The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Northwest edition completed a merger on Nov. 1, creating a new company — Northwest Arkansas Newspapers, LLC.
The new company will own the four daily newspapers in the region — The Northwest Arkansas Times in Fayetteville, Springdale Morning News, Rogers Morning News and Benton County Daily Record in Bentonville, plus the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Northwest edition and a host of weekly publications and Hawgs Illustrated Magazine.
The sports staff of the four smaller dailies will focus its attention on covering their respective communities, mainly focusing on preps, community sports and the two small colleges in the region.
Coverage of the University of Arkansas is falling to the Democrat-Gazette staff, although the new company also will provide Arkansas coverage through Stephens Media’s bureau and Hawgs Illustrated.
The four dailies will offer coverage of some UA sports, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals minor league team and the annual LPGA Tournament in Rogers.
The sports staff of the new company includes Chip Souza (sports editor), Kurt Voigt (assistant sports editor), Alex Abrams, Nathan Allen, Ryan Malashock, Paul Nielsen, Paul Boyd, Tom Glave, Graham Thomas (Siloam Springs) and Flip Putthoff (outdoors) along with web sports editor Brandon Marcello.
The Times-Picayune: For the New Orleans Saints’ Monday night game against the Atlanta Falcons, The Times-Picayune devoted the day to constant posting to the Web site. Beginning at 4 a.m., it posted something new to the site every 30 minutes until kickoff and then updated every quarter.
There were blogs, videos, and chats. At the end of the night, we put everything together in a links post: http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2009/11/new_orleans_saints_vs_atlanta_9.html
Southeast Region meeting in April: The Southeast Region meeting is set for Monday, April 26, in Birmingham. It will be a workshop free of charge to be held at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame building, which is located just across the street from the Southeastern Conference offices and Sheraton Hotel.
SEC commissioner Mike Slive and associate commissioner (media) Charles Bloom have it on their calendars to attend and do a Q&A session. More details on the program will be forthcoming as the event draws near.
