Carson Walker, chief executive officer of South Dakota News Watch, was elected the 140th president of the South Dakota NewsMedia Association during the organization’s annual meeting on May 1 in Deadwood.
As News Watch CEO, Walker oversees news programming, fundraising and operations for the independent, nonprofit organization that provides free, fact-based news and information to its own audiences and those of 100 media partners across the state.
Also elected to the 2026-27 SDNA Board of Directors were: first vice president Luke Hagen, editor of the Mitchell Republic; second vice president Mike Brownlee, editor of the Rapid City Journal; third vice president Amanda Dulitz, publisher of the Reporter and Farmer at Webster; director LeeAnne Dufek, publisher of Hamlin County Publishing at Castlewood; director Jill Meier, publisher of the Brandon Valley Journal; and immediate past president Jason Ferguson, general manager and editor of Southern Hills Publishing in Custer and Hill City.
First non-newspaper president for SDNA
Walker is SDNA’s first president who does not work for a newspaper, the result of a change in bylaws that allows membership from the state’s digital news outlets.
“I’m very honored to help lead an organization like SDNA that has had such an influence on South Dakota since before statehood. Credit goes to SDNA’s staff and board leadership for recognizing that changes in media created an opportunity to expand its membership to include outlets like News Watch that abide by traditional journalism principles and serve the same readers,” he said.
Walker’s first job was delivering newspapers for the Des Moines Register in his home state of Iowa. He was a radio announcer and reporter while studying journalism and political science at Colorado State University, where he wrote for The Rocky Mountain Collegian student newspaper and also developed an interest in video storytelling.
Walker, who lives in Rapid City, began his career as a reporter, photojournalist, producer and anchor at KDLT-TV (NBC) in Sioux Falls, where he also served as news director after six years as a reporter at the Argus Leader newspaper. His experience includes 17 years at The Associated Press as a writer, broadcast editor and news editor in South Dakota as well as an editor and supervisor on the national filing desk in Phoenix.
He also held communications and video positions at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion and Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, where he launched and managed a crowdsourcing platform for the innovations team.
News Watch hired him in 2023 as its first CEO.
“Though the news media industry is undergoing significant changes, what has not changed is that most people still want to be informed. Newspapers have always connected communities, and South Dakota is blessed to still have some of the highest rates of readership in the country. I hope my background in traditional and new media and now fundraising helps more SDNA members either start or deepen their digital presence and increase revenue outside of the traditional print editions, whose costs continue to climb,” Walker said.
“It’s vital for those of us in the industry to adapt, but we also need South Dakotans to support local and statewide news.”
Correction on May 6, 2026: Amanda Dulitz is publisher of the Reporter and Farmer at Webster. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated her hometown.
Dave Bordewyk is executive director of the South Dakota NewsMedia Association.
