Born To Be a Newspaper Man

by Martin J. McGowan Jr.

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After five years at Channel 2 it was apparent I was not making any progress in the ETV field. It was also apparent that some of the top senior fund raisers were being asked to leave. Although he never made it clear Dr. Schwarzwalder did not operate by direction. He hired people and turned them loose to come up with their own ideas to raise money. If they did, it was fine. If they didn't they were asked to make room for somebody else. I was given about three months to work out a new direction for myself.

I was still being paid off for my sale of the Appleton Press. In addition, I was working part time for the Minnesota Conservation Federation editing their monthly paper called Minnesota Out-of-Doors, or MOOD for short.

Betty, who always hankered to be involved in newspaper work since she was editor of the St. Cloud State College Chronicle, contributed to this effort. I edited the copy and sent it to be set in type. Galley proofs of the copy were read and corrected and then cut up and waxed onto page layouts. The printer made the page forms from the layouts and the paper was put to bed. Proofs of advertisements were also put in the pages that way. I had nothing to do with the ad sales. I wrote editorials and checked the legislature for any developments. I was also active in the organization and attended most of their meetings. The MCF had an office in Hopkins that handled memberships and the mailing.

After I acquired the Blue Earth Post with its central printing plant for several area newspapers a new editor was hired for MOOD to do the editorial and news work. I made a contract with MCF to do the printing and mailing. We had a panel truck at the Post and we hauled the printed papers to Mailhouse in Minneapolis to do the mailing.

At first, I drove the truckload of papers to Mailhouse but on one occasion I asked one of the printers to make the delivery. He was given directions on how to find the mailing firm and sent on his way. A few hours later he returned with the entire load. Admittedly he did not have much experience driving in the Metro area but he couldn't find the place. He didn't bother to ask for directions in the city. So I made the second trip and got the papers mailed.

When I sold the Blue Earth operation the new owners made what I consider a stupid mistake. They just cut off the job. It was a nice, easy piece of work bringing in between $8,000 and $10,000 a year. Either they didn't understand the job or didn't want to be bothered negotiating to continue the job. That was the last I heard about Minnesota Out-of-Doors except that a conversion to a magazine format was tried but was a disaster.

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