see stephens media group . stephens media llc type private industry newspapers founded 1940 1940 as donrey media group founder donald w. reynolds headquarters las vegas nevada u.s. products newspapers magazines online number of employees 2 000 website www.stephensmedia.com stephens media llc is a las vegas nevada diversified media investment company . it owns stakes in the california newspapers partnership and the northwest arkansas democrat gazette . on february 19 2015 the company announced it had sold its stephens media newspapers to the new media investment group a publicly traded company based in new york for 102.5 million in cash . the big prize in the package is the daily las vegas review journal once one of the country s most profitable but wracked in recent years in part by an economic downturn in the city . new media had earlier bought halifax media partially owned by stephens . the newspapers sold are what remain of the donrey media empire begun in fort smith by donald w. reynolds and sold by his estate in 1993 to the stephens family now warren stephens and his cousins witt stephens jr. and elizabeth stephens campbell for about 800 million . they ve parceled off billboard and broadcast and other newspapers over the years as well as operating them profitably for a number of years before the internet began taking a major toll on print . the gossip always was that the stephenses paid off the purchase price with profits in the early years warren stephens ceo of stephens inc. told reporters that the investment was one of the best they d ever made and an outstanding return on investment . the company had been expanding its interactive internet business operating online sites for its newspapers and portal sites like lasvegas.com which is licensed to greenspun media group . the company is also a partner in the california newspapers partnership with medianews and gannett . the company also formed in november 2009 a joint venture with wehco media inc. in arkansas . on november 28 2010 stephens media iowa llc a subsidiary of stephens media acquired several newspapers including the ames tribune boone news republican dallas county news nevada journal ames about people & advertiser tri county times and algona upper des moines from midlands newspapers inc. a subsidiary of the omaha world herald company . 1 in august 2011 the algona upper des moines was sold to hallmark media . 2 contents 1 history 2 copyright infringements 3 joint venture 4 holdings 4.1 newspapers by state 4.2 news bureaus 5 references 6 external links history edit the company was formerly called donrey media group which was founded by arkansas media mogul donald w. reynolds and based in fort smith arkansas . after reynolds died in 1993 at the age of 86 the company was sold to the stephens family of arkansas known for their little rock investment banking business stephens inc. some of donrey s properties were sold off and the company moved its headquarters to las vegas nevada home of its largest newspaper the las vegas review journal . the company was renamed stephens media group in 2002 . in june 2006 the company became known as stephens media llc . the company has no connection with stephens media group a radio broadcasting company in tulsa oklahoma . copyright infringements edit in 2010 stephens media contracted with the litigation firm righthaven llc giving it the power to enforce the company s copyrights 3 when online violators go beyond the bounds of fair use . 4 more than 141 lawsuits have been filed in u.s. district court in las vegas since mid march . in a column published in the rj shortly after the lawsuits began publisher sherman frederick said the primary goal with the partnership with righthaven was to deter theft of the company s copyrighted materials . 5 he said if the company was successful he hoped righthaven would find other media clients . in late august wehco media which owns the arkansas democrat gazette and the chattanooga times free press signed on with the firm . 6 medianews group has also used righthaven to file a copyright infringement suit . the aggressive enforcement of the stephens media copyrights by righthaven was being closely watched by other publishers as is the debate it has generated . 7 critics of the relatively new practice have coined it copyright trolling and argue that the purpose of such enforcement is to make a profit . 8 in the poynter article stephens media general counsel mark hinueber says the goal is to make sure the company s intellectual rights are protected . we were seeing our entire work product in some stories just being right clicked and cut and pasted into blogs where people were selling google ads around them and making money . 7 the las vegas sun has been thoroughly documenting righthaven s activities and the response . the sun s outside law firm lewis and roca is defending several of the righthaven suits . targets of the righthaven lawsuits included bloggers political forums major political parties and several of the newspaper s own sources including norml dailypaul.com infowars free republic and others . 9 10 11 on august 25 2010 the electronic frontier foundation eff announced that they will make efforts to assist righthaven llc defendants to the best of their ability . 12 righthaven s lawsuits came under increasing judicial scrutiny which led to righthaven being found in june 2011 to lack standing to sue for alleged infringement of copyrighted material to which it holds only a limited license as such a license does not confer the right to sue for infringement . sanctions against righthaven and its attorney steven a. gibson of nevada law firm dickinson wright are currently being contemplated by one judge . righthaven later had its assets seized to pay judgments levied against it in lawsuits it filed against those whom it said infringed on the copyrights of clients . as a result copyrights which had been sold by stephens to righthaven were sold back to stephens for 80 000 to pay legal fees . 13 joint venture edit in september 2009 stephens media and wehco media inc. owner of the arkansas democrat gazette announced plans to combine their newspaper operations in northwest arkansas and operate as a single company . 14 the venture was approved in november 2009 by the u.s. justice department and a new arkansas limited liability company northwest arkansas newspapers llc was formed . stephens media sold its interest in the joint venture to wehco on may 5 2016 which assumed control of all operations of the newspapers in the joint venture . 15 newspapers in the joint venture include the springdale morning news the rogers morning news northwest arkansas times 16 benton county daily record holdings edit stephens press hawgs illustrated magazine springdale ark . part of joint venture with wehco media luxury las vegas magazine las vegas nevada arkansasnews.com the company also publishes an online only site focused on state politics . newspapers by state edit arkansas southwest times record fort smith daily press argus courier van buren weekly wed. & sat . 17 booneville democrat booneville weekly wed. & sat . 18 charleston express charleston weekly wed. & sat . 19 greenwood democrat greenwood weekly wed. & sat . 20 paris express paris weekly wed. & sat . 21 pine bluff commercial pine bluff daily 22 white hall progress white hall weekly wed. & sat . 23 central arkansas weeklies group of weekly newspapers that operates under one publisher pulaski county north little rock times north little rock weekly wed. & sat . 24 jacksonville patriot jacksonville weekly wed. & sat . 25 sherwood voice sherwood weekly wed. & sat . 26 maumelle monitor maumelle weekly wed. & sat . 27 lonoke county cabot star herald cabot weekly wed. & sat . 28 lonoke democrat lonoke weekly wed. & sat . 29 carlisle independent carlisle weekly wed. & sat . 30 england democrat england weekly wed. & sat . 31 elsewhere hot springs village voice hot springs village weekly wed. & sat . 32 van buren county democrat clinton weekly wed. & sat . 33 iowa ames tribune ames ia daily boone news republican boone ia daily 34 dallas county news weekly 35 algona upper des moines algona ia weekly 36 nevada journal nevada ia weekly 37 tri county times nevada ia weekly 38 ames sun ames ia weekly story county advertiser ames ia weekly nevada las vegas review journal las vegas nv daily las vegas citylife las vegas nv weekly thur . 39 el tiempo las vegas nv weekly fri. 40 las vegas business press las vegas nv weekly mon. 41 boulder city review boulder city nv weekly thur . 42 ely times ely nv weekly fri. 43 rebel nation las vegas nv monthly 1st of month 44 pahrump valley times pahrump nv twice weekly wed. & fri. 45 eureka sentinel eureka nv twice weekly wed. & fri. tonopah times bonanza tonopah nv twice weekly wed. & fri. lincoln county record weekly 46 north carolina courier tribune asheboro nc daily oklahoma bartlesville examiner enterprise bartlesville ok daily pawhuska journal capital pawhuska ok twice weekly wed. & sat . 47 texas the herald democrat sherman denison tx daily except saturday anna melissa tribune anna tx weekly 48 grayson county shopper sherman tx weekly prosper press prosper tx weekly 49 van alstyne leader van alstyne tx weekly 50 lake texoma life kingston tx monthly 1st of month tennessee the daily herald columbia tn daily the advertiser news spring hill tn weekly wed. the value guide columbia tn weekly tues. franklin life franklin tn monthly 15th of month 51 brentwood life brentwood tn monthly 1st of month 52 healthy living columbia tn monthly 3rd wed. each month news bureaus edit carson city nevada washington dc little rock arkansas 53 references edit release press 2010 11 29 . stephens media acquires ames ia tribune editor & publisher . editorandpublisher.com . retrieved 2013 05 29 . http www.algona.com articles 2011 09 01 news top news doc4e5e994a93af0920449983.txt copyright stephens media llc . stephens media interactive . stephensmedia.com . retrieved 2013 05 28 . u.s. copyright office fair use . copyright.gov . 2001 09 11 . retrieved 2013 05 28 . sherman frederick 2010 05 28 . copyright theft we re not taking it anymore las vegas review journal . lvrj.com . retrieved 2013 05 28 . 1 archived september 3 2011 at the wayback machine . a b hochberg adam 2010 08 30 . are newspaper copyright lawsuits fair enforcement or legal extortion poynter . poynter . retrieved 2013 05 28 . kravets david 2010 07 23 . newspaper chain s new business plan copyright suits threat level . wired.com . retrieved 2013 05 28 . cynthia conlin says 2010 08 04 . copyright sleuthing or what happens in the las vegas review journal on the record . mddailyrecord.com . retrieved 2013 05 28 . list of righthaven lawsuits . righthavenlawsuits.com . retrieved 2013 05 28 . 2 dead link eff seeks to help righthaven defendants electronic frontier foundation . eff.org . 2010 08 25 . retrieved 2013 05 28 . masnick mike march 18 2013 . righthaven copyrights sold back to stephens media for 80k to pay legal fees . techdirt.com . retrieved 15 may 2013 . business arkansas . updated democrat gazette stephens media plan joint venture in northwest arkansas arkansas business news . arkansasbusiness.com . retrieved 2013 05 29 . bahn chris . nwaonline.com . northwest arkansas newspapers llc http www.nwaonline.com news 2016 may 15 wehco media announces changes 20160515 business arkansas . retrieved may 26 2016 . missing or empty title help arkansas the . northwest arkansas news fayetteville springdale rogers bentonville . nwaonline . retrieved 2013 05 28 . press argus courier . pressargus.com . retrieved 2013 05 28 . booneville democrat . booneville democrat . retrieved 2013 05 28