Hi there,

I recently took time to do a deep-dive review of The Bentonville Bulletin’s coverage since launching in April 2024. I wanted to see how many articles were truly unduplicated by other news outlets.

I found that 69% of The Bentonville Bulletin’s articles had no equivalent elsewhere — no other news outlet covered the same development, meeting, or announcement.

In other words, if this news project didn’t exist, these stories probably wouldn’t be covered.

A lot of the articles you see from other news outlets these days are simply press release rewrites. Somebody emailed them an announcement and they wrote it up, sprinkling in a few original details for color.

That’s not how things work here. Well, sometimes it is, if it’s a big enough announcement.

But normally, when a press release comes in, I skip it because I know other news outlets will write about it.

I look at it like this: why would The Bentonville Bulletin need to exist if everything it publishes could already be found elsewhere?

So I block out time each week to walk around town and see what’s new. I look for people and organizations that might not have a budget for PR or marketing staff but are still doing interesting things. I go down rabbit holes on your behalf.

Bentonville deserves strong, independent local news coverage that goes beyond surface-level details, and that’s only possible with your support.

Will you support local news in Bentonville today? 

Best,

Sam Hoisington
Founder
The Bentonville Bulletin
BHS Class of 2014