Newspapers must be connected to their communities

On April 17, 1993 South Dakota Governor George Mickelson and a handful of the state’s business leaders were returning from a business trip to Cincinnati when their state owned plane developed mechanical trouble. It lost altitude, crashed and burned on an Iowa farm. No one survived.

Mickelson was a popular, energetic, well-respected governor and the people of South Dakota felt the tragedy deeply.

Several months later, at the South Dakota Newspaper Association’s annual convention, the Associated Press had a display of photographs that chronicled the accident, memorial service and funeral caravan from the state capital to Mickelson’s hometown.

The managing editor of one of South Dakota’s larger dailies and Tim Waltner, a South Dakota weekly publisher, stood side by side for a few moments looking at the images. As they stepped back, Tim said, “That was really a tough story for the state, wasn’t it?” “Yes,” the daily editor responded. “You know, we’ve still got some reporters struggling with it. A couple are still in counseling.”

“Just what was it about this story that prompted that reaction?” Tim asked. “Well, our reporters knew the governor personally,” the daily editor replied. Tim paused for a moment, and they turned to him. “With all due respect,” Tim said, “that’s what those of us who work on weeklies deal with all the time.”

In 1999, Tim Waltner wrote an article for Publishers Auxiliary, telling the above story. In the article, he wrote about how a weekly newspaper must be connected to the community it serves, and the daily editor crystallized the central aspect of community journalism. It has little to do with the frequency of our publication, it’s the size of the communities we serve and the relationship that dynamic provides. The word is CONNECTED.

As Tim pointed out, when we head out to an accident, there is a good chance we might know the victim.

When we are taking photos at a fire, it might well be the home or business of a friend or neighbor that is burning. In 2003 our then Fayette staff covered the devastating fire of their own newspaper.

When we report on a controversy at the city council, school board or county commission, it might well involve someone who sits across the aisle in our church.

When a business closes, it isn’t a business that failed. It’s a friend, or at least someone we know well, whose plans and dreams didn’t work out.

When we run an obituary, it’s not a death notice. It’s a reflection of the life of someone we likely knew personally. The word is CONNECTED.

The communities our newspaper group serves run from 1,000 to several thousand in population. Some are farming communities, others have many hard working blue collar folks, a rare few a good number of white collar folks.

Most of our communities are median to lower family income, with conservative views. Most have both public and private schools and are filled with God-fearing church people. There are students, teachers, working folks and retired folks.

Thankfully, most communities our group serves have one newspaper to tie it all together each week. It is an awesome responsibility to be a community publisher that is connected to the community.

HHJ News