eliminated from The Daily Record. Yes, we didn't have those in Monday's paper; he's right. But to assume it's been eliminated is a mistake. We didn't have those items simply because the person who compiles that information was off all last week. And Mr. Writer helps me by pointing out the restaurant inspections: The Daily Record publishes them, the Morning News does not. Maybe that's an even exchange with knowing the openings and closings.
The writer notes that things are shrinking at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and by implication, The Benton County Daily Record, which is a newspaper that's delivered with the ADG in Benton County.
Reality is that the Morning News shrank about 13 percent back in early summer. The paper got an inch narrower per page. Take up the writer's suggestion; lay the competition side by side, and it's obvious that there's less space per page in the Morning News.
I put them side by side Tuesday morning. I noticed that the ADG was quite a bit thicker than the Morning News, so I counted pages, not including the inserted ads. The tally • Morning News: 50 pages • ADG / Record: 60 pages So, not only is there more paper per page, there are more pages. A few weeks ago, I wondered exactly how many stories The Daily Record carries. In July, The Record produced 263 bylined stories and 172 news photos. Sports produced 50 bylined stories and carried 45 locally produced photographs. Additionally, we carried 83 bylines stories from the weekly newspapers in the county, as well as 40 photographs. All of those stories are directly related to Benton County: There are no national stories in there. On top of that, we published 385 submitted items and 44 submitted photographs - church news, club briefs, meeting notices, sports teams: All those items are things that our readers want in the paper. Regarding the competition's practice of giving away their product "quite often during the week": Why on earth would a company do that ? Which car dealer in the county regularly gives away product ? Which grocery does it ? Which furniture store ? Pharmacy ? Convenience store ? Arkansas Democrat Lite ? Nice try, but I believe you put the Lite on the wrong paper. I want to thank you for reading the paper every Sunday. And I want to thank you for taking the time to write. By doing so, you've given me the chance to answer your questions. Thank you.
• • • Kent Marts is editor / general manager of The Benton County Daily Record. His column appears on Wednesdays. He can be reached at kentm @ nwanews. com.
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