By now my dear readers, you may have heard about the four South Dakota newspapers who abruptly closed their doors last week Wednesday with no prior notice to the employees or communities. If you haven’t, let me tell you about it now.
On August 6, 2025 News Media Corporation, who owns/owned over 30 community newspapers in five states, including the Brookings Register, Moody County Enterprise, The Daily Plainsman and Redfield Press in South Dakota, released a statement to their employees stating that “NMC will be closing the doors permanently on August 6.” This left the newspapers’ staff without jobs, the communities without their newspapers and everyone on the outside looking in with their jaws on the floor.
As a small-town community newspaper owner, I was shocked and horrified by the news, and I wasn’t alone. I’ve had a lot of phone calls and communications this past week with other newspaper owners or people in the business. We are all just trying to make sense of it. How could this happen?
A lot of people have shared their condolences and support with the newspapers’ staff on their Facebook pages. Others, however, are inclined to say things like “newspapers are dying,” and “they all go away eventually.” And, to an extent, I agree with them. However, it is precisely because of those people who don’t support their small-town newspapers that leads to things like this. READ YOUR NEWSPAPER! ADVERTISE IN YOUR NEWSPAPER!
Now, I’ll admit I don’t know much about News Media Corporation or any of the newspapers they owned. Heck, I didn’t even know that The Huron Daily Plainsman and The Redfield Press were owned by a corporation. Until August 6, I just assumed that they were owned by local community members, like me with the Courier. But, I was wrong.
After researching, I’ve come to find out that The Huron Daily Plainsman hasn’t been owned locally since 1980. Wow! It was first sold to Freedom Newspapers, also known as Freedom Communications, Inc. in 1980, which ran it for the next 10 years. Then it was sold to the Omaha-World Herald, also known as the World-Herald Co., during their expansion efforts in the 1990s. The Brookings Register was also sold to the Omaha-World Herald at this time by Stauffer Communications. In 1998, the South Dakota newspaper switched hands for a final time to News Media Corporation. And now, here we are. I’m sure at the time, these big corporations seemed like saving graces to the original newspaper owners. They were probably able to retire comfortably and relax a little, which is great, but in the end, a big corporation isn’t going to be looking out for our small communities; they’ll be looking out for themselves, especially when it gets tough.
When a big corporation owns your small-town newspaper, you never know which edition will be your last; your last chance to see what went on in town last week, what’s coming up soon, who made the honor roll, who celebrated a birthday or anniversary, what happened at a council meeting, what’s on the meeting agenda, etc. None of these people and communities had the opportunity to even prepare themselves for a world without their newspaper. They weren’t given any notice whatsoever. That’s the part that churns my gut the most. Either way it’s a bad situation, but I feel like it was 10 times worse than it could’ve been because no one was told before August 6. Now, everybody’s left scrambling trying to figure out how they’re going to make it to next week and the week after.
The Clark County Courier is one of the neighboring legal publications to The Huron Daily Plainsman and The Redfield Press. Until something is figured out to revive either of those newspapers, it is possible that more legal notices from those areas will be sent to us to publish. While we’re always happy to see more income, this is certainly not how we like to get it.
I do admit, for being owned by corporations for the last 40+ years, The Huron Daily Plainsman seemed to still be a great local paper. I cannot say the same for the likes of The Aberdeen American News, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, and the Watertown Public Opinion. My dear readers know how far they’ve fallen.
It may be easier for corporations to takeover a newspaper business because of the money aspect. Newspapers are NOT cheap. Printing, delivery and postage costs are high—and weekly! Don’t forget payroll and software subscriptions! Postage every week is in the $400 range for the Courier. Printing and delivery every month is in the $4,000 range.
Newspapers can’t survive without the readership support and monetary support of their communities. Our newspaper can’t survive without these things either. It is important to advertise with your local newspaper. We’re more than just pictures and words; we’re HISTORY IN THE MAKING.
Next week I hope to be back with another movie review column printed here. I enjoy writing those a lot more. Until then, happy reading everybody!
That's it for this week! What were your thoughts? Feel free to share them with us! You can call us, email us, visit us at the office, leave us a comment or message on Facebook, or even mail us something. Keep the comments, suggestions, questions, submissions, etc. coming our way! We'd love to hear from you!
