LITTLE ROCK — WEHCO Media, Inc. has created a new division called 121 Digital Marketing to offer digital advertising services in its 14 daily newspaper markets in Arkansas, Texas, Missouri and Tennessee.

WEHCO Media, which owns the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state’s largest daily newspaper, will use its new division to help customers increase their online presence by offering services that include website and mobile site design, video production, search engine optimization and e-mail marketing.

The company will also help businesses create and manage accounts for social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

WEHCO Media news sites will also include a search directory that will list local businesses so viewers can look for company addresses and phone numbers. Clients of 121 Digital Marketing will have an expanded listing that will include additional information, such as a link to a company website.

“These are services that we really haven’t offered in the past but are services that local businesses really need,” said Conan Gallaty, executive vice president of digital for WEHCO Media. “We started this digital agency, because we saw a need for businesses - large and small - to be able to compete for more customers.”

WEHCO Media is partnering with LocalEdge, a Hearst Media Services company, to provide the new online services.

LocalEdge will provide the technology and will host the computer database that 121 Digital Marketing will use to provide digital marketing services to its users.

One benefit of the services being offered is that client companies can use the database to find out the effectiveness of a given marketing campaign, said Chris Post, senior communications manager for LocalEdge.

In addition to managing a client’s online presence, the service will allow customers to track how many times their Web page has been viewed or the number of phone calls a campaign generates, Post said.

“We just wouldn’t have the capacity to do that sort of thing,” said Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Democrat-Gazette and chief executive officer of WEHCO Media. “The partnership gives us a lot to offer.”

Hussman said the company decided to branch out into digital marketing because the Internet is increasingly becoming a platform for advertising and marketing.

“This has been going on all over the United States, people are turning to ways to do digital marketing,” he said. “We are hearing a lot from our customers that this is something that they are interested in.”

LocalEdge works with other newspapers in the country, including the San Francisco Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News, to offer digital marketing services for businesses.

LocalEdge, which started as a print-based directory, transferred its focus to the Internet in 2004 when it was purchased by Hearst Corp., which owns 15 daily newspapers.

Business, Pages 29 on 02/01/2013