After announcing that the Gannett system of newspapers (parent company to the state’s largest daily, the Argus Leader) has gobbled up two more of the state’s daily newspapers – the Watertown Public Opinion and the Aberdeen American News – the Argus recently put out a plea for the public to feed them information.
No other news organization in South Dakota has our level of reach, or the ability to let government officials know we’re paying attention, and we’re not afraid to raise the difficult questions taxpayers are asking.
That’s why we’re launching a new reader-driven initiative: 100 Eyes on South Dakota, based in our namesake and the philosophy of the 100-eyed Greek giant, the Argus – keeping watch from all directions.
Humble enough to own any mistake, we can’t look into every problem. But we can be direct about our efforts to hold public officials accountable and speak truth to power, with your help.
(You know a news organization is humble when they have a reporter put it in writing.)
So, the Argus Leader has gotten bigger and parent company Gannett owns over 25% of the daily newspapers in the state. Of the 11 daily newspapers in South Dakota, they control 3, including the one with the largest circulation by far.
This comes after one of reporter purges in the last few years where yet again a few more reporters were sent away via downsizing, buyouts, and early retirement, and now this news organization – boasting about the new and increased level of reach and the amount of influence they have to drive public policy – is begging to be fed news stories? (Which they aren’t paying anyone for.)
If the Argus is that concerned about the extent of their reach, and letting government officials know they’re paying attention, I might offer a suggestion.
Instead of putting out editorials begging for news stories for free, they could always go out and hire some reporters.
Just a thought.
I agree. They want us to pay to look at their articles but they want people to work for them for free. The WalMart self check out of newspapers.
Once upon a time, the Argus Leader was available in every town in South Dakota, in Northwest Iowa and clear up to Mankato, MN. Now the Argus Leader seems to only care about Sioux Falls and only really tries to minimally care about local news. The current local person who is to report local news doesn’t seem to care about the true nature of the beat.
The quest for profits to support USA Today above all else has caused the the entire Gannett system to suffer. The short-sighted management style of the corporation destroyed the morale of the staffs of their vast newspaper reach.
We are the ones who have suffered under this loser strategy.
I heart this post.
I heart this post so much.
Thank you.
That is all.
The Argus Liar is still a thing? I haven’t even gotten a Sunday edition for several years. I have get plenty of waste paper from work, so I don’t need to pay for it.
” [T]hey could always go out and hire some reporters.”
Fine, except for the small problem that all reporters come from the same cookie-cutter J schools, lack curiosity and meaningful worldly experience, and routinely despise their readers. Why would more of them produce a better product?
No you see the problem this blog has: you trash media for its reporting and being out of touch with the public. You intimate its reporters are not trustworthy. Then, when the paper reaches out to the public, you mock it for not having reporters. No matter what, ALWAYS demonize the media. You absolutely must undermine confidence in it so you can convince people to ignore it when it reports unflatteringly about your party, candidates, or policies.
Someone is generalizing.
Now it’s the Gannett Leader
Sioux Falls edition
Watertown edition
Aberdeen edition
If reporters were actually “reporters” and returned to the days of journalistic ethics and neutrality, then more students might want to become journalists. Instead, what is passing for journalists nowadays are opinion writers and blowhards w/ no intellectual curiosity or talent for research. They give a wikipedia amount of knowledge on technical topics instead of calling experts who may give them a quote or a small bit of correct information. So if they do get a quote from an expert – he/she reads the story and pulls their hair out in frustration and vows never to speak to those idiots again. Because when they do, some editor? will cut and slash the legit story and slap a misleading headline on a piece with obvious misspellings. (see today’s Argus for sample) And why is everyone so concerned with public officials … news is made every day on a million different topics.
As the article states, we have an experienced investigative team with expertise in a host of areas. And we’re also in the process of hiring more reporters, public postings you can find.
We regularly collect news tips from the public, and have done so for years. Now, we’re emphasizing the investigative approach and have provided one easy location for those ideas and news tips to come into us.
By the way, I’m the watchdog content coach/editor now, previously a reporter.