A year of impact, thanks to you

Welcome to February. For me, this marks a milestone at NDNC. It’s my one-year anniversary with the organization and it’s been an exciting year.

The biggest thing I’ve learned over the last twelve months is how important the community is to local news. You’ll often see me write about how important local news is to the community, but it’s equally important the other way around.

I’ve been a professional writer for my entire adult life, and at my age, that’s quite a few years. Despite that, it’s still difficult for me sometimes to express just how much your support means to organizations like this. I give presentations on media literacy and on the First Amendment, and during those I talk about the trustworthiness of local news and how communities around our state rely on that information. But within our organization, we flip that script and talk about how important you are.

We start every month by looking at what we did the month prior and how your support made that happen. We do that because we want you to know that we see you and we appreciate you. Since this marks my first year with NDNC, I thought I’d go a little further and look at all the new things you made happen in that time.

I’m very proud of our podcast, The Backstory, which we started last summer. Michael Standaert and I talk each week about his latest article and what went into reporting it. We don’t just talk about the news; we take it a step further. As part of our mission to increase media literacy around the state, we explain what went into reporting that news, how decisions were made, and how information was gathered. We want you to know how we bring you this information. I’ve got something up my sleeve to make the podcast even better, so stay tuned.

We also became the only newsroom in the state to partner with Gigafact to bring you weekly fact briefs. I am thrilled with the reception these fact briefs get. People may not always like the facts, but they like that we’re finding them. We’ll soon be increasing our weekly fact briefs to bring you more information each week.

Finally, I can now report that we had a record-breaking NewsMatch campaign to finish off 2025. We exceeded our fundraising goal, and that’s completely thanks to you. We are honored that you believe in our work and support our efforts.

That brings us to how we’re kicking off the new year, by being among the newest organizations included in Giving Hearts Day. The North Dakota News Cooperative and the North Dakota Newspaper Association Education Foundation are both participating in Giving Hearts Day this year, in a joint effort to keep our communities strong. Giving Hearts Day is one week from today, February 12, and early giving is underway. We know you’ve already given us a lot of support, and we appreciate that immensely. As you’re talking with your friends about Giving Hearts Day, consider mentioning us and how supporting local news supports every person and every organization in North Dakota. After all, it’s our local news that tells the stories of our great state and the great people in it. And we know we can only do that because you support us. 

As I head into my second year at NDNC, I am excited to get to serve you the best way I know how — by helping fact-based, unbiased reporting throughout North Dakota.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sabrina Halvorson

CEO, North Dakota News Cooperative