Andrist to be inducted into the NDNA Hall of Fame

Steve Andrist will be inducted into the North Dakota Newspaper Association (NDNA) Hall of Fame on Friday, May 6, during the NDNA Convention in Bismarck at the Radisson Hotel.

This designation marks the first time in the state’s history that a third-generation of family newspaper leaders will join together in the NDNA Hall of Fame – Steve’s dad, John Andrist, was inducted in 2000, and Steve’s grandfather, Cal, was inducted in 1978.

Steve tagged along with his father to The Journal, Crosby, as a child, doing odd jobs on Saturday mornings and learning the business. He says that while he was growing up, he wasn’t certain that newspapers were in the cards for him, but after graduating high school and planning for college, it just seemed right.

He set off to earn a degree in journalism from UND, and worked as a reporter and editor for Dakota Student, the student newspaper, traveling home in the summers to work at The Journal for his dad. The idea that he’d just return to Crosby after college and work at his family’s business without setting out to make his mark in the world, however, bothered him to no end, so he spent the next 15 years working for daily newspapers , first in Bismarck at the Tribune, then in Minnesota in Rochester and Winona.

Steve began talking with John about taking over The Journal, and in 1991, he purchased the paper, followed by the Tioga Tribune in 1995. While John wasn’t quite ready to retire, “he also recognized you have to take opportunity when it knocks, so he brought me in.” John gave Steve the space he needed to run the paper in his own way. “He was probably the best sort of mentor you could have, someone who was always there to teach you the finer things but never impose what he wanted me to do, but understood it was my task to make or break it on my own,” Steve reflected.

Looking back, Steve said that the points he’s most proud of aren’t so much the things that come along that feel like big steps in a person’s career. “The thing that humbles me the most was how for us, I was third generation. This was not me, this was my grandfather who passed it on to his son, who passed it on to his son, and to be in a little place like Crosby, North Dakota, and understand even from there you could make significant accomplishments, following in the footsteps of giants, that’s what really kind of makes my heart well up a little bit,” he said.

In 2013, Steve and his wife, Barb, moved to Bismarck and he took the post of executive director of NDNA, a title he held until he retired in 2020. Over the years, Steve held many volunteer positions with NDNA, a member of the board of directors and serving as president of both the NDNA Board and the NDNA Education Foundation Board. He is currently co-chair of the North Dakota News Cooperative, a nonprofit journalism provider aimed at distributing in-depth stories to newspapers across the state.

Steve was incredibly active in the Crosby community as well, helping to establish the “Community Builder Awards” to recognize the work of others in Crosby. He served as president of the Divide County Economic Development

Council for years, helped form the Divide County Jobs Development Authority and a two-county jobs development authority. He and Barb co-chaired the city’s Centennial Celebration in 2004, and he joined a group of local business people to form Grow Crosby, an LLC, which built a new motel in Crosby. He was also active in the Crosby Area Chamber, and

served on many other boards and committees over the years, and lobbied for open meetings/ open records issues throughout his career.

“Steve is just a decent human being – a good father, a faithful husband, a caring employer and someone who appreciates the success of those around him more than he looks for atta’ boys for his own good works,” wrote Cecile Wehrman, whom Steve mentored at The Journal for years, and who

purchased the papers from Steve in 2012, in nominating Steve for the Hall of Fame. “Steve has a moral compass and a journalistic compass – especially when it comes to preserving Freedom of Speech – that points True North at all times.”

The induction ceremony will be held on May 6, 2022, in Bismarck at the Radisson during the convention banquet dinner. To register for the event, visit ndna.com/ convention/.