UPDATE: Well, at the operations meeting yesterday, it was poured on thick, but councilor Soehl wasn’t buying it. Councilor Bayse tried to explain to Curt that their is a ‘process’ they must follow. Really? Maybe you need to tell that to the administration. It was obvious from the ‘staged’ meeting (they haven’t had an operations meeting in over 6 MONTHS!) that the owners of the Dakota Scout, Joe and Jon respectively, buttered up councilors behind the scenes because their presentation wasn’t prepared at all, especially when they claimed to have 15 employees then only a few minutes later admitting their is only 3 full-time staff and two of them are the owners. There is also the numbers problem (Argus has a larger distribution) and they are NOT a partisan media source, in fact I couldn’t tell you what kind of media they are, but they are NOT partisan. But this LIE is the one that makes me shutter a bit;
The Dakota Scout said by using a local printing press, newspapers will be distributed to readers at no cost. That means price will not impact public notices.
“I feel that the Scout is a less costly option,” council member David Barranco said. “They are more local, they are locally printed and I feel like, if you look at the trajectory of readership, they are growing force in this city that we care the most about.”
While it is true you can pick up the DS for Free at any Burger King in town we still have to pay for the service. Unless I missed something in the presentation, it seems we are still paying for the service, so now the DS has just gone from a advertiser paid publication to taxpayer supported publication. Could we classify the DS as ‘State Media’ now?
As for the trajectory, the DS hasn’t really increased their distribution of the printed piece since their inception around 2 years ago. While their online readership is up (that is why they print the paper to push online use) which is great, it really has little to do with printed legal notices. Why would I go to a subscriber only website to read the legals I can just read online for free on multiple free government websites?
I could care less who gets the contract, but state law needs to change so we don’t have to play this stupid game anymore. Let the individual government entities determine how they will notice people, because I doubt people are making a quick trip to BK to pick up a copy of the DS for public notices.
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Well the short answer is probably YES. As you can see from the sudden operations meeting on Monday they got proposals from the Argus and the Dakota Scout.
BEFORE we get into the finer details, I talked to a city councilor tonight and he told me about the proposal and that the council will likely vote for the Dakota Scout. I told him that he needs to check the investors and the conflicts before you can move forward because I said I’ve heard there’s some conflicts. Anytime someone starts a fledgling business they will likely take out a loan and who is providing that loan or IN-KIND donations. Well apparently this councilor decided to ask the questions, WHICH IS AWESOME AND THEIR JOB, and shortly after he asked them Joe Sneve, one of the co-owners of the Dakota Scout, texted me to inform me that him and his business partner, Jonathan Ellis used their ‘life savings’ to start the business. While I could certainly question that more, I will take Joe’s word on it. Joe did make a good point, if the citizens are paying for this wouldn’t it be better to give the money to a local company?
Yes, and No.
If the paper being used was truly needed for this service, then I would say YES use the local rag. But it is NOT needed.
While State Law is on the Dakota Scout’s side, I still believe that state law needs to change so public notices DON’T appear in subscriber or even non-subscriber mags. Would we put public notices in ETC. Magazine? Hell no!
I think local government entities in SD should be able to post the agendas online on their local websites but also on other state websites. The notices should also be posted at all the public libraries and local government buildings. You should also be able to ask for a print-out of the agenda at these facilities at no cost.
This is a waste of money. When you have a subscription base of around 5,000 and the population is 215,000 how is this form of notifying the public effective?
Which brings us to my real issue with the Dakota Scout getting this contract. Could care less about the money. Don’t care about the Argus losing the contract. Don’t even care who may or may not being investing with them. The real issue is the Dakota Scout is a PARTISAN RAG! That’s not me. I hear it from Republicans, Democrats, Indies, Libs and and Cons. Everyone can see you are leaning in a certain direction and another reason why you shouldn’t get the contract. Why wasn’t the EPOCH TIMES* considered? I bet they have more subscribers in SF then the DS.
Like I said, the Council will likely put the notices back into local community ownership, life savings apparently, which should make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The notices will be right in between an ad for a Republican candidate and an opinion piece about how wind turbines cause Cancer, and you can pick it up at Burger King next to Tidbits and a ‘We’re Hiring’ flier.
*I’ve joked with peeps that the DS is our local version of the Epoch Times.
tidbits, coffee talk news, or harlan jacobson’s “meet singles” paper would be good
Also makes you think the city’s new website which cost nearly 700,000 dollars should be more effective or all the city media staff and their salaries and the multiple culture and communications director and their staff why can’t they communicate important matters better? How do they still have their jobs
The Argus has big Dillard’s ads, while DS has big Thune ads. I rest my case.
Did you just make a claim that the Argus Leader is not partisan? Are you serious…
It is the most liberally, progressive paper in town, and is biased. They are owned by a very left leaning, investment group, a multi-national company headquartered in New York City. TELL THE TRUTH SCOTT – you and Bruce hate the Dakota Scout cause they tell the narrative from a neutral position, that often times aligns with the right side of the political spectrum. We know which side of the fence you are on here – Scott and Cameraman Bruce are two peas in a pod, they are Democrat-wolves that are pissed off at the current city administration cause they will not latch onto the Democrat-progressive agenda aka Sustainability Plan, let alone follow the Democrat blue book. The Dakota Scout puts out some very interesting stories, and for the most part, the Democrats hate them cause they hold them accountable for what they say and do.
Shape Up, or Move Out. The City of Sioux Falls is operated in a timely, responsible manner, led by a conservatively, progressive management style, and has a profit.
Fact is, Scott, Cameraman Bruce, and Tim all decided to show back up at City Council Meetings these past three weeks, cause they now feel its time to make us look bad during these meetings.
Conservatism is dead, and hopefully in November we can put the final death nail in it. As for the partisan Argus, send me a story, local, that is partisan by the Argus. Most of DS content is opinion.
Me thinks the writer is a city council, director level or mayor type persons who had their butt bit by the comments of Scott, Bruce or Tim? It is amazing how the collective thimble sized thought process of the current city government is afraid of any comments those three and others bring up. A reason public input is important and alternative thought are important when presented during the meetings is it removes the cover excuse “We never heard about XXXXXXX crime being committed”. Crimes committed and then reported to the policy making body or city management and not acted upon by the authorities is a punishable crime be it a felony or misdemeanor against the person or persons ignoring the crime. Just saying Mr Thomas, you might be liable for not reporting crimes.