Past SDNA President Reflections

I can’t help but feel deep humility for the opportunity to serve as president for the South Dakota NewsMedia Association (SDNA) this past year.

What an honor to help lead the association that serves the news organizations that serve our communities with quality journalism. The government watchdogs. The bearers of truth and light. The recorders of the first draft of history. The connectors of communities.

Working together with the SDNA board and staff, this past year has been a big one for SDNA. We made some major moves to adapt and move forward in the rapidly changing news media industry.

We changed our name. We changed our bylaws, creating a General NewsMedia membership category and at this year’s annual business meeting in Huron, we created an Affiliate News Media membership category.

These moves were positive for us legislatively as well. We can celebrate the passage of the bill that amends the definition of legal newspapers. We can also celebrate the passage of annual public notice increases, put in place this year.

While it’s no secret that journalists exist within an era of many challenges in the news media industry, I am hopeful.

I am energized because of the support journalists in this state receive from forward-thinking SDNA.

I am excited about the prospect of collaborating more with my fellow journalists across the state.

And I am honored to have had raw, honest and authentic conversations during convention with publishers who know the daily struggle that is this industry.

During my final words as SDNA president last month, I addressed the news media folks from all types of print and digital news organizations in the room: “We are all here together during this wild time of news media evolution for a reason — we may not know the ‘why’ yet — but I’m convinced if we continue to connect and collaborate, the ‘why’ will be discovered.

After all, hunting for the ‘why’ is kind of our thing — we’re journalists, right?”