Locals regain media control in Brokaw's hometown

The decades-old trend toward media consolidation seems to be stalling in some places, and there's no better recent example than Yankton, S.D. In the past week, the Missouri River city of 13,500 saw its daily newspaper and a radio station go from chains to local hands. (Encarta map)

"When Yanktonians awoke this morning, the only media company not owned locally was the venerable WNAX Radio [so old that its call letters don't start with K]. Every other media in town is back in local hands. Few cities can boast of that," Bernie Hunhoff wrote today on Road Stories, the blog of Yankton-based South Dakota Magazine.

A group of local investors, including Publisher Gary Wood, bought the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan, circulation 7,850, from GateHouse Media, which had bought it three months ago from Morris Communications. A week earlier, a local couple bought KYNT Radio, which "discovered" Tom Brokaw, Hunhoff writes. "The chain media have perfected bland and boring and made it into a recipe for how to run a business," he opines. "It will be interesting to watch how the local owners change their product through the months and years to come. I’m quite confident the changes will be good for our region."

Press and Dakotan Managing Editor Kelly Hertz seems to think likewise. She wrote, "I genuinely believe the best thing that could have happened here has occurred. . . . However, the greatest feeling I have now is a sense of relief. The last few months have reminded me of just how coldly businesslike our business can be. . . . I've learned a lot this winter about the newspaper industry, for better and for worse. I learned of the plans that some of these other prospective suitors had for us. . . . They would have ripped us apart, not because of how we have performed but in spite of it." The sale also included the Vermillion Plain Talk, The Missouri Valley Shopper, The Broadcaster and the Town and Country Weekly News.