Arkansas Democrat-Gazette publisher Walter E. Hussman, Jr. spoke Thursday night in Little Rock about his initiative to digitize the newspaper as it enters its final months of providing a print edition seven days a week.
The company is working to move its Pulaski County subscribers -- by the end of the year -- to a digital replica version of the newspaper that can be read on an iPad. Pulaski is the last county to undergo the transition, Hussman said.
Hussman, who is the chairman of the newspaper's parent company WEHCO Media Inc., spoke in the Central Arkansas Library System's Ron Robinson Theater as part of the 2019 J.N. Heiskell Program. The annual event honors Heiskell, who was an editor of the Arkansas Gazette for more than 70 years, according to information on the library's website.
"You might prefer to read something on paper, you might prefer to read something digitally but regardless of what you prefer ... there's no question that digital is going to prevail as the way to deliver content," Hussman said.
Hussman's plan to combat a decline in advertising revenue, which has affected newspapers nationwide, is to provide subscribers with an iPad. On the tablet, customers can view a digital replica of the traditional newspaper every day.
The company will continue to provide a printed newspaper on Sundays.
For the past several days, "digital conversion" newspaper staff members have been at the Hilton Garden Inn in North Little Rock assisting readers who are transitioning from printed newspapers to digital replicas on iPads.
The initiative began in Blytheville in February 2018, and Hussman said Thursday that it's been successful overall.
For decades, the majority of newspapers' revenue came from advertising. That revenue dwindled as the Internet grew in popularity, he said.
"When 80% of your revenue base shrinks that much, it has a devastating impact," Hussman said.
Clay Peeler and Jennifer Brown said they went to the lecture because they'd heard about the initiative and wanted to get more information about it.
Brown, 84, said she's from Little Rock and has gotten the newspaper since she was young. Her children had newspaper routes. Peeler, 83, said he doesn't have an iPhone or a computer, but he wants to keep reading. He's been a subscriber "forever," as well.
"We're not computer whizzes," Brown said.
Hussman said he's had positive responses from several subscribers. He described an interaction with a 93-year-old man who didn't have Internet access at his home before he got the iPad and didn't have a cellphone.
But he wanted to keep reading the newspaper.
"He's a happy subscriber," Hussman said.
Although it's not out of the realm of possibilities, there are no immediate plans to convert the 12 counties covered by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Hussman said in a previous interview after speaking to the Rotary Club of Little Rock in September.
Hussman's family bought the Arkansas Democrat in 1974 and won a newspaper war with the Gannett-owned Arkansas Gazette in 1991. Hussman, who was then the publisher of the Democrat, purchased the Gazette's assets and formed the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
WEHCO Media owns several newspapers in Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri, as well as a number of cable television stations.
Metro on 10/11/2019
CORRECTION: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette staff have been assisting readers who are transitioning from printed newspapers to digital replicas on iPads at the Hilton Garden Inn in North Little Rock. An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the hotel.