Carefully screen columns by public officials
How will the Legislature deal with a record budget surplus, and what will it mean for taxpayer pocketbooks? Are there implications for public safety...
Objectivity: a noble idea that requires a process
Bart Pfankuch is the content director and an investigative reporter for South Dakota News Watch. Contact him at bart.pfankuch@sdnewswatch.org
What’s happened to the nuts and bolts of public safety reporting?
Crime and public safety are garnering more headlines across the country. Law enforcement and racial disparities in the criminal justice system are under increasing...
Special projects energize staff, community
I fondly characterize newsrooms as organized chaos. That definition has aptly described operations for the past 18 months with the impact of COVID-19. The...
Digging deeper: How to find opportunities (and time) to go in-depth
Bart Pfankuch is the content director for South Dakota News Watch, an online public-service journalism group. He can be reached...
Keep eye out for 11th-hour election volleys
Election Day is only weeks away. The hyper-partisanship of races at all levels – from local to state to federal – demands that editors...
Moving from routine to highly relevant: How to improve meeting coverage
This column is aimed at every single journalist working anywhere in the world now and in the future.
Press politicians on election promises
Elections are over, and you breathe a sigh of relief. The exhaustive campaign season has concluded, and newsrooms can return to some level of...
Don’t let pursuit of ‘shiny things’ diminish reporting
All journalists can look back decades or even just a few months to see examples of the “shiny things” that distract us from our...
Producing relevant content requires knowing your community
Editors are regularly challenged: What mix of stories and photos will collectively make this edition a “must see” for readers and advertisers? There is...