The world of journalism has changed a lot over the years, adapting to the constantly changing environment with the increase in technology.
These developments have given us the opportunity to grow and to find new and creative ways to share the news with our community and beyond.
With the many benefits that technology brings, it also presents its own set of challenges. Being part of the largest Forum Communications Co. and having stories from reporters located across the state on our website can sometimes make it look less like a “small town newspaper” than it used to be.
While this may be true, we are grateful that we have the resources to share much more with our audience than the small Pioneer team would be able to do on its own, focusing on the 40-mile radius that we cover around Bemidji.
A few years ago, we went from printing newspapers five days a week to two, and many were concerned that we were on the verge of closing, products would be worse or things would be less relevant. But in fact it is just the opposite.
As print days have slowed, our ability to focus more locally has increased. Now, instead of having to spread our local stories and resources among five newspapers, we can fit everything into two bigger and better newspapers.
And, instead of having a lot of what we call “filling stories” from national newspapers, almost everything we print in our newspaper is written by someone in our Bemidji office. We still occasionally launch a regional or state story in the newspaper, but we make sure it is relevant to our audience and beneficial to the community.
As we move into this next era, here is my thoughtful request to those of you who live in our coverage area: take the time to get to know us. Learn our names and what beats we cover. That way, when you read an article and see who wrote it, you can put a face on the name and say, “Hey, I know them!” Or when you have a topic of interest or a news tip, you know the perfect person to send it to.
So, let me take this opportunity to introduce you to me and my team.
My name is Annalize Braught, I have lived in the Bemidji area for about 15 years and I love this community very much. I’ve been at Pioneer for a few years, doing reporting, photography and a myriad of other tasks. I took on the role of editor in January 2020, just in time for one of the craziest years of our lives, and it was an adventure.
Many of you know Dennis Doeden, as he spent many years at the helm of Pioneer as an editor. He quit his job just over a year ago and in his semi-retirement he became a reporter covering stories about arts, entertainment, business and lifestyle, as well as meeting the Blackduck American and BuyLine newspapers every week.
Jillian Gandsey has also been with Pioneer for some time. Many of you have seen her out of the house with her camera, at sporting events and almost everything that happens here. She is my right hand and teaches me new things every day.
Matthew Liedke is our attorney for city and county government, business and health coverage. He had a busy year with that beat, as I’m sure you can imagine!
Bria Barton is a transplant from South Carolina who moved to the freezing north to cover travel and tourism for us and Forum Communications Co. This hit had its challenges last year, motivating Bria to cover a variety of local restaurants that fight against pandemic restrictions on fishing and hiking.
Hannah Olson has perhaps the widest area of all, covering all things related to education in this diverse region, crime and courts, and almost everything we throw in its way.
Hannah LaVigne’s main task is to write all the press releases you send to us and to make things like donation announcements, community news and events publicized for our readers to see.
In our sports department, we have Austin Monteith and Micah Friez participating in the games and keeping our readers up to date on all the sport-related events in the region, along with great setbacks and resources.
We couldn’t do any of this without our editor Todd Keute leading the charge and each of our incredible business offices keeping us moving. And we would be remiss not to mention our front desk staff, who patiently help our readers with their bills each day and more.
If you want to know more about local journalists, check out the contact page on our website.
Even though times are crazy and many unknowns await us. Believe me, there is still an incredible group of Pioneer journalists here in the city, ready to work for another 125 years or more, and we are not going anywhere anytime soon.
Annalize Braught is a photographer and editor at Pioneer. She can be contacted at (218) 358-1990 or [email protected].