Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Publisher Eliza Hussman Gaines told Little Rock Rotarians last month that her newspaper is fighting for its life against a culture that wants its news free of charge.
And if that sounds like an overstatement, consider this: In 2006, the Democrat-Gazette’s total paid distribution for each issue in the previous 12 months averaged 189,000. Last year, that number was 25,414.
“We’re fighting an uphill battle against a culture of free, and a generation that often gets their news from social media instead of verified sources,” Gaines said.
That’s why she is wooing younger users, accepting charitable donations for community journalism, using analytics to see what readers want, and pulling back from a multimillion-dollar effort that gave subscribers iPads for reading a digital replica of the print paper.
That effort, which her father and predecessor as publisher, Walter E. Hussman Jr., pioneered when printing and delivering news on paper became a losing proposition, basically saved the Democrat-Gazette’s robust newsroom in 2018.
The Rotarians made clear that they love their iPads, but Gaines was blunt: The devices are not the path to the future in a world where 40% of local newspapers have folded in the past 20 years and even more — unlike the Democrat-Gazette — have drastically cut their newsrooms.
Today’s young consumers, Gaines said, are glued to their smartphones.
‘They Do Not Want to Pay’
“They have no interest in an iPad.” she said. “They have no interest in the actual printed newspaper. They want us to meet them where they are, which is TikTok, which is Instagram. It’s not really Facebook as much anymore.
“It’s not that they don’t care about things going on in their world or their state or community. This is a very socially active generation, which is wonderful. … But they don’t always know where to turn [for news], and they do not want to have to pay for it. So how can we kind of train them to understand why this is so important?”
Gaines took over as publisher at Wehco Media Inc., the parent company of the Democrat-Gazette, when her father, who remains Wehco chairman, stepped down in 2022. She said young consumers need to be taught that professionally reported, trusted news is worth paying for, just as young people pay for a Hulu subscription.
“I’m not sure what the model looks like right now. We’re experimenting with it, but it really comes down to the value that they place in local news, because if they don’t value that, then we’ll be toast.”
Paid readership declined sharply at the Democrat-Gazette in the early 2020s, according to the newspaper’s annual ownership statements. The average number of combined print and electronic subscriptions fell 41% in 2020, 54% in 2021 and 13% in 2022 to a low of 24,808. Under Gaines’ leadership, that measure has remarkably rebounded, rising by 62% in 2023 and 16% in 2025 to nearly 44,000. The numbers include readership of the Democrat-Gazette and the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of Fayetteville, former General Manager Lynn Hamilton confirmed to Arkansas Business in 2018.
Skeptics say the numbers can be manipulated, but Gaines credits the paper’s efforts to grow subscribers digitally, primarily through its website, ArkansasOnline.com. “The credit goes to the strong value of our subscriber-exclusive content,” she said. The paper makes certain stories available only to subscribers each day.
Gaines and Allison Shirk, Wehco’s vice president of content and newsroom strategy, increasingly use analytics to guide what to offer. “We look at our reach across the state, how often people consume our news, our rate of acquiring and retaining subscribers, as well as revenue growth,” Gaines said. “They’re telling us that there is a growing number of Arkansans that value our award-winning coverage of the news.”
Sunday Fit for Print
The Democrat-Gazette still prints its Sunday paper, which includes legal notification ads required to be published in print, as well as popular features like High Profile and an expanded sports section.
“Sunday is swollen by people who still pay to get print and don’t care that digital is included whether they want it or not,” longtime Arkansas Gazette and Arkansas Times editor and columnist Max Brantley said. “Paid electronic average is up to 18,500 [in 2025] versus 11,393” in 2024.
Brantley said that in a “dying industry,” the Democrat-Gazette is doing better than many competitors. But he noted the difference between 52,000 Sunday readers “against a peak of 275,000” after the newspaper war between the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat. “Whew,” Brantley said. He was with the Gazette when the Gannett chain sold its assets to Hussman in 1991 for $68 million.
Another former Gazette journalist, who spoke on the condition he not be named, said he thought the Sunday paper survives in print because of its legal advertisements. “Without the law that requires the legal ads, the Demgaz could not survive, I think,” he said. “I’m for keeping the pointless law because it means we get a good daily paper.”
Gaines told the Rotarians that they can expect more sponsored content in her newspaper this year, with clear labeling and guardrails to maintain reader trust. She also acknowledged that the Sunday edition will remain in print as long as state law requires public notices to be published on paper. It is a noteworthy revenue stream. “Our hands are tied,” Gaines said.
In her Jan. 6 speech, Gaines summarized the lethal shift in the general-interest newspaper business.
“In the past year alone, we lost two newspapers every week,” Gaines said. “Many of these papers didn’t disappear because people stopped caring. They disappeared because there was no viable path forward.”
Advertising Collapse
Print advertising revenue collapsed by more than 80% after 2004 as consumers turned to online giants like Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Google. Meanwhile, digital advertising became so cheap that even papers with solid online reports couldn’t fill the gap.
“Online advertising pays only a fraction of what print once did, so we’re competing against global tech companies for pennies,” Gaines said. “And those same tech giants scrape our reporting, our original reporting, and repurpose them for their own audiences, often never sending the readers back to the original source.”
Consolidation also took a huge toll on local journalism as media chains gutted newsrooms for short-term profits, leaving readers with a shell of what they once treasured.
“Many of today’s chains were created through massive mergers financed by debt, so whatever profits they made went to pay off that debt, rather than reinvesting in community journalism,” Gaines noted. She also acknowledged that three Missouri papers that Wehco sold at the end of the year were not making a profit.
She pointed to several strategic decisions the Democrat-Gazette made over the years to protect reporting capacity while adapting to changing reader habits and new business realities.
First, it resisted the impulse to make online content available at no charge, adding that papers that did so authored their own undoing, to an extent. And of course the paper innovated with the iPad program, shifting from print delivery to digital, deeply cutting printing and distribution costs.
Donating to the Paper
Gaines also highlighted the paper’s community journalism campaign, which has raised significant cash since late August 2024 from benefactors’ charitable contributions through a nonprofit.
“So far at the ADG, we’ve raised about $340,000 and have been able to fund roles like our Learns Act reporter and a new investigative editor who will work across the newsroom. We also hope to launch a health care lab in the near future,” Gaines said. “That number is meaningful, but it’s only a fraction of what it costs to operate a statewide newsroom” of about 100 employees.
“Philanthropic support allows us to go beyond what we’re currently reporting,” Gaines said. “Donations fund costly, time-consuming work like in-depth investigations. Our new editorial leadership team is working hard to identify these topic areas and provide dedicated coverage of critical local issues.”
Wehco hired a new executive editor, Lee Wolverton, to oversee the newsrooms of the Democrat-Gazette and the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette late last year. Four-decade veteran Stacy Hawkins became managing editor.
“I think more people are realizing that fair, accurate and independent journalism isn’t just a product,” Gaines said. “It’s a public service that’s disappearing. … We’ve had readers ask how they can support our mission beyond subscribing, and this [donating] gives them a way to make a deeper investment in local news in Arkansas.”
Gaines and Shirk are expanding the newspaper’s format, including an online reincarnation of Arkansas Life, which was a magazine before being discontinued during the COVID pandemic. Other ideas to reach a younger audience include curated newsletters, social video and partnerships with community influencers adept at meeting users where they are — on their smartphones, Gaines said.
“People tell me all the time, they stop me in the grocery store or at parties, and they tell me how grateful they are for the Democrat-Gazette,” Gaines said. “But most of them do not realize the headwinds we’re facing or how pivotal this moment is for our industry as a whole.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
