Title: Content Director
Contact: 605-937-9398 / bart.pfankuch@sdnewswatch.org
Language spoken: English
Demographic expertise: South Dakota, including the Rapid City area, the Black Hills, rural towns and reservations
Topic expertise: agriculture, state government, education, rural issues, Indigenous people, poverty
Potential conflict of interest: Pfankuch serves on the board of the Oyate Prevention Coalition in Rapid City, which works to prevent substance abuse among Native American youth. He will recuse himself from reporting on the organization.
Biography: Pfankuch (pronounced FAN-cook) is Wisconsin native and former editor of the Rapid City Journal. He has worked for more than 30 years as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Wisconsin, Florida and South Dakota, including as reporter or editor at the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram and Capital Times in Wisconsin, and at the Florida Times-Union and Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida. He also is a syndicated writing coach who has presented at newspaper conferences across the country. Pfankuch has won more than four dozen state, regional and national journalism awards, including, while at News Watch, agricultural writer of the year from the North American Agricultural Journalists association in 2020, 2021 and 2023 as well as first-place reporting awards in the Great Plains Journalism Awards sponsored by the Tulsa Press Club and South Dakota NewsMedia Association. Pfankuch lives in Black Hawk.
Professional memberships: Investigative Reporters and Editors, North American Agricultural Journalists, South Dakota NewsMedia Association First Amendment Committee
Archive of work: South Dakota News Watch
Bart Pfankuch
Total 352 Posts
Eminent domain is the latest front in carbon pipeline fight
South Dakota lawmakers debating 10 bills this session. 'The core of the issue is about taking people’s lands.'
Use it or lose it: SD rushing to invest $700 million on water projects
Federal money would improve 207 water and sewer systems across the state but must be spent: 'An investment in our future.'
South Dakota literacy improvements likely to cost more than $6 million
Mississippi educator says South Dakota should expect a longer, more expensive process to make long-lasting reading gains
Why South Dakota wants to be a leader in quantum computing
The Legislature is considering a $6M plan to introduce teaching and research on the latest supercomputers at four universities. ‘We need to be in the game.’
School voucher program backed by many voters: Poll
But opposition remains strong: "There is no impoverishment of South Dakota public education that is not eventually an impoverishment of South Dakota, and that’s why we're against vouchers."
Democracy and elections in doubt: South Dakota poll
A South Dakota News Watch poll shows voters have deep concerns about the U.S. democratic system of government and elections.
Highway 385 project will close road critical to $2 billion Black Hills tourism industry
A $72 million project to rebuild 15 miles of U.S. 385 will cause major disruptions to tourism in the Black Hills the next two years.