One of the busiest weeks of the year is here at SDSU and The Collegian has a reason besides Hobo Week to celebrate: Oct. 5-11 is National Newspaper Week. This year’s theme is Embracing local journalism.
Throughout the 20th century, majoring in journalism meant a career at a newspaper for many students. But since the mid-1990s and the explosion of the internet, newspapers have struggled and the number of reporting jobs has plummeted. That can be scary for someone majoring in journalism.
But a recent visit to my class from Jeremy Waltner, publisher and editor of the Freeman Courier in Freeman, S.D. changed my perspective. He spoke about the past, present and future of newspapers. He discussed common struggles of newspapers today, like decreased advertising revenue and the question of artificial intelligence use in the newsroom.
But the thing that struck me the most was a quote Waltner shared: “People don’t want quarter-inch drill bits. They want quarter-inch holes.”
It’s a popular quote, usually used in the business world. But in a journalism context, Waltner meant the draw of newspapers isn’t the physical paper itself. It’s the content of the paper that connects people, especially in local journalism. Waltner said even if the medium may change, he still plans to provide quality, trusted journalism to the community of Freeman – something that is a priority with print journalism.
As student journalists, we have a unique perspective. If you asked us, almost none of us have a passion for newspapers specifically. What we do have passion for is spreading accurate information, holding governing bodies accountable and being State’s personal history book. (If you want to take a look at The Collegian archives dating back to 1885, visit https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/collegian/)
The Collegian has adapted to the changing times. The physical newspaper is now only one of four sources of news produced by students at SDSU. Students that work for Collegian Media produce a weekly newspaper, a weekly newscast, broadcast on the radio and post our stories online.
So while we at Collegian Media have embraced the radio, television and online mediums, let’s take this week to celebrate where it all started: The newspaper. National Newspaper Week isn’t about the fact that The Collegian has been printing since 1885 (since before South Dakota was a state!). National Newspaper Week, to me, is about embracing all forms of local journalism and telling the stories of our community.
