Charting new territory

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. I’ve taken on two new roles, and I traveled more than 400 miles from home in the midst of it all.

I became the 10th publisher of the Foster County Independent on Oct 1. I was also abruptly promoted to first vice president of the North Dakota Newspaper Association a few days later, and I will be considered for election as president in May of next year.

Both of these responsibilities I accepted willingly, after thoughtful consideration. Then, as my husband, son and I spent hours in the vehicle traveling to Deadwood, S.D. for a newspaper convention this past weekend, I reflected both on how far I’ve come as a journalist, and how far I have yet to go in the years ahead.

While this might be a refresher for Transcript readers, I wanted to use my first column in the Foster County Independent to share with readers a little about myself and how I approach news.

My philosophy is similar to Allen Stock’s, a veteran newspaperman who has spent 65 years serving the community where he lives. Democracy demands journalism, and it is our responsibility as community journalists to report the news impacting our communities.

We are here to celebrate with our readers, such as we did last week in New Rockford. Our Homecoming spread featured full-color photos and articles about the annual event, and was sponsored by local businesses. Kudos to Kyrie O’Connor, who took all the photos and designed a fantastic spread!

We are also here to inform and educate our readers, which requires writing about the not-so-pleasant news. We publish articles when lawsuits are filed, when workers walk out, and when people commit crimes.

Our pages are built to be a reflection of the communities we serve, not of our own interests. Therefore, when we cover an unsettling or controversial topic, we do so because our goal is to provide information to our readers.

We seek comment from individuals on all sides of an issue in order to provide readers context, so they can make their own decisions. We give individuals the opportunity to pen follow-up responses once a story is written, and we run corrections when we are notified that we have made errors.

Oftentimes our job is easy, as there is so much good happening in our communities that we can fill our pages with positive news. Other times we lay awake at night going over every word we have published, asking ourselves if we have done everything we can to make a controversial report fair and balanced.

This past week my staff received an email stating, “Your publication’s smallmindedness astounds me” because we published an article that someone deemed unfavorable. This was after both the reporter and I worked on it for three days to ensure that we removed any personal character attacks. We also laid out all the issues for individuals on the other side (in writing) and gave them an opportunity to respond before we went to press.

This, dear readers, is journalism at work. We don’t take tough topics lightly, and we certainly don’t pen “biased and inaccurate” articles for the sake of selling newspapers.

I have been a part of the New Rockford community for 17 years, and I stake my reputation on making sure that your local newspaper contains articles that are not only accurate, but relevant to the community.

I have also spent time in Carrington. In fact, my first job was at the Carrington Dairy Queen, where I learned customer service from Dan and Joanne Helfrich. My grandparents, Ted and Vonnie Schimelfenig, moved to Carrington in 1972 and remained residents until their deaths. Some of my best memories happened in their modest stucco home on Second Street North.

Taking on the responsibility of another newspaper will not be easy, but it is a path I have chosen because I care about these communities. I know Hwy. 281 well, and you will often find me on the road throughout the next few decades.

I am grateful to the staff both in New Rockford and Carrington, who work hard every day to produce newspapers that local people want to read. And I’m also grateful to you, the readers, for your support, encouragement and feedback. I look forward to hearing from you.