Horne named Managing Editor of The Weekly Vista

The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has announced the hiring of Bennett Horne as the managing editor of The Weekly Vista, its weekly publication located in Bella Vista.

Horne will be responsible for coordinating the publication's coverage of the many events happening in and around Bella Vista in a timely, thorough and professional manner.

"We're happy to have Bennett join our team," said Rusty Turner, editor of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "He's an experienced journalist and will help us to continue to provide great coverage of the Bella Vista community."

Horne spent several months as a staff reporter for the Los Alamos Monitor in Los Alamos, New Mexico, returning to Arkansas after being named editor of the Press Argus-Courier in Van Buren.

"I'm very excited to be joining this hard working staff, this reputable publication and the Democrat-Gazette family," Horne said. "My goal is to see that we continue to publish a product that lives up to the high quality this community deserves."

Horne grew up in Harrison, graduating from Harrison High School in 1980. He then attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and, after a stint in radio broadcasting, began his newspaper career as a sports writer for the Northwest Arkansas Times in Fayetteville. In 1994, after covering an eight-overtime girls' state championship basketball game between Fayetteville and Mountain Home, the Razorbacks' basketball national championship run and a U.S. Open PGA Tournament, he returned to Harrison as the sports editor of the Harrison Daily Times.

While in Los Alamos the topics he wrote about included everything from events surrounding Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Manhattan Project to which restaurants in the area served the best green chile cheeseburgers.

"I love writing, telling stories through my writing and relaying details of events to a community of readers," he said.

Besides his love of writing and photography, Horne has taken up woodcarving as a hobby and is trying to learn to play the mandolin. His son Samuel, 23, lives in North Little Rock and his daughter Savannah, 19, lives in Springdale and works in Bentonville.

"I'm truly honored and excited to be here at The Weekly Vista," he said. "It's a priviledge to be working for an organization that places a high priority on providing its readers and this community a quality product."