​Jennifer Schlecht

About me:

I am an experienced writer and editor in Medina, North Dakota, where I live with my two daughters and my husband. My husband owns a feedlot and cow-calf operation.

I grew up on a ranch outside Billings, Montana, then moved to Bismarck, North Dakota, to attend the University of Mary. There I studied communications and played on the fastpitch softball team. Before graduation, I completed an internship with The Associated Press in which I worked as a reporter in Pierre, South Dakota, and Bismarck.

I began working after graduation as the police and courts reporter at the Bismarck Tribune. In more than eight years at the newspaper, I developed a reputation as a fair and consistent reporter who could turn around a story on deadline or dig deep into issues as necessary. In addition to my regular beat, I helped out on every other beat at the newspaper. I won several reporting awards over the years but more importantly saw my reporting help shape public discussions and policy decisions. At that time, I wrote under the byline "Jenny Michael."

During my last year and a half at the Tribune I handled the position of assistant city editor in addition to police and courts reporter. That opportunity gave me a chance to develop my leadership skills as well as improve my editing.

After eight years at the Tribune I wanted to try something different. I spent a year and a half at MDU Resources Group as a public relations representative. My position included editing a 13,000-circulation quarterly magazine for employees of the corporation and handling internal communications through an email newsletter and the corporate intranet. The position allowed me to learn more about planning a publication and about content management. I also had a chance to work on  my digital skills when we decided to replace a poorly organized and outdated intranet site with an new site. I organized and wrote the site's content, built pages and set up modules for distributing news, videos and more. Once the intranet was up and running, I operated it like a daily news site to keep employees coming back for new information. During my time there, I also organized the use of a mobile app for a company conference and wrote advertisements.

Since December 2015, I have been back at the Tribune as a general assignment reporter. I write features for the outdoors and faith sections and write news stories as needed.