Leaving a newspaper is like leaving your old neighborhood. One eye can't help but stay on the familiar sights, while the other eye anxiously watches the horizon, and what's on it.
Back in October of 1997 Jennifer Dale left one neighborhood, the Sault Tribe newspaper, and on a bet and prayer, started the Bay Mills News. This week she left her adolescent child for work down the road at the Chippewa-Ottawa Resource Authority (CORA), which is the technical and oversight group for tribal fishing. For years Jennifer has done their public relations work, churning out seasonal newsletters and following their big stories. It's a comfortable, interesting part of her life, and now she gets to do it full time.
She leaves an award winning newspaper. More importantly, she leaves a newspaper that is read, respected, and is therefore strong in its own neighborhood. It has won awards from the Native American Journalism Association for photography, layout and design, and most importantly, a first place award for news. That's the second time she won that award, which is contested by all native newspapers in North America and Latin America. Once is good. Twice is steady.
Bay Mills has watched its little bulletin board grow under her management. For its first four years it came out monthly. In 2001 she tried an experiment by taking it weekly, and the load just couldn't be carried. I've worked on weeklies and small and bigger dailies and the hardest journalism I worked was a weekly newspaper.
Two years ago she shifted the Bay Mills News to a twice-monthly, and she seemed to find its niche. When the paper first published in 1997 it had a 1,200 press run. These days she runs 3000 every two weeks.
Slowly Jennifer, Selina, and the staff that comes and goes, have layered on new ideas and steady reporting. It's heavy on names and pictures, and that is what makes it feel so familiar. It keeps a record of tribal affairs, and of new births and those who “walk on”. In short, it does what a community newspaper is supposed to do. By reporting daily life and doing it with honesty and a steady hand, it earns respect.
You come into a new neighborhood and you want to make a contribution. In 1997 Jennifer brought the idea of the Bay Mills News to a community that was changing rapidly, and seeing growth it had never seen before. It needed a record keeper, a place to bring gripes and hosannahs, and it needed a source of pride. It now has that.
Pat Egan is the former publisher of the Sault Evening News. He is a recipient of the William Allen White award for editorial writing. He and his wife Debra live at Salt Point..
