One more pillar of locally owned media has fallen. Jon Hunter has sold the Madison Daily Leader to Arizona-based Wick Communications. Hunter, the third and last generation of his family to run the local paper, sold out because, apparently, local media can’t survive South Dakota’s 21st-century economy:
“With all of the technological changes in the industry, it is becoming more challenging to be successful as an independent daily newspaper,” Hunter said. “The family considered what would be in the best interest of the company, the employees and the community, and decided that passing the torch to another owner was the best option” [media merger and acquisition firm Dirks, Van Essen, & April, press release, in Editor & Publisher, 2021.03.02].
Wick also owns the Pierre Capital Journal and 29 other newspapers and publications in ten other states. The founder of the company was born in Bowdle in 1899 but appears to have grown up in Minnesota and worked away from South Dakota all his life.
The Madison Daily Leader is not the last wholly South Dakota-owned daily newspaper in the state. Gary Wood of Yankton bought the Yankton Press & Dakotan from its out-of-state owners in 2008. The Brookings Register claims local ownership by William McMacken.
But most of our local papers are run by out-of-state companies. The Black Hills Pioneer is owned by Seaton Publishing Company, a multi-state newspaper group that lists its business office in Hastings, Nebraska. Forum Communications from Fargo controls the Mitchell Daily Republic. News Media Corporation of Rochelle, Illinois owns the Plainsman in Huron.
Andrew Yang had a solution to the trampling of rural newspapers. The Des Moines Register was intrigued. But the democrats wouldn’t listen to him. Things will continue getting worse, before/if they ever get better. Remember the Roman Empire spent 250 years in decline.
Almost 150 congressional republicans denied the election results. Almost no republicans voted for the recent COVID relief bill. Yet, 77% of the nation and 59% of republicans surveyed support that bill.
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” – George Orwell
Is it the prospect of inevitability? Even if it is not right, can it still be truth? There are laws of economics that cannot be overridden.
Not completely related to the Leader, but still some more sad news regarding local Madison media outlets. The out-of-state ownership of KJAM radio, Alpha Media, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the end of January.
KJAM has been owned by out-of-state companies since the early 2000s when the Goeman family sold the stations to Three Eagles Communications out of Nebraska. Three Eagles then sold out to Digity Media, and a few years later was acquired by current owner Alpha Media. I have heard some very old KJAM airchecks dating from both the 80s and 90s, and not only was there a live-and-local DJ playing then-current music, but each break had real news and community announcements and advertising for the local businesses.
It’s sad to see how far KJAM has fallen. Sure, there is still a local DJ doing the morning show and news/sports reports, but they rely far too much on syndicated programs and small music playlists like nearly all corporate owned radio stations. There are too many commercial breaks, and their actual studio building has become rather run down and outdated. As KJAM’s corporate owner navigates through the bankruptcy proceedings, it remains to be seen if the station will again be sold to yet another out-of-state owner or end up being sold off to a religious network like VCY America or K-Love.
The question I have is this… if KJAM can go into decline after being sold to corporate owners, will the same thing happen to the Daily Leader? I haven’t read the Capital Journal in years, so I wouldn’t know how Wicks ownership compared to previous ownership by Hipple Printing.
Wade, your point is very much related. Has there been any signal about how Alpha Media might save itself? Is it offering to sell KJAM? And would KJAM fetch any buyer interest?
Curt, I agree that the economics aren’t in favor of either the Leader or KJAM. As corporate farming hollows out rural America and as other splashier national media and social media crowd our mindspace, it’s hard to field enough local readers and listeners to sustain a truly local newspaper or radio station in any place smaller than Sioux Falls… and even Sioux Falls couldn’t sustain local ownership of its media.
@Cory: 1 – Alpha Media doesn’t have a reorganization plan ready, according to the news search I fielded on Google regarding their bankruptcy other than hoping to have their reorganization completed by June.
2 – As far as I know, no Alpha station including KJAM is being offered for sale yet, but corporate owners tend to conduct such sales in private. So if KJAM is sold off, we won’t know until an application is filed with the FCC.
3 – KJAM would be a very tough sell. Both signals aren’t very powerful, and the FM signal can’t upgrade to a higher power because of existing stations in Sioux Falls. Being sandwiched between Sioux Falls and Brookings doesn’t help either. When I go around town, there are very few places that play KJAM over the store speakers. It’s usually a larger, more popular Sioux Falls station or something else like satellite radio. The best goal is for a local community group to purchase KJAM and establish a true community owned radio station, but seeing how more and more listeners are moving to streaming services, broadcast radio is losing relevance and who knows if any community members would be willing to support such an endeavor. There are many costs involved with running a radio station such as tower rent, studio lease, maintenance, and the various music royalty fees. It would be much more cost effective to make such community station as a streaming service instead, or perhaps even a weekly podcast.
So unless Alpha’s reorganization plans involved keeping most of their stations, the future of KJAM seems bleak. I would still hate to see KJAM being sold off to some right-wing religious network, but it’s the fate of many such stations these days.
And a final note, Sioux Falls does still have one locally-owned broadcast station… Sunny Radio 93.3FM, playing 80s and 90s music. Even after the big kerfuffle with Chuck Brennan, they are still going. I don’t know what ever became of the lawsuit between them and Chuckles. I don’t think any resolution was made public or on the news.
I grew up in Lake County, and am about to retire. If I could buy the station for say, the price of a Ford F-150, I would do it and take KJAM back to its roots. And that would include the original radio trivia contest that Corey used to win regularly after I moved out of the local area,
Paper.li and you can have an online newspaper for 12.99 a month.
Big vision, try it and succeed!