Gatehouse to shutter two rural Arkansas papers and end local printing at a third; major Ark. paper to go mostly digital - Entrepreneur Generations

Gatehouse Media will shutter two rural papers in eastern Arkansas on Sept. 6 and will cease local printing in a third paper nearby, Max Brantley reports for the Arkansas Times.

Editors at the Stuttgart Daily Leader and the Helena-West Helena World both say they're trying to find buyers so the papers can keep running, and that they're "actively working" with an interested party. Both papers are more than a century old.

The news comes on the heels of the latest round of Gatehouse layoffs, announced ahead of its merger with Gannett. It also lends credence to the fears of Peter Wagner, publisher of the N'West Iowa Review, who warned that the merger would lead to the sale of many smaller, less-profitable weeklies. Wagner saw the sales as an opportunity for renewed local ownership, which both Arkansas papers are pursuing, but it's a tough market for newspapers right now.

It's unclear where printing of the Pine Bluff Commercial will migrate, but the paper will reportedly cease operating a press in 30 days, Brantley reports. John Worthen, who resigned earlier this week as managing editor of the Commercial, told Brantley in an email that it will be the first time in a century that Pine Bluff will be without a functioning printing press. He said he hopes to remain active in local journalism through a digital format. "It’s my hometown, and I want to see it grow and thrive. PB deserves a solid local news source. And that is no longer the PBC, unfortunately," Worthen told Brantley.

In separate but related news, Brantley reported that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette plans to convert to a mostly digital paper by the end of the year, and will cease daily printing except for a Sunday edition. 

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2MKsOgI Gatehouse to shutter two rural Arkansas papers and end local printing at a third; major Ark. paper to go mostly digital - Entrepreneur Generations

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