Sentinel-Record and NWA Democrat-Gazette Paywalls: How to Read the WEHCO Arkansas Papers Without a Subscription
The Hot Springs Sentinel-Record and the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette allow very few free reads. How the WEHCO paywall works and how to read a full story.
Paywall behaviour last tested
The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs and the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Fayetteville are both WEHCO Media papers, part of the Hussman family company in Little Rock that also owns the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. WEHCO is known in the industry for moving its print readers onto an iPad replica edition and for allowing very few free reads on the web, so a link to a Garland County court case or a Washington County council vote usually ends at a subscription prompt. This guide explains how the two sites gate their stories and how to read a full article from either of them.
How the Sentinel-Record and NWA Democrat-Gazette paywalls work
Both sites use the same metered subscriber paywall as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Non-subscribers get a very small allowance of free articles, tracked in a browser cookie, before the story body is replaced by an offer to subscribe. The allowance is tighter than at most regional papers, which fits WEHCO's long-running strategy of pushing readers towards a paid digital replica rather than a free website.
The gate itself is applied in the browser. The full text of each article is delivered in the page so that search engines can index it, and a script then checks your cookie and hides the body if you are over the limit. A crawler-style reader that fetches the page without running that script receives the whole story. Our explainer on metered versus hard paywalls sets out why this distinction matters, and why the replica e-edition, which is served only to logged-in subscribers, is a different case entirely.
Our tests on 13 October 2026 through Skip the Paywall:
- A 604-word Sentinel-Record report on a former Garland County public defender arrested again on alleged drug charges after a traffic stop loaded in full, all 13 paragraphs.
- A 723-word Sentinel-Record court report on a local drug dealer sentenced to 35 years after a two-day jury trial loaded in full, all 16 paragraphs.
- An 864-word Sentinel-Record story on National Park College's merger talks with the University of Arkansas System loaded in full, all 32 paragraphs.
- A 1,199-word NWA Democrat-Gazette report on the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to hold more hearings in federal courthouses outside Little Rock loaded in full, all 27 paragraphs.
- A 1,741-word NWA Democrat-Gazette investigation into documents describing a hostile work environment at the Fayetteville library loaded in full, all 65 paragraphs.
- A 582-word NWA Democrat-Gazette report on the Attorney General's office appealing a ruling that struck down a settlement with the Corrections Board loaded in full, all 15 paragraphs.
Read a Sentinel-Record or NWA Democrat-Gazette article in full
- Copy the article link. Sentinel-Record links look like hotsr.com/news/2026/oct/12/headline-slug/ and NWA Democrat-Gazette links look like nwaonline.com/news/2026/oct/11/headline-slug/.
- Paste it into the box on the home page and press Read Article.
- The story appears in a clean reader view with the headline, byline and full text.
Other approaches
- Library access. Public libraries in Arkansas often provide digital access to their local WEHCO paper, or to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, with a library card. Ask your branch what it offers.
- Newsletters. Both papers send free email newsletters with headlines and links, which is a good way to see what is being covered even when the stories themselves are metered.
- Private windows. The meter lives in a cookie, so a private window resets the count, although with so few free reads this does not get you far.
- The e-edition is not an option. The replica edition WEHCO promotes to its readers is subscriber-only and is not an ordinary web page, so no reader tool, ours included, can open it.
How it compares with other Arkansas and regional papers
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the flagship WEHCO title, loads in full in the same way, and the three sites share a platform. WEHCO also owns smaller papers in Texas, Tennessee, Missouri and elsewhere, which we have not tested. The full list of sites that work is kept current.
Subscribe if you read it regularly
Hot Springs and Northwest Arkansas are each served by one daily newsroom, and WEHCO's strategy of charging for nearly everything is what keeps those newsrooms staffed. If you follow Garland County courts, the University of Arkansas or Fayetteville city hall week in and week out, a subscription is the right way to pay for that reporting.
Try it with an article
Paste the URL of an article from Sentinel-Record (Hot Springs) and read it in a clean reader view. Free, instant, no signup.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns the Sentinel-Record and the NWA Democrat-Gazette?
WEHCO Media, the Hussman family company based in Little Rock that also publishes the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. All three papers use the same metered subscriber paywall.
Why do I get so few free articles on hotsr.com and nwaonline.com?
WEHCO has deliberately kept its free web allowance very small. Its strategy has been to move readers onto a paid iPad replica edition rather than to build a large free audience, so the meter on its sites is tighter than at most regional papers.
Can the reader open the Democrat-Gazette e-edition?
No. The replica e-edition is served only to logged-in subscribers through an app, not as a public web page, so no reader tool can reach it. Only the ordinary article pages on hotsr.com and nwaonline.com work.