Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC laid off six employees Thursday in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Springdale newsroom.
The layoffs involved four employees on the sports desk and two on the design and copy desk.
Jeff Jeffus, president of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers, said the layoffs were necessary in part because of the recession.
“We have tried to minimize the impact of layoffs through attrition this past year but find that we must make further reductions at this time,” he said.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Inc. and Stephens Media LLC entered into an operating alliance on Nov. 1, 2009, creating Northwest Arkansas Newspapers. Some of Thursday’s layoffs eliminated duplicate jobs, said Jeffus.
“In Northwest Arkansas, we will still have 283 full-time employees and 110 part-time employees along with 350 independent contractors,” he said.
Northwest Arkansas Newspapers will combine the two design and copy desks that existed in the Northwest Arkansas operation, said Jeffus. Pagination will be done in the Springdale building for all Northwest Arkansas Newspapers publications. Copy editing for the Northwest Arkansas edition of the Democrat-Gazette will be done in the Little Rock newsroom.