NEWS RELEASE

IndiJ Public Media and ICT

ICT and IndiJ Public Media will share a reporter with Lee Enterprises at newspapers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Rapid City, South Dakota, in a partnership designed to increase the coverage of Indigenous communities in those two regions.

The reporters will be jointly hired and report to ICT editors and their counterparts at the Rapid City Journal and the Tulsa World.

This partnership will accomplish several goals for ICT and Lee Enterprises:

  • It will improve the journalism quality with better coverage of important constituencies. There are nine tribal nations in South Dakota and 39 tribal nations in Oklahoma. There is no question that the number of stories coming out of this newsroom partnership will broaden the understanding of Native people in these regions.
  • The partnership also will open up a new channel for hiring, creating a path for more Native Americans to cover their community and build a career path.

“We are so pleased to begin this partnership,” said Karen Michel, Ho-Chunk, president of IndiJ Public Media and ICT. “This is about creating opportunity. We need more Native journalists in order to tell a richer story. And by partnering with existing newsrooms we can serve our readers better and faster.”

The collaboration is part of a broader vision to expand ICT’s reach by creating seven new bureaus over the next three years. ICT currently has bureaus in Washington, D.C. and Anchorage, Alaska.

“This partnership shows Lee Enterprises’ commitment and investment in covering Indigenous issues, peoples, and nations accurately and fairly,” said Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, Diné, ICT’s editor.

“This partnership with ICT reflects Lee’s continued efforts to provide the most important and impactful local news content to the diverse communities we serve,” said Jason Adrians, Lee Enterprises’ vice president-local news. “It’s an excellent opportunity to deepen our coverage of Indigenous communities in Oklahoma and South Dakota, as well as grow our roster of talented local journalists.”

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ABOUT ICT

ICT, formerly Indian Country Today, is owned by IndiJ Public Media, an independent nonprofit,

multimedia news organization with headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, and bureaus in Alaska and Washington, D.C. ICT covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians and Alaska Natives through a digital news site and a weekday newscast with international viewership. IndiJ Public Media is a 501 (c)(3) public charity that sustains itself with funding from members, donors, foundations, and supporters worldwide.

ABOUT LEE

Lee Enterprises is a major subscription and advertising platform and a leading provider of local news and information, with daily newspapers, rapidly growing digital products and over 350 weekly and specialty publications serving 77 markets in 26 states. Lee newspapers have average daily circulation of 1.0 million, and its legacy websites, including acquisitions, reach more than 47 million digital unique visitors. Lee markets include St. Louis, MO; Buffalo, NY; Omaha, NE; Richmond, VA; Lincoln, NE; Madison, WI; Davenport, IA; and Tucson, AZ. Lee Common Stock is traded on NASDAQ under the symbol LEE. For more information about Lee, please visit www.lee.net.