Courtesy of Arkansas Press Association Publisher Weekly
LITTLE ROCK - A weekly newspaper in a small town, functioning in a focused and dedicated manner, can indeed represent the heart of the community.
Such is the case with the Cleveland County Herald, an award-winning publication in the Southeast Arkansas community of Rison.
A big part of that story of commitment and success relates to the work of Douglas Boultinghouse, graphic designer and advertising and circulation manager at the newspaper.
Boultinghouse has teamed with owner and publisher Britt Talent for some two decades to provide readers with accurate and interesting information about their community. Additionally, Boultinghouse has become increasingly involved in the promotion of Cleveland County by serving as director of the highly successful Rison in the Fall Festival held each October.
Benefiting from extensive contacts he developed with musical artists in Nashville while a student at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, the annual festival has featured outstanding performances that draw thousands of fans to Rison. The main street of the community is closed off for the concert area, food trucks and vendors.
This year’s headliner was Sunny Sweeney, a country and Americana singer who has produced five studio albums and several charting country singles. “Unfortunately, we had to navigate the festival through the rain, including cutting our headliner’s performance short,” Boultinghouse said. “This would have been our biggest event yet, had it not been for the rain.”
Each year the festival features some four or five artists on stage throughout the fall Saturday, drawing large crowds from Cleveland County and beyond.
Last year’s successful festival featured television acting star and musician Charles Esten, another artist secured through Boultinghouse’s extensive Nashville contacts. The musical lineups cost up to $30,000 each year, with local businesses and individuals helping raise the needed funds.
A core of some 10 dedicated volunteers step up each year to help make the event run smoothly.
“With the newspaper serving as the main information hub for the community, it sort of serves as the center of the community development front,” Boultinghouse said. “Somehow along the way, I got pulled from just putting the word out about projects to helping make decisions on those projects.
“But, I see this as a way to give back to the community that has been so good to me. Being able to direct the Rison in the Fall Festival and call in my friends in Nashville to come play music in small town Rison has been one of my biggest highlights. When I do see the thousands of people who show up to support the festival, it makes me proud to know all of those people are seeing what I see about Rison. We have a special town full of great people.”
Talent said Boultinghouse brought the Fall Festival back “from the brink of death” through his artists connections and hard work. “Somehow he’s managed to raise enough money from a county of less than 8,000 people with only a handful of businesses to bring a level of entertainment that would be the envy of communities two or three times our size.”
Boultinghouse also serves as secretary-treasurer of Rison Shine, a community development group which works for the benefit of Rison and Cleveland County. “We focus on such projects as making the downtown area better, working with both the mayor and the county judge and helping secure grants for organizations like the fire department – just anything we can do to make our community better.”
Talent pointed out that his staffer also plays a big role in the Cleveland County Cares Fund, which the Herald supports through editorial promotion on the front page during the holiday season.
“The fund discreetly helps local kids in need with Christmas gifts, food and clothing,” Talent said. “Teachers, churches, Department of Human Services workers and others identify those families who truly need help and the fund pays for their gifts, clothes and food without anyone knowing where it came from.
“Douglas writes the stories about how it has impacted local families and he also helps organize and promote the Christmas Bingo fundraiser. I think he dressed up like an elf last year!”
Cleveland County’s economy largely centers around timber, with farming and poultry operations also important. Boultinghouse said the community is “hanging in there” despite the usual challenges faced by many rural areas.
Community volunteers recognize the lack of recreational opportunities in the immediate area and are working on such projects as new pickleball courts and a public fishing pond. Rison has its share of small businesses, but residents regularly travel to Pine Bluff (25 miles) and Little Rock (60 miles) for other shopping needs.
Boultinghouse grew up in the Woodlawn community in Cleveland County and graduated from high school there in 2007. Talent noted that he was recognized for work on the school yearbook and was selected “Student of the Year” at Woodlawn. Talent’s wife, Karen, a counselor at the school, knew of Boultinghouse’s talent and work ethic and recommended that her husband bring him on to the newspaper staff for graphic design work and other tasks.
“Several of his ads ended up winning awards in the medium weekly division of the Better Newspaper Advertising contest, including one that was selected ‘Best of Show’ among all weeklies,” Talent said.
Boultinghouse continued working part-time at the Herald while a student at UAM, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and speech communications. He also served as editor of the student newspaper while in college.
Following graduation, he accepted a full-time position at the Herald and has continued on that career path. He has expanded his duties extensively, now handling advertising design, pagination, circulation and bookkeeping. The latter two tasks were assumed upon the death about 10 years ago of long-time Herald employee Shannon Ingram.
Boultinghouse also writes articles for the newspaper. Feature stories are his forte, while he also helps Talent with meeting coverage when necessary.
The two pair for the popular Free Range Conversations, a weekly podcast that features a wide variety of topics. The podcasts usually are tied to articles in the newspaper and additional information on the Herald’s website. “We are always trying to develop more digital presence for the newspaper,” Boultinghouse said.
The newspaper, which generally runs 10 to 12 pages, is printed each week at Monticello and distributed on Wednesdays. With the goal of developing more timely information for the community, the Herald also distributes a newsletter on Mondays and Fridays to some 600 subscribers.
Three special sections are published each year – a football preview, county fair and Christmas letters to Santa.
“Community newspapers are important to this day because they’re still the best and most reliable source for getting vital information to the community,” Boultinghouse said. “The public needs to be made aware of what is happening in their towns, in meetings, and of upcoming events.”
Talent purchased the Herald from the Sadler family in 2002, and over the years, he and Boultinghouse have developed a great working relationship to provide area residents the information they need.
In his time away from the newspaper, Boultinghouse continues to provide graphic design services, notably for Nashville artists such as Julie Roberts, as well as the Music City Rollin’ Jamboree. He also is a freelance photographer, covering family events and weddings.
“Graphic design was always a hobby of mine,” Boultinghouse said. “I self-taught myself Photoshop as a teenager and used those skills through the high school newspaper and yearbook, which is what led me to starting part-time at the Herald after school.
“Early on in my time at the newspaper, I took great satisfaction in the APA awards received for advertising design. As times have changed, we’re no longer building as many ads ourselves, but I still look back proudly on those awards.
“I also started using those graphic design skills in the music world by networking with artists and management teams in Nashville. This has fueled me creatively and allowed me to find an outlet for my love of music.”
Rison and Cleveland County benefit greatly from the talent and dedication of Boultinghouse as he has developed a great combination of serving both through the weekly informational resource provided by the Herald and his subsequent leadership roles in the community.
“Douglas has gained a tremendous amount of respect in our community and is well-regarded throughout Cleveland County,” Talent said. “They’ve seen what he has done with Rison in the Fall and Rison Shine Community Development and appreciate all the volunteer work he has done to make things happen.”