It was September 3rd of 2021 when the Flatwater Free Press announced their arrival. This free news source called itself, “the first independent, nonprofit, collaborative, purely investigative and enterprise news outlet serving the entire state of Nebraska.” And it has never looked back!
Matthew Hansen is the editor of the Flatwater Free Press, Nebraska’s first statewide nonprofit news source. Hansen, a 16-year veteran of Nebraska newspapers, has previously worked as a reporter at the Lincoln Journal Star and then a reporter and metro columnist at the Omaha World-Herald. During his time in newspapers, he won multiple state, regional and national awards for investigative stories, feature stories and columns. He was the 2015 Great Plains Writer of the Year. He also chatted with Mike Hogan on “Live & Local” about the great strides made in the past two years, the stories about Nebraska that need to be told, and he talked about the Flatwater Festival 2023, a celebration of Nebraska journalism, the stories that bring us together, and the stories that challenge us and our leaders to do better for our communities.
The annual event is happening this year on Thursday, Sept. 14th at The Barn at the Ackerhurst Dairy Farm in Bennington. Doors open at 5:30, panel discussion begins at 6:00 and they will follow the program with a happy hour and food trucks. More information about the event and all-inclusive tickets can be found at https://flatwaterfreepress.org/festival/.
