The Dakota Scout is getting a national look at a question that has become increasingly important to local journalism: What does it take to build an independent newsroom that can last?
The Sioux Falls-based news outlet and a cohort of nine other independent media ventures whose publishers were interviewed for a new Syracuse University study examining the business realities of independent local journalism.
Selected from a survey of more than 100 of their counterparts from across the country, The Scout’s founders, Jonathan Ellis and Joe Sneve, were specifically sought out by researchers Merrill Brown and Jacob Spudich, wanting to learn how independent publishers are building news organizations, finding audiences and — perhaps most importantly — trying to make the economics work…