NDNA torch passes to the local scene

This weekend another chapter of the North Dakota Newspaper Association will happen when the Fourth Estaters gather for their annual convention in Bismarck.

And, it will be a very special convention for our two newspapers here in Central North Dakota, the Independent and the Transcript at New Rockford.

Your publisher/editor of the two publications will take the reins as Association president. Miss Amy will become one of a very few from this area to serve in this position.

She has spent a lot of time, in the past years, going through the chairs, all providing training and information needed to accept the torch when passed this coming Saturday.

I have confidence in her. She is a hard worker, and is up on many or most situations she will face. But, there are always other incidents that will take her expertise in solving for the betterment of newspaper members and the staff at the office in Bismarck.

I can attest for that. I spent two years in the mid-1990s as president of the organization. The first year filling the unexpired term of the then current president who passed away due to cancer and the second year in moving up in the chairs.

Back then I recall spending time on the road at meetings, seminars, member gatherings in various cities throughout the state and hosts of phone calls throughout the years.

I was fortunate to have good executive secretaries and board members to help me and my hope is that Amy will have the same when she takes office.

So, if you don’t see her around for the next year, you know where she might be found . . . serving North Dakota Newspapers and helping make newspapers a great product for the residents of North Dakota and other subscribers.

If my memory serves me right, only one publisher from New Rockford, Ed Doherty, served as an NDNA president, while I was the only one from Carrington to have the honor.

Good luck to the year to come, Amy.

We’re counting on you!

+++

At the annual meeting this weekend, there will also be a special ceremony.

Longtime publisher and former NDNA Executive Secretary Steve Andrist will be inducted to the N.D. Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Great choice!

I’ve known Steve a long time, have called for his advice, and worked with his late father, John, while on the board in various capacities in earlier years. Steve is deserving.

And, as a story in his hometown paper at Crosby said last week, “He would most like to be remembered as a champion of government transparency and the First Amendment.”

But it was what Steve said in the interview with that paper that really rings a bell in our industry. Read on:

Steve likens newspapers to the glue that holds a community together.

“It’s not something that only confirms what you want to see,” but reflects on things that may need improvement.

Looking forward, Steve considers local journalism more important than ever.

“People may thumb their noses at newspaper,” he said, but there’s no comparison between social medial posts and information gathered and put into context by professional journalists.”

You can easily see the difference if you pay attention,” he said.

If you want to have your existing opinions reinforced, that’s one thing. But, “If the point is to be informed and engaged, go to the local journalism.”

He cites “study after study” in which the loss of a local newspaper has resulted in less civic engagement, few candidates and increases in the cost of government.

In conclusion, he said, “Being a watchdog in a community is not anti-community, it’s pro-community.”

+++

My wife got stung by a bee on the forehead, she’s at the Emergency Room now, her face all swollen and bruised, she almost died. Luckily I was close enough to hit the bee with my shovel!!!!

+++

Parting Shot: “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” — Michael Jordan