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Had to happen. Northwest Arkansas Newspapers will be consolidated into a single regional edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

This puts together Stephens Media-owned papers in Fayetteville, Rogers, Springdale and Bentonville with the regional edition of the Democrat-Gazette.

The consolidation will eliminate "redundancies" and mean the firing of 15 people out of a workforce of 373. Nine of the jobs are in the newsroom. Newspaper offices in Rogers and Bentonville will close. News employees will work from offices in Springdale and Fayetteville and some will be equipped to work "from the field," said President Todd Nelson.

The individual Stephens newspapers already existed only as wrap-arounds for delivery of the regional D-G. Now their name plates will continue on the B sections of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The article on-line about the change provides no indication about whether the change affects ownership interests or agreements on profit-sharing. Stephens Media continues to have free-standing dailies in Fort Smith and Pine Bluff. The Fort Smith paper has undergone dramatic staff reductions recently. It is still identified as a part-owner of the joint enterprise, now even more firmly branded than it already was as a D-G-controlled operation.

From the news release on the move:

The consolidation should improve readers' ability to find regular features and coverage in the paper, while maximizing visibility for advertisers.

Rates are not increasing for retailers and our clients will still have the option to target their advertising messages to readers in Washington or Benton counties within the B section, said Crystal Costa, advertising director. They can also target by Springdale, Fayetteville, Rogers or Bentonville in the Our Town feature section that will publish each Thursday.

The full release follows:

NEWS RELEASE

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Northwest Arkansas newspapers to merge under Democrat-Gazette