The Senate floor at the state Capitol during the 2024 Legislature. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
After retiring from a career in writing and journalism, one of the freelance assignments I took was covering the Legislature in Pierre for Community News Service. Sponsored by the South Dakota Newspaper Association (now known as the South Dakota NewsMedia Association ), CNS was legislative coverage designed for weekly newspapers, though some dailies did subscribe as well.
One of the guiding principles of CNS was that since it was geared toward weekly newspapers, the price of the service had to stay low. That low price got CNS more than 50 subscribing newspapers per year, but generated only enough revenue to send me to Pierre for four weeks of the nine-week sessions.