For more information about Hot Springs call 1-800-SPA-CITY (1-800-772-2489) or visit the website, http://www.hotsprings.org

Established. 1877
Your Hometown Newspaper

The Sentinel-Record, your hometown newspaper, is a family-owned business. The Sentinel-Record and Hot Springs New Era were purchased in 1929 by Clyde Eber Palmer from John A. Riggs. Riggs founded the New Era, a combination of the Daily Bulletin, which began in the 1890s and which he acquired in 1911, and the Daily News, which he later absorbed. John H. Higgins created The Record in 1899.

   The Daily Sentinel, which began in 1877 as a weekly, was later purchased by Higgins, who already operated it under a lease.

   The newspapers were merged in the early 1900s.

   The late Walter E. Hussman, who died in July 1988, met his future wife, Betty Palmer, when he attended the University of Missouri.

   Hussman joined the organization, known as the Palmer Newspapers, in 1932 as a member of the staff of El Dorado News and Times.

   Hussman became publisher and chief executive officer of the organization in 1957 after the death of Palmer.

   In 1968, a $1,100,000 capital improvements program was launched with the purchase of a 56-page Goss Urbanite press capable of printing 40,000 newspapers per hour and a maximum of 56 pages, or 48 with processed color.

   At the time, this was the largest offset printing press in Arkansas. A new plant was built at Cottage and Spring streets, the present location of The Sentinel-Record.

   An 11,092-square-foot addition to the plant in 1972 brought the building to a total of 21,712 square feet. The advertising, editorial, circulation and production departments were consolidated into a single building at that time.

   The New Era, an afternoon newspaper, was published six days a week until Dec. 31, 1974.

   The junior Hussman, a journalism graduate of the University of North Carolina and holder of an MBA degree from Columbia University, joined the organization in 1971 after working as a reporter for Forbes magazine.

   In 1981, he became president, in which capacity he served until the death of his father, at which time he assumed the position of president and publisher.