At conference, we found out that newspapers are alive and well
By Native Sun News Editorial Board
www.nsweekly.com What did we learn at the South Dakota Newspaper Association Convention in April? The staff of Native Sun News in attendance took in several classes offered by SDNA, but we think the thing that stuck in our minds the most was the presentations by two newspapermen well-known on the national setting who both proclaimed that “newspapers are not dying out.” One pointed out the continued growth and success of some daily newspapers, but reiterated that it was the weekly newspapers that continued to grow and serve their communities. Native Sun News has continued to grow since its inception in 2009. It has tried to serve the Indian community with news that usually does not make it into the white-owned press. It has been pointed out by academics that articles and columns in NSN make you think. The newspaper is used in classrooms all around Indian Country and is used as an educational and teaching tool for high school and elementary age students. There has been a dooms-day mentality among some newspaper publishers who have succumbed to the belief that their newspapers are obsolete. Granted new technology and of course the Internet has made reading a newspaper online easy and accessible. However, there are still thousands of readers who prefer to read a newspaper the old fashioned way, in print. When we started to go online with Native Sun News last year we offered our paper electronically to many of our subscribers. We were surprised to find out that many of them did not want to read the paper online, but instead preferred to read it in hard copy form. We suppose a newsroom would not be a newsroom without the smell of fresh ink on paper. Last week Tim Giago’s column talked about the day the first issue of the Lakota Times came off of the presses at the Chadron Record in Nebraska. As the day ended he was returning to the office after driving all over the Pine Ridge Reservation delivering the brand new paper when he spotted a couple of Lakota elders seated on a bench across the street from the Sioux Nation Shopping Center each holding a copy of the Lakota Times and reading it. He said it made his heart soar. That was the old Lakota Times not the late-comer Lakota Country Times which is not connected to the original Lakota Times in any way, shape or form. And every Wednesday the whole crew feels the same way as Tim did on July 1, 1981 as they grab the latest issue of the paper and retreat to their offices to read it. Newspapers are one of the few professions where all of the employees can sit down on Wednesday and see all of the work they have done for the week right there in the product they just helped to produce. Our correspondents wait patiently for their newspaper to arrive so they can read their handi-work after laboring over a computer composing it. Our delivery drivers have grown accustomed to customers waiting at the doorway of the Sioux Nation Shopping Center, Big Bat’s or Yellowbirds for their weekly shot in the arm of news. Native Sun News will continue to bring you local and national news every week. We believe that knowledge is power and every week we hope to bring you the knowledge that will give you the power.
For more news and opinion, visit the all new Native Sun News website: At conference, we found out that newspapers are alive and well (The Editorial Board can be reached at editor@nsweekly.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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