The Argus Leader had a somewhat laughable update on their continued gutting by their parent company this week:
The article portrays how moving it’s print production (and selling off it’s building) over to Iowa was somehow progress. Of course, this comes after the axe landed on a significant part of it’s staff.
And now…. They’re just going to mail newspapers from Iowa instead of having them delivered to subscribers, cutting out their local circulation staff. Which means the news from the state’s largest newspaper will be just that much older when it comes across the borders.
Should they just rename the paper the “Argus Bleeder” at this point? Not that they have much less to squeeze out.
Once again raising the question why it’s important to have legal notices printed in papers that are mailed to South Dakota from another state?
All of South Dakota’s newspapers should be held to account for the poor performance of investigative journalism, especially from 2016 to present. All of the information was there, they just failed to report it for *ahem* some reason.
How about you starting with the Argus Leader, the Mitchell Daily Republic, and the Watertown Public Opinion
Are they even located in SD anymore?
BOOM
in recent decades, great reporters have written for and reported for the argus leader. sure there have also been some hacks, and republicans have sure had plenty of disagreements about the editorial policy. none of that is at play here. this is about media consolidation into fewer and fewer hands, and boards, officers and stockholders sucking the most money possible up and out of the operations against declining revenues for a vanishing medium, while still keeping an empty shell of business-as-usual in its place.
At first I was confused, then I realized you were referring to the creative writing staff at that paper.
Argus is a joke. Been going down hill for a couple decades now. Love how they spin how good mail delivery will be! What? It must be bad. Just gave up my subscription. No more of that garbage.
Your right. I always new they were pretty left leaning in their reporting. When the Daschle versus Thune for Senate was ongoing, you had to think they were all working and being paid for by Daschle team. I left them after that.
I love newspapers. What has happened is a tragedy, and is not good for our country.
All joking aside, well said, Terry.
US newspapers used to have the cover fire to do journalism.
The Rapid City Journal this summer went to three days a week, unless you’re taking it online, and also mailed to those not taking it online.
My first job was delivering the newspaper for the Aberdeen American News. Seven days a week, no holidays, papers delivered no later than 5:00 a.m., and certainly not allowed to throw the paper from the bicycle onto the lawn (a few customers had me open their front doors to their homes to place the paper ‘just inside’). Looking back, I enjoyed the weather, the customers’ Christmas tips, but I was never a fan of collecting AAN’s money from the customers. Too bad such an iconic ‘first job’ will no longer be available for all of those youngsters in the Argus region.
In her youth, my wife was a carrier for the Argus, and her mother worked in the circulation department. Which is possibly why my wife had to sling newspapers. They might not have been glamorous, but they’re still local jobs.
If the corporate owners are going to buy up and continually gut local papers, shifting their profits out of state, then it demands that the state change the laws on public notices, limiting them to papers that are printed in South Dakota.
HUGE OPPORTUNITY.
We cannot use NFT’s for this, however, until we have a culture and society that understands how computers work.
Too ripe for exploitation.
Trojan horse.
In a way you’ve got to feel bad for the people still working at the Argus. I guess they wouldn’t have to work there, but they have to see that they are on a sinking ship and there’s really nothing to be done.
Having said that, there is something vaguely ridiculous about this Conlin column, in fact it is almost Orwellian. It presents every bad development as a good thing. One can only assume that if the Argus became a weekly paper, the next column would tout a “bold move forward” as the Argus now offers “seven times the news” on a schedule “perfect for busy people.”
It’s all just kind of sad.
I really miss the bygone days of reporting by Terry Woster, Joe Kafka, and Chet Brokaw. Straight up, favoring no party, just the facts. I always thought of them as the Walter Kronkites of South Dakota. Dave Kranz is missed, as well!
And then there was Tony Mangan. I called him Tony Mangle because when he was on the air at KCCR, he could mangle most any name in the news. And yet….he too was another straight shooter.
So, those honest reporters are gone to other endeavors, but they are not forgotten.
agreed.