A novel conversion process will see printed pages of the Pine Bluff Commercial in Arizona, included in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette until subscribers can see the digital replica on a loan iPad.

The interim measure follows Gannett's sale of the Commercial to Democrat-Gazette parent WEHCO Newspapers, and is expected to take six to eight weeks.

Media merger and acquisition firm Dirks, Van Essen & April report that the Pine Bluff Commercial will return to seven days-a-week publishing as part of the Democrat-Gazette digital replica, having previously been printed and mailed five days a week.

Pine Bluff subscribers will receive a letter explaining the conversion to the digital replica, including one-on-one, in-person training with each subscriber along with the free use of an iPad to receive the digital replica every day.

Two affiliated Democrat-Gazette editions and the El Dorado News-Times have already converted from seven-day print publication to a seven-day digital replica along with Sunday newspapers delivered to subscribers.

Publisher Walter Hussman says he thinks the arrangement will provide a solution to continue to receive a daily newspaper. "The success of the Pine Bluff Commercial will depend on new and former subscribers finding this a better newspaper experience and having a newspaper the people of Pine Bluff will be proud of for its journalistic quality and commitment to the community."

New Media Investment Group, which recently acquired Gannett, had owned the Pine Bluff Commercial for five years.

Hussman is the grandson of Clyde Palmer who founded WEHCO and its predecessor companies in 1909, while Arkansas Democrat-Gazette managing editor Eliza Hussman Gaines is his great granddaughter.

The University of North Carolina recently renamed their journalism school the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and adopted a statement of core journalism values, which is to be published on page two of the Pine Bluff Commercial every day.