In the first week of October 2016, I read on the website Indeed.com, a job advertisement for managing editor of the Dickinson Press newspaper.  This is Dustin Monke’s job, and I was kind of shocked.

I don’t like Dustin Monke because Dustin Monke doesn’t like me.  But Dustin Monke has done a very good job, an excellent job, running the Dickinson Press newspaper.  I imagine that Dustin is moving on to a larger newspaper someplace else.

I like reading the Dickinson Press newspaper.  The reporting is very straight forward and accurate.  I have never seen any bias, favoritism, or unfairness in the reporting of the Dickinson Press staff.  The Dickinson Press newspaper covers everything that needs to be covered, pretty thoroughly, whether it is local politics, the police blotter, schools, sports, community events, community controversy, business, industry, development, accidents, tragedies, deaths.

The Dickinson Press newspaper reported on the several different scandals involving Dickinson State University, the mishandling of the Trinity High School fire investigation that led to an out of court settlement, the very suspicious and unexplained death of Eric Haider, and other local news stories that made Dickinson look bad, but the truth was reported and not hidden.

The managing editor job at the Dickinson Press requires that you live your life for the newspaper, every hour of every day. You have to be the manager and director of the six reporters in all aspects of their jobs, their regular schedules, emergency assignments, covering for other reporters, deciding what can and can not be reported, proof reading and editing stories.  Overall responsibility for content, layout, and meeting deadlines.  And, the managing editor is always, always, a representative of Dickinson and the newspaper, he is always on duty in that respect.

I hope that everyone will wish Dustin Monke well before he leaves Dickinson and thank him for the excellent job that he did.  Dickinson was very lucky to have Dustin at the newspaper during this past oil boom.