Title: investigative reporter and 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 First Amendment Committee
Social platforms: X/Twitter; LinkedIn
Archive of work: South Dakota News Watch
Bart Pfankuch
Total 322 Posts
Jobs abound, but low wages hamper South Dakota workforce
Jobs are plentiful in South Dakota, but most positions pay far below the national average and lower than neighboring states.
In fact, South Dakota has the third-lowest average wage for employed people in the country behind only Arkansas and Mississippi. A News Watch analysis shows that the lowest-paying jobs — in
Economic fears follow ShopKo store closures in SD small towns
WAGNER, S.D. – The pending closure of ShopKo department stores may have devastating effects on six South Dakota small towns that will suffer job losses, decreased access to basic necessities and reductions in sales-tax collections that could limit municipal services.
The announcement that the retail chain will close several stores
Women to have ‘larger voice’ in 2019 South Dakota Legislature
In South Dakota and across the country, women will play a larger role in lawmaking and policymaking at almost all levels of government in 2019.
The new U.S. Congress will feature a record number of women in both the House and Senate. South Dakota will have its first female
Little-known law forces adult children to pay for nursing home care for parents
An obscure South Dakota law can force adult children to pay the cost of long-term care for their parents if the elder family members cannot pay on their own.
The civil law has been on the books in South Dakota since 1939, and is rarely used. But as the cost
Wave of nursing home closures hitting small South Dakota communities
The health and stability of some of South Dakota’s most vulnerable residents are being threatened by a wave of closures of long-term care facilities across the state.
Three nursing homes closed over the past three years and two more are slated for closure by February. Another 17 former Golden
More than $19 million paid to South Dakota farmers for tariff losses
South Dakota farmers recently received $19.4 million in payments from the federal government to offset losses due to an ongoing international trade war that has devastated two major agricultural industries in the state – soybeans and hogs.
An agriculture industry official said that the emergency payments may help some farmers
After 10 years in prison, woman vows to end meth addiction
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The turbulent path that led Athanasia Comer of Sioux Falls to a life of drinking, drugs and a decade behind bars can be traced to the moment when she was 11 and her stepfather appeared in her bedroom naked.
Though he had been verbally and physically