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On May 10, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder CEO and Publisher Tracey Williams-Dillard took part in a media panel for the 2023-2024 cohort of Policy Fellows at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Established by former Vice President Walter Mondale more than three decades ago, the Humphrey School Policy Fellows program selects approximately three dozen mid-career leaders yearly from the arenas of government, business, philanthropy, the nonprofit sector, and the Minnesota National Guard.
Heralded around the nation for both its ingenuity and impact, this program fosters leadership development and provides participants the ability to connect with public officials and community leaders, as well as the chance to help design and implement “important projects that benefit the wider community.”
“Perhaps more than ever, when you think about the division in our world, we need something like this,” says Sara Benzkofer, executive director of the program. “Policy Fellows offers its people the invaluable opportunity to learn other perspectives and to work across their differences.”
Friday’s panel, titled “Today’s Reporting Opportunities and Challenges,” gave the Humphrey Policy Fellows the forum to directly engage local leaders in the field of journalism and collectively address the current state of news media and its ever-changing landscape.
In addition to Williams-Dillard, the panel consisted of Duchesne Drew, senior vice president of American Public Media Group and president of Minnesota Public Radio; and Tim Blotz, news anchor and reporter for Fox 9 and Fox 9+ Television. The moderator was Professor Larry Jacobs, McKnight presidential chair in public affairs, the Walter F. and Joan Mondale chair for political studies, and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota.
The first question to the panelists addressed the notion that you “cannot have an informed citizenry unless you have a free press.” Drew expressed his concern around the issue of media literacy.
“In our society,” he stated, “frankly, I think too many younger folks are growing up without the tools and the framing around how do you interpret and separate something that is real versus something that is, if not a complete lie, has been twisted, or key facts have been left out to help form a particular reaction or opinion.”
Dr. Jacobs then turned the conversation to Williams-Dillard: “The information that many Americans get from the media, particularly people of color, doesn’t reflect their lives. It’s not their voices, it’s not their interests or concerns,” said Jacobs, before asking, “Do you think the media is reflective of the diversity in America?”
“No, I do not,” responded Williams-Dillard, “which is why there still is a need to have different media voices such as the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.”
For his part, while underscoring Williams-Dillard’s comments with regard to the importance of representation in the media, Blotz shared a poignant and compelling story about a former colleague of his, Bill Taylor, who became one of first Black television reporters in Milwaukee when he joined the staff at WTMJ-4 in the early 1970s.
“Taylor, who passed away at the age of 79 last Wednesday night, once took a call from a high school valedictorian who had information that ultimately helped solve a major crime. That student sought Taylor out specifically because, like himself, Taylor was African American, and the young man felt Taylor was “the only one that would listen to him,” said Blotz.
From there, the discussion tackled an array of topics that included for-profit versus nonprofit news models; the growing shift from print to digital and other multi-media platforms; the science of writing headlines; how news organizations can successfully partner with one another; challenges in recruiting and retaining young journalists; and the importance of covering mental health in a time of increasing anxiety.
Considering the fierce competition between media outlets and the trend toward sensationalism, one audience member, Peter Ingraham of Clean Energy Economy Minnesota, asked the panel, “In the new media, [is it] clicks versus informing the public? How do you balance that?”
Both Drew and Blotz admitted that while clicks definitely matter, the goal must always be to get the story right. “We’re not in the business of catering to the left or the right,” explained Drew. “We’re just trying to get it right. To make sure the story is based in fact.”
“The beauty of our paper being a weekly as opposed to a daily is that we don’t have to be first,” Williams-Dillard added. “We’re not trying to break the news. We work hard on getting it right. It’s essential that our community believes in us. That they trust us.”
One of the last questions from a Policy Fellow came from Jason Jackson of Minnesota Management and Budget, who congratulated Williams-Dillard on the MSR’s 90th Anniversary and asked, “Going into the next 90 years for the Spokesman-Recorder, what are you hopeful for?”
Williams-Dillard, the third-generation publisher of the state’s oldest Black newspaper, had already shared some of the story of her grandfather, Cecil E. Newman, who in addition to founding the MSR in 1934 served as a close friend and advisor to none other than Hubert H. Humphrey himself.
“It was the love of the community that drove my grandfather. Money wasn’t the driving factor,” she reflected, noting that Newman actually used his pay as a Pullman porter to help subsidize the newspaper in its early days.
In speaking directly to Jackson’s question, Williams-Dillard brought up her succession plan and the hope that one day her daughter will take the reins, while also addressing her desire to bring more and more young people into the fold, in her words, to “help those young people really get excited about being a part of true African American journalism that speaks to a community whose voices need to be heard and need to be represented.
“So that when my daughter takes the paper over, it’s even more powerful than the day my grandfather started it,” concluded Williams-Dillard, drawing a passionate round of applause from all those in attendance.
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