The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette printing facility at 301 Byrd Street in Little Rock.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has been steadily shrinking its print delivery zone and promoting digital subscriptions for a couple of years, but it isn’t ready to get rid of ink and paper just yet.
That’s the word from the newspaper’s president, Lynn Hamilton, discounting talk that executives had set a July deadline for halting all print publication, including in Little Rock and in the state’s northwest, where it publishes the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Both papers are properties of Walter Hussman Jr.’s Wehco Media Inc.
“We’re definitely not planning to entirely forgo print,” Hamilton told Whispers. The paper has been providing free iPads to readers who keep their subscriptions even as print delivery is curtailed in their areas. Hamilton said he couldn’t disclose how many readers have taken up the iPad offer.
“Various versions of iPad distribution plans have been tested in outlying counties,” Hamilton said. “The current test includes Sunday-only print.”
The Sunday paper is still delivered in all 75 Arkansas counties and there is no plan to alter that arrangement, he said.
“We’re looking at this one county (or just a few counties) at a time. No decisions have been made regarding Little Rock or northwest Arkansas.”
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