Bill Elderton Named The Sentinel-Record New General Manager

Bill Elderton was named the new general manager of The Sentinel-Record. Elderton started his newspaper life in 1969, working for his hometown daily in Springdale.   Elderton started in the advertising and business departments, moving on from Springdale to work at the Camden News, Arkansas Gazette and El Dorado News-Times.   A career arc that bent toward management put him in charge of as many as five newspapers in Arkansas and Mississippi as a group publisher for Horizon Publications Inc.   He did contract management consulting for Horizon after serving as general manager of the Hot Springs Village Voice from January 2010 to July 2011. But for Elderton, the benchmark remains the family owned afternoon daily that launched his career in Springdale.   “The way they ran their community newspaper is how I’ve tried to run the papers I’ve managed,” he said. “It was one of the best community newspapers in the state at that time.”   His sensitivity to the inseparability of newspapers and community will be a boon for The Sentinel-Record and Hot Springs, said Terri Leifeste, president of Palmer Newspapers, a subsidiary of WEHCO Media Inc., the parent company of The Sentinel-Record.   “I feel like with his background, he’ll be an excellent fit, not just to the newspaper, but the community as well,” she said.   Nat Lea, WEHCO president and CEO, echoed the sentiment, explaining that Elderton’s time in the Village gives him a familiarity with the area he can leverage immediately.   “I think we found somebody that understands the community of Hot Springs and understands the newspaper extremely well,” said Lea, former general manager of The Sentinel-Record. “I think that combination is going to be a very good one for the newspaper and the community.”   Elderton has lived in the Village since 2010, keeping him close to the city that captured his affection from first blush.“I loved Hot Springs since the first time I came to the town at an Arkansas Press meeting at the Arlington (Resort Hotel & Spa),” he said. “It’s a great old town. I feel it’s a great honor to be able to manage its newspaper.”