Turner retires from industry after masterful 40-year career

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It was at that point that Turner, who had spent his career working at Donrey and Stephens properties, began his association with WEHCO Media and Walter E. Hussman, Jr.. During that early period of the operation, he served as editor and publisher of the community zoned editions that were inserted into the regional Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The WEHCO operation eventually transitioned into the present-day Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and Turner has served as the newspaper’s editor since 2015. He has been at the helm for the dramatic changes occurring since that time, most notably implementation of a unique subscription model in which the company lends an iPad to subscribers in order to access each day’s edition electronically.

“It has been very successful,” Turner said of the digital newspaper. “It has allowed us to provide a much more robust news operation than a lot of our peer newspapers across the country.

“It has been very important to Mr. Hussman to not eliminate content providers,” he said, noting his owner maintains that limiting news coverage will lead to rapidly declining readership and subscriptions and a diminished and weak product. Turner pointed out that many communities in America now are severely underserved or, in some cases, have no newspaper at all.

In addition to the daily digital version of the newspaper, subscribers additionally have the option of a printed Sunday edition delivered to the home. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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