With last week’s Feb 13 issue, the Wright County Monitor welcomed a new editor, Matt Voigts, who says he is looking forward to reporting his hometown’s news after spending several years abroad.
Voigts grew up in Clarion, graduated from Clarion-Goldfield High School in 2003, and earned a B.A. in Writing from Wartburg College in 2007. He subsequently taught English in China in 2007, worked for several years as a marketing writer at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, and traveled in nine countries in 2013 after earning a 2012 M.Sc. in Digital Anthropology at University College London in England. He returned to Clarion last summer, where he has substitute talked while planning for doctoral studies.
“Everywhere I’ve been is a small town in its own way, and I hope to work through the Monitor to better explore and document this town and its place in the world,” Voigts said. “I see the editorship as a chance to further support and contribute to the town that supported me so well when I was younger.”
Ryan Harvey, publisher of the Wright County Monitor, agrees.
“Matt brings a unique perspective back to Clarion,” he said. “While, at the same time, he understands the opportunities in Wright County. His breadth on work made him a great candidate to further the newspaper.”
Voigts’ writing career began at Clarion-Goldfield High School, where his Senior Life Project at was a film script. His work at BVU surfaced in many regional newspapers. In 2011, he co-wrote a film review column for the New Ulm Journal with Josh Moniz, who was named2013’s "New Journalist of the Year" by the Minnesota Newspaper Association. Voigts’ masters’ dissertation was on the use of technology at atheist summer camps in Oklahoma and Texas.
He continues to actively freelance as a writer and photographer and has contributed to several anthropology blogs, including a January article on Material World about High School Homecoming which drew from experiences at CG-HS. As a photographer, he specializes in aerials taken with his father, Bruce, an avid pilot. Bruce works full-time with sustainable agriculture projects at the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Matt’s mother, Joan, is a teacher’s associate at Clarion-Goldfield Elementary.
“My recent studies were about how people use technology in their everyday lives rather than at its cutting edge,” Voigts said. “Nobody uses all the apps on his or her smart phone, and it’s a mistake to think most people automatically do. Whether it’s a computer or a paper, people use tools they find useful. A newspaper fits into our current multi-media landscape effectively as a locally-produced way to bring together, share, and discuss issues and events directly affecting us.”
While keeping the print paper firmly as the center of Clarion’s news nexus, Voigts hopes to further explore how to supplement it online.
Voigts takes leadership of the Monitor prior to planned doctoral pursuits this fall at a high profile school in England, for which he is currently seeking funding. His planned doctoral research involves what immigrants to Iowa and other places “take with them” digitally.