Title: content director / investigative reporter
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 307 Posts
Labor shortage and COVID-19 costs causing crisis in South Dakota's long-term care industry
Finding a safe, affordable and accessible nursing home or assisted-living center for sick or elderly South Dakotans has become more difficult in recent years but is getting harder than ever due to a shortage of facility workers and financial losses suffered amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The labor shortage affecting businesses
South Dakota News Watch wins Community Spirit Award from Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation
South Dakota News Watch has been chosen to receive the 2021 Community Spirit Award from the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation, which cited News Watch for its “impact in the lives of those it serves and in the community we call home.”
The annual award recognizes a non-profit organization that
Political partisanship and GOP messaging driving vaccine hesitancy in South Dakota
Even as COVID-19 infections and deaths are rising once again in South Dakota, resistance to getting vaccinated remains entrenched among some state residents, and the political divide over whether to get vaccinated shows no signs of narrowing.
Two new sets of polling data on vaccine-hesitancy rates and reasons have raised
South Dakota Matters: The Future of Pheasants — News Watch to host online panel discussion
Join South Dakota News Watch Content Director Bart Pfankuch as he hosts a discussion among four top wildlife management experts from South Dakota regarding pheasant management and the controversial Nest Predator Bounty Program.
The event will be held live on Facebook at 7:30 p.m. Central, 6:30 p.
For now, masks and vaccines optional in South Dakota back-to-school plans
Back-to-school plans for this fall are taking shape in South Dakota and — so far, at least — it looks like most teaching will take place in person and masks and COVID-19 vaccinations will be optional for students, teachers and staff.
But safety protocols could change quickly as public school officials keep
South Dakota News Watch and SDSU launch new investigative journalism internship
A partnership between South Dakota News Watch and South Dakota State University has led to the creation of a new internship program that will provide extensive training and real-world experience for student journalists.
After months of planning and preparation, News Watch and SDSU have launched the “Jeffrey B. Nelson Investigative
‘Uncertainty About the Future’ — a June 3 online panel discussion hosted by South Dakota News Watch
Make plans now to tune in to a live South Dakota News Watch panel discussion in which experts share their views on why some state residents are pessimistic about what life will be like for future generations of South Dakotans.
In the latest program within its “South Dakota Matters” series