North Dakota
Blueprint points path forward for North Dakota’s strained local newspapers
Shrinking profit margins, aging ownerships and headaches from factors beyond their control like postal delays continue to strain local newspapers across North Dakota.
While some of the 73 local newspapers in the state are in critical condition, the bigger picture is not one of dying out, but of hope for the future anchored by their importance to local communities.
A two-year effort to gather data called the Future of Local News Initiative, led by the North Dakota Newspaper Association and the Rural Development Finance Corporation, finds some reasons for optimism and several paths forward for journalism prosperity.
The effort, supported by a grant from the Bush Foundation, brought together journalists and publishers from across the state to gather a rare data set through surveying newspaper owners, journalists and consumers.
The group released a final report of their key findings on Jan. 29, with the data paving the way for pilot programs to address challenges going forward.
“This has been the most focused effort that the North Dakota Newspaper Association has ever done to quantify where we are at as an industry,” said Cecile Wehrman, NDNA’s executive director.
The data gathered includes finding that nine out of 10 news consumers believe having a local newspaper is important, with a similar amount saying that losing a paper harms local communities.
Newspapers are also the most trusted local news source, according to the data gathered by research partner Coda Ventures.
Chris Gessele, a development specialist with the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives who was involved with the effort, said that struck him most about what the research found.
“People trust newspapers,” Gessele said. “They view them as one of the more accurate media outlets or media forms out there.”
Residents of the three counties where papers no longer exist — Sioux, Dunn and Slope — value papers even more, showing how those losses impact communities.
In those counties, 96% said having a newspaper is important, 87% said they would subscribe to a paper if it existed, and 21% said they would be willing to donate to help fund a newspaper beyond subscribing.
“The absence of papers is really noticed in those communities,” Gessele said.
Joy Schoch, publisher of the Dickinson Press, a Forum Communications newspaper, said having data to back up the vital importance of newspapers has been an important outcome from the project.
“It’s essential,” she said. “It’s essential to keep people informed. It makes a healthy community.”
The next step in the effort is to pilot several solutions that tap into the deep reservoirs of trust, demand and opportunity while acknowledging the current structural risks many newspapers face.
“This is a vital, trusted, necessary industry that people want and need, and we need to find a way collectively forward that benefits society,” Wehrman said.
Currently, 24% of households across the state are reached by a newspaper, but looking deeper at county-level data shows much deeper penetration.
Out of 53 counties, 20 have over 75% of households receiving a local newspaper and 15 more show figures of between 50-75%.
Wehrman said those numbers more accurately reflect the impact newspapers have locally, and losing them means communities lose out.
With the $199 million in federal Rural Health Transformation funding being
rolled out in the coming year,
the importance of local newspapers in communicating what programs are available and how the funding can be used in those communities is crucial, Wehrman said.
People need to understand newspapers are “not a public utility,” she said. “These are individual businesses that need the support of their local communities in order to continue doing the work people value so highly.”
That disconnect between valuing newspapers and being willing to support them through subscriptions or donations is something both newspapers themselves and the communities they serve need to tackle if their survival is to continue.
“People aren’t seeing newspapers as a business like they see their hardware store as a business, and they may not be aware of their struggles,” said Ellen Huber, rural development director for NDAREC.
“We talk a lot about retaining and growing other kinds of businesses in the state, but I don’t think anyone has thrown newspapers in that bucket of important, vital businesses, and ones that are worthy of focusing on, retaining and strengthening and growing,” Huber said.
The real value of local newspapers needs to be better communicated to the wider public, participants in the initiative said.
“People think it should be free,” Schoch said. “I think people forget about us. People forget about it until they really need us.”
The next step for the initiative is taking forward several pilot projects centered on succession planning, exploring new revenue models, providing print and digital samples for the next generation of news consumers, and developing ready-made promotions and content that can be adopted statewide.
Whether those have a deep impact or not depends on securing grant funding to take them forward, Wehrman said.
The hope is that these don’t become moonshots, but practical, replicable interventions.
One of the most immediate concerns is the
succession planning component,
since so many independent publishers are close to retirement age.
Currently, while group-owned newspapers show stronger margins and sustainability, independent, family-owned papers are under pressure from owners nearing retirement, the high cost of printing and distribution, and the heavy reliance on revenue from public notices.
Younger journalists are interested in taking over the reins of these papers, but are constrained by a lack of training and the need for financing to sustain operations, the research found.
“Succession planning is something that we need to offer newspapers, because there is an urgent need for newspapers to change hands,” Wehrman said.
Another aspect those involved in the initiative hope can gain traction is to meet demands of news consumers, particularly younger Gen Z and Millennial ones, for both digital and print versions of a newspaper.
Offering samples of those to non-subscribers may be one way to boost circulation.
“I think there’s a lot of optimism coming out of this about all of the different ways the data gathered for this can be used, and a lot of excitement about the positive momentum going forward,” Huber said.
This story was originally published on NewsCoopND.org.
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This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here.
GRAND FORKS — New research and correlating data used to measure financial hardship are coming to North Dakota this year.
“It’s very important data for our Grand Forks community, and for the families that we’re specifically working with,” said Heather Fuglem, executive director of the United Way of Grand Forks, East Grand Forks & Area, a division of the United Way organization, which assists community members facing financial insecurity throughout more than 1,000 locations worldwide.
Fuglem said her organization hasn’t been involved in the data collection, but recently reached out in hopes of being part of the effort moving forward. She feels localized data is greatly beneficial to her work, because having numbers to show the magnitude of a problem can help motivate community members to get involved in the solution.
“The more data we have, the better it is,” Fuglem said. “The more we can show what that need is.”
United For ALICE
— ALICE standing for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” — was established by the United Way of Northern New Jersey.
“It describes the households that have incomes above the federal poverty level, but below the cost of household basics,” said Laura Bruno, senior director of marketing and communications at the United Way of Northern New Jersey.
Sav Kelly / Grand Forks Herald
ALICE data collection started in New Jersey after United Way staff discovered Morris County’s 4% poverty level was not an accurate representation of how many people were struggling to get by. Over more than a decade, the project has expanded to include at least 40 states. During the National ALICE Summit, held from Jan. 5 to 7 in Miami Beach, Florida, United For ALICE leadership met with media partners, including the Grand Forks Herald, to explain their data and what they hope it can accomplish.
Leadership confirmed ALICE data for North Dakota and its counties is coming this year, hopefully by the fall, and their goal is to have partnerships and comprehensive data for all 50 states within the next couple years.
Data collection is a collaborative effort. Stephanie Hoopes, director of United For ALICE, said there’s a small research team within the organization, but there are also research advisory committees in every partner state whose members are identified on the United For ALICE website.
“These are external experts, and they bring local expertise, often reflecting the different elements of the budget,” Hoopes said.
Christine Aromando, United For ALICE’s director of brand engagement and strategic communications, said 55 million or 42% of households in the nation are below the ALICE threshold. This includes 17 million households that fall below the federal poverty line, and 38 million that are above the poverty line but meet the definition of ALICE.
The federal poverty line was created based solely on food costs and, though regularly updated, is the same for the entire nation — $15,650 for an individual, with approximately $5,500 added for each additional member of the family unit, according to Healthcare.gov. The income level doesn’t take into consideration varying costs of living or other expenses.
ALICE data considers the costs of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, technology, taxes and miscellaneous cost overruns for one-time, unexpected expenses. These expenses, calculated for states and counties based on their individual rates, are used to create a survival budget that shows the minimum wage necessary to meet all basic needs.
“Our mission is for the ALICE threshold to become the standard measure used by nonprofits, government, businesses and academic institutions alike to define financial insecurity, and to move away from the outdated federal poverty level,” Aromando said. “Our vision that drives our mission forward is that all households have enough income to afford safe housing, adequate food, reliable transportation, quality child care and health care and sufficient technology — and can also save and invest in their future.”
Hoopes noted that a majority of ALICE individuals are working, living paycheck to paycheck. She feels the issue is that the cost of basics and hourly wages do not align.
“This is a structural economic problem,” she said. “Wages don’t match costs.”
FARGO — A local family is fearing for the future and well-being of their child, and others, after service hours were cut for a behavioral health program in the metro.
They rely on the program to keep their children safe and in school.
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Faye Seidler, a suicide prevention advocate, testifies March 24, 2025, during a legislative committee hearing. Seidler is recruiting volunteers for a new LGBTQ+ Safety Taskforce. (Photo by Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor)
Fargo (NorthDakotaMonitor) – Editor’s note: If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.”
A North Dakota activist is recruiting volunteers across the state to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ youth.
The new project, called the LGBTQ+ Safety Taskforce, was created by Fargo-area suicide prevention advocate Faye Seidler.
Her goal is to recruit at least one volunteer for each of North Dakota’s 47 legislative districts. Anyone can apply to join the effort. The project is designed to make it as easy as possible for North Dakotans to contribute, Seidler said.
“A lot of what I’m doing is empowering people to have the tools to kind of make that change in their community, and then support them where I can,” she said. “I think that there are people who kind of want to just get involved, but they don’t know how.”
The idea is for volunteers to build up resources for queer youth in their area and form connections with local leaders, she said.
It’s not a formal organization, and there aren’t specific requirements for what kind of work volunteers must do. Seidler said that’s to allow people the flexibility to help out on their own terms.
Volunteers should do whatever makes most sense for their communities, she said.
That could mean sitting down with a local school board member to talk about ways to help LGBTQ+ youth, starting a support group or organizing a suicide prevention training at a church.
Many decision-makers in North Dakota don’t understand that LGBTQ+ youth in their communities are struggling and need support, Seidler said.
According to Seidler’s analysis of 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data, lesbian, gay and bisexual high-school students in North Dakota were more than three times as likely to have attempted suicide than their straight, cisgender peers. Transgender highschoolers were almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide compared with straight, cisgender students.
“It’s my general belief that a lot of the folks in our state just don’t have good stories about the experiences that queer youth have here,” she said.
To learn more about the task force or to sign up to be a volunteer, visit Seidler’s website. The website also includes data, fact sheets and other resources.
The task force will launch Monday. To commemorate its debut, Seidler will host a 16-hour livestream on the website Twitch starting at 8 a.m. Saturday and concluding at midnight.
Seidler will use that time to answer any questions from viewers, but has nothing else planned for the stream. That’s on purpose, she said.
“I want people to understand the weight of how long time can feel like when you’re waiting for help and there’s no help around,” Seidler said.
The task force isn’t supported by external funding. Seidler said it’s important to her that the project be self-sustaining.
“We have seen across this year how much funding can be disrupted through grant efforts, whether it be federal or local,” she said.
The Trump administration has made sweeping cuts to programs that support queer youth — including by shutting down a suicide prevention hotline late last year. The federal government has also sought to curb data collection on LGBTQ+ Americans.
North Dakota lawmakers have also passed a number of state laws restricting LGBTQ+ rights. Under a 2025 law, schools cannot have all-gender restrooms, which some opponents said are important accommodations for transgender students. State law already forbade schools from letting transgender students use the bathroom that aligns with their gender.
A law passed during the 2023 session also bars transgender adolescents from receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria.
The North Dakota Legislature has rejected previous proposals to protect people who identify as LGBTQ+ from different forms of discrimination.
Cody Schuler, advocacy director for the North Dakota ACLU, said given the national and state climate toward LGBTQ+ youth, efforts like the LGBTQ+ Safety Taskforce are needed “now more than ever.”
“Anything that advocates can do to build up resources and spaces for growing advocacy is not only admirable, but necessary,” he said.
North Dakota Monitor reporter Mary Steurer can be reached at msteurer@northdakotamonitor.com.
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