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Forum Communication to buy Brainerd newspaper
Forum Communication, the company that owns the Fargo Forum and Duluth News Tribune, has purchased the Brainerd newspaper, the Dispatch. Forum has been expanding its reach into Minnesota after buying the DNT a couple years ago. Like most newspaper companies, it is known for cutting costs, striving for higher profits. It’s also known for stepping…
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‘Odd’ poll suggests silent coup at NoMinn newspaper
What silent protest is going on at the Duluth News Tribune? The newspaper’s Sept. 3 online poll asks the question “Do you keep the volume on your TV or car stereo at an even or odd number?” The options include the following: Even Odd Doesn’t matter You have to log in to the DNT site…
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Ira Glass brings tour to Northland this weekend
LaReesa Sandretsky scored the “public radio nerd” coup of the week by getting this Aug. 29 Duluth News Tribune interview with Ira Glass of NPR’s “This American Life.” Glass will be appearing at Big Top Chautauqua this Saturday, Aug. 31, in Bayfield, Wisconsin, the Lake Superior tourist town where the live tent radio show of…
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Ex-editors dish on conditions in corporate community journalism
Business North has an exclusive story that might interest readers of Northland newspapers. The former editors of the Ashland Press in northern Wisconsin recently dished on the reasons they left the American Consolidated Media-owned paper. A taste: “It was clear to me that if I wanted a day off, I was going to have to…
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You can haz Virginia Police Department
Before the internet they used to take all the stupid stuff that is on the internet and print it onto paper and then distribute this paper to readers using a vast network of 11-year-olds on bicycles. Hold up. They still do this. This is still a thing. Only now the papers are distributed in a…
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Newspaper group to close Hibbing printing plant
Business North has broken the story that American Consolidated Media, owner of many small daily and weekly newspapers in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, will close its Hibbing printing and production plant. The Mesabi Daily News, Hibbing Daily Tribune, Grand Rapids Herald-Review and others will now be printed at the Duluth News Tribune‘s new printing facility…
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Business North to buy Scenic Range News Forum
The Scenic Range News Forum, a weekly newspaper on the western Mesabi Iron Range, will be sold this spring to the publishers of Duluth-based Business North. Ownership of the Scenic Range News Forum will change hands in a transaction scheduled to close on April 1. Cynthia and L.L. Johnson have reached an agreement to sell…
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The Saturday Evening Post is so screwed right now
Tarnations! The U.S. Postal Service is dropping Saturday home delivery in August. Now my Time Magazine won’t come until Monday, which is the same day my new e-edition of Newsweek is waiting to be downloaded on my iPad but that I usually don’t download because who has that kind of bandwidth? We have limited bandwidth!…
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A great loss in Minnesota journalism
Larry Oakes, a reporter and editor for the Star Tribune, has died after a long battle with depression. Oakes was probably the best working journalist in northern Minnesota. I offer my deepest condolences to his family. He will be greatly missed. His reporting was fearless and important. As someone who’s experienced depression throughout my family,…
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Newsweek previews final print edition cover
Newsweek has previewed the final cover of its print edition. It now becomes an entirely online publication called Newsweek Global, published by parent company The Daily Beast. I went to college for print journalism, graduating just a couple years before my college ended its print journalism program. The media has changed so much in such…
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So much progress; so much repetition
I edited the Hibbing Daily Tribune during its last years as an afternoon newspaper in the early 2000s. We had been experimenting with ways to keep that format alive by running earlier deadlines so we could “be on the stands by lunch.” You know, so all the workers out on their breaks would pour quarters…
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AUDIO SPECIAL: Feel lucky? Try my superstition sketch
A while back I stopped posting promos for my appearances on “Between You and Me.” It was hard to make the sentiment “Listen to me! Take interest in my work!” compelling in the blog format, which already implies so much of that. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped writing and producing for this unique public…
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Keeping ‘Wits’ about us
I’m late to the party, but I caught the recent buzz over Minnesota Public Radio’s third-year, limited run show “Wits” and finally took in an episode of the comedy variety show. Hosted by veteran public radio anchor and all-around witty guy John Moe the program’s June 30 episode was an enjoyable listen with some hilarious…
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Just say Drano
Apparently there are these things called “Drano Bombs” that people can make and they are very dangerous. The Hibbing Daily Tribune reports: Do you know what happens when Drano, tin foil and a little water are put together in a plastic drink bottle and then capped shut? A dangerous chain reaction occurs, which could cause…
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In honor of a noble life ‘Shooting the Rapids’
Rough days for Itasca County newspapering. Longtime Grand Rapids Herald-Review editor and columnist Ken Hickman died Sunday at the age of 93. He had just retired from his regular column last December. It was a true community column, each paragraph dedicated to someone he talked to or something that happened that week. The Herald-Review published…