The Dakota Scout: A journalism journey

Millions of clicks, thousands of subscribers, 50 papers and one year later

There’s a number on the front page of this week’s print edition of The Dakota Scout: No. 50.

That number means a lot to us at The Dakota Scout. It marks the one-year anniversary of our founding. It marks a year of hard work, perseverance and gamble – a foray into the American dream.

Above all, it’s evidence that journalism is alive and well in South Dakota. 

We wouldn’t have printed the first edition of The Dakota Scout one year ago without the confidence that South Dakota wanted quality, fair, unbiased and community-oriented journalism. But after 50 editions, thousands of online subscribers and millions of clicks to our online stories, we couldn’t be more humbled and proud of what we’ve started and how you all have embraced a locally owned, operated and printed newspaper.

There is only one of those in Sioux Falls. And it’s not the daily paper owned by a faraway East Coast corporation with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, that prints its paper hundreds of miles away.

It’s The Dakota Scout.

In journalism school, young news reporters used to be taught not to tell their readers what to think. Rather, their job was to show their audience what to think about. And while that might not be the mindset of some journalists anymore, the last year has proven that it’s still what South Dakotans want.

So as we hit our first anniversary, we want to thank you, and the many advertisers who have supported us, for coming along on this ride and galvanizing our belief that there’s still a place in our world for news – not entertainment programming masquerading as a means of informing the public or a biased source of information angling for a particular outcome.

And what a ride it’s been.

If you’ve been here from the start, you know The Dakota Scout was the first to tell the world about Sanford Health courting a Minnesota hospital system in a potential merger, a Senate candidate’s arrest on sex grooming charges, the attorney general’s involvement in the Mitchell baseball sex investigation, a looming tax increase for some Sioux Falls property owners or how a rash of parolees committing violent crime was prompting an overhaul in the prison’s parole system.

You’ve also been exposed to a host of viewpoints on the most controversial of topics. Through those, you’ve been able to understand why people favor or disfavor certain policy issues. We’ve sought to offer this environment of thoughtful commentary in a world that is overrun with screamers and intolerance, knowing that tolerance of dissenting opinions is critical to a functioning democratic society. There’s a reason why our viewpoints section recites the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

Like we noted in our introductory column in The Dakota Scout edition No. 1 that hit newsstands on Sept, 1, 2022, we’re not perfect. But you had our promise then, and you have our continued commitment now, to keep working our tails off to bring readers of The Dakota Scout the best news coverage of South Dakota culture and politics each and every day.

Thanks for your support.

Jon & Joe

ONE YEAR AGO: Longtime South Dakota journalists launch corporate-free media venture