Good bye, Brookings Register. Corporations can literally stop the presses, but not the demand and need for local news
The death of a newspaper is always painful to witness. Papers serve their communities and readers, with staff members working long hours for modest compensation.
Why? We feel a need to inform the public, to tell interesting stories, to battle deadlines while fueled by hot coffee, cold pizza and adrenaline. After all these decades, and the recent years of struggle, newspapers still matter.
The announcement that The Brookings Register, The Daily Plainsman in Huron, the Moody County Enterprise in Flandreau, and Redfield Press, were closed landed like a bombshell across the state on Wednesday, Aug. 6.
News Media Corp., based in Rochelle, Ill, shut down all 25 of its properties, including the South Dakota papers, 14 publications in Wyoming, seven in Illinois, five in Arizona and one in Nebraska.
Talk about stop the presses!
This is personal for me. I was born in Brookings, and attended SDSU, where I studied history and journalism. I wrote for the school paper, The SDSU Collegian, and area papers, including The Brookings Register. Many of our relatives subscribed to The Register for decades; I grew up seeing it in their kitchens and living rooms.
This paper has covered the area since 1890. It just can’t be discarded by a soulless corporation that doesn’t care the least about Brookings.
The community needs reporters to cover Brookings County and the surrounding towns, the city of Brookings, the Brookings School District, fire, police and courts. Someone has to cover games, concerts and school programs.
Brookings, like any community, wants and needs that.
In an open letter to Register readers, Managing Editor Josh Linehan, who grew up in Brookings, said he is not ready to walk away defeated.
“What I DO want to say? This paper matters to me. It matters to the staff who so diligently and faithfully produced it day in and day out,” Linehan wrote. “And it matters to YOU. So many people have called, emailed, knocked on the door... You care about this paper. You care about having news in this town. I am working to see if something can be done to continue that. With any luck, more on that, later.”
On Monday, Linehan said a “strong local effort” is underway to bring a new paper to the state’s fourth-largest city. It will be interesting to watch this develop.
Last year, the Brookings radio stations ended local news coverage, laying off a longtime dedicated reporter, Perry Miller. Now, with The Register suddenly gone, there is no one in town to inform the public, to keep an eye on government officials, to publish births, deaths, obituaries and more.
Brookings is a news desert, which is absurd. There is a lot going on every day in the bustling city of 25,000 people. South Dakota State University, the largest college in the state, is a Brookings institution, and local merchants, the area agriculture community, the schools and more providing a plethora of stories to write.
I was a reporter and editor for daily and weekly newspapers in nine states for 30 years. I have written news stories and columns that were published in many papers in South Dakota, and feel a deep connection with the state, its people and its papers.
I have worked as a freelance writer and editor since 2018. I work on a regular basis for multiple media outlets, including The South Dakota Standard, The Black Hills Pioneer in Spearfish, and the Iowa Information newspapers in northwest Iowa.
The Pioneer and the Iowa Information papers are not just surviving, they are thriving. Why?
The people in charge know and love newspapers. They hire experienced and dedicated people to put in the effort to produce quality products.
That’s the key to success. In recent years, papers have reduced the number of editors and reporters, produced and published less original news coverage, lowered photography standards and generally made their products less appealing, less informative — less in so many ways.
I witnessed this in Montana, where one of the papers I edited, The Hungry Horse News, had a national reputation. Its founder, Mel Ruder, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1965 for his comprehensive coverage of a devastating flood.
When I was hired as managing editor in 1997, we had subscribers in all 50 states. Mel, whom I wrote about in the book “Pictures, A Park and a Pulitzer,” insisted on high-quality news and photos.
Brian Kennedy, a talented and driven journalist from a Wyoming newspaper family, took over the paper from Mel, who as part of the deal, insisted a new press was obtained. It was about quality.
Readers noticed, and advertisers followed them. Both Mel and Brian retired as millionaires.
Lee Enterprises purchased The Hungry Horse News and its sister paper, The Whitefish Pilot, in 2000. I was named editor of both, and watched as Lee fired longtime staffers, lowered the photo quality — a huge mistake for papers that had long relied on stunning pictures from Glacier National Park and the surrounding area — and made other foolish cuts.
We lost readers and advertisers. The papers, which had been successful for decades, slumped. I recall a publisher, who earlier had said we had too many readers — seriously — ask me what happened?
Lee happened, that’s what. It damaged highly successful papers in the name of cost-cutting. They saved pennies to lose dollars.
I was an editor in Mankato, Minn., from 2003-05. During a conference in Miami in 2004 — yeah, rough assignment — I heard several ad managers, who were in line to become publishers, talk about their goal to eliminate newsrooms. That was an unnecessary cost, they said.
These are the people now in charge and doing their worst to destroy the industry. They just don’t understand the business. They just want to please investors who demand more cuts, more layoffs, more closures.
Yes, newspapers are struggling with a changing media landscape. But I remain convinced a strong, accurate, unbiased local paper, properly marketed and managed, can thrive. We have several examples here.
But there is hope in Brookings. The Dakota Scout, a Sioux Falls free weekly paper started three years ago by a pair of experienced former Sioux Falls Argus Leader reporters, has thrived. It announced it will extend coverage to Brookings, as well as Flandreau, which lost its paper, The Moody County Enterprise.
Northern Plains News, an online media outlet founded by journalist and recovering lawyer Todd Epp, produced Brookings coverage on Friday. Todd, a former Brookings resident, vows to help fill the void.
The shocking demise of The Register is stirring Brookings to action. I think a local paper will soon emerge. SDSU has the only journalism school in the state, and there are plenty of experienced writers and reporters in the area. The Register staff is ready to resume their duties.
They just need a newspaper.
Fourth-generation South Dakotan Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states for four decades. He has contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The London Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Do not republish without permission.
Photo: August 24, 1905 edition of the Brookings Register, Library of Congress
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