Born To Be a Newspaper Man

by Martin J. McGowan Jr.

Three Towns, Three Newspapers

The Blue Earth Post newspaper and the Faribault County Register free circulation shopper were printed in a central printing plant attached to the back of the Post building. Ownership of this plant, named Unity Press, was held by the six newspapers that created it.

They were located in Kiester, Bricelyn, Elmore, Winnebago, Amboy and Blue Earth. There were also six small newspapers along the border in Iowa who brought their papers to Unity Press to be printed on a contract basis. However, our newspaper and shopper provided more than half the volume of the business.

Also added to that volume was the monthly printing of the Minnesota Out-of-Doors, the paper of the Minnesota Conservation Federation.

After we became established in Blue Earth and seemed to be growing and publishing at least two sections of the Post each week I wondered if it would be feasible to put out a second paper each week on a Tuesday-Friday basis. Where in Appleton the publication day was Friday, by the time we reached Blue Earth the grocers wanted to have their ads out earlier in the week. We published one edition on Thursday but I wondered if the grocers might like to have their ad appear on Tuesday. I also required all advertisers in the shopper to appear in the Post, so they could get a double exposure.

The grocers didn't go wild over the prospect of advertising on Tuesday. They seemed to feel that was too early in the week. So I polled the subscribers with a post card in the paper to see how they felt. Reaction was mixed. A few more than half thought it would be nice to have more news, if it didn"t cost more.

To help in the decision I attended a course at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va. The idea was to see how others dealt with this situation. There was enough encouragement that I decided to try it.

I used the Faribault County Register name from the shopper for the Tuesday edition. I ran into problems with the post office over the name. I was supposed to show that the paper had a paid subscription list for at least a year before second class mail privileges would be available. It also meant a second delivery each week for the paper boys and girls, which raised publication costs. Some people said they preferred to get their news in one edition.

To get a better handle on the finances of this operation I attended a weekend forum at Northern Illinois University where other editors also wanted some guidance. It was there that I met Bob Shaw, then manager of the Washington State Press Association, who later became manager of the Minnesota Editorial Association, later changed to Minnesota Newspaper Association. Bob eventually became a close personal friend.

After an analysis of the finances of our publications the instructors said I was overextended. I agreed and went home to terminate the experiment with a Tuesday paper.

At about this time Don Weaver, who published the Winnebago Enterprise and the Elmore Eye in our group, decided he wanted to move on to a larger operation. He put the two papers up for sale and I acquired them.

Don went on to Cameron, Mo., where he purchased a small daily. It seemed quite common in Kansas and Missouri for medium sized towns to have daily papers. I couldn't quite figure out the rationale of putting out four or six pages five days a week. That seemed like a lot of work for the income.

Betty and I visited Don in Cameron one time on our way home from a winter vacation in Arizona. Don later moved on again to Illinois.

But back in Winnebago and Elmore I had to find an editor and advertising sales person combination as well as a typist for typesetting. I had a good editor for a while in Winnebago. He was a great photographer and good writer but he irritated the local clothing store owner by calling on him in a lumberjack shirt to sell ads. His wife didn't like our policy of earning a vacation after working there for a year. They also moved on to other jobs involving photography.

One young man followed who came from a Minnesota small town newspaper family, but he felt too constrained in the town. I tried to make him a coordinator getting the copy in for Winnebago and Elmore papers and on the press on time. He didn't get along with the other staffers and left.

A young lady followed who was a graduate of St. Catherine. She also felt stifled and all she could write about was her cat. She also left and I forget who followed her. I believe it was another capable woman.

In Elmore we did much better. Rose Eisele did an outstanding job for several years. Dick Boran, our sports writer and accountant, filled in there for a while.

It was becoming apparent that with the declining rural population these small towns could not support a newspaper. Later owners of the Blue Earth paper merged the Winnebago and Elmore papers with the Post. They also changed the name to the Faribault County Register and sold the paper to the ownership at the Fairmont Sentinel, part of a larger chain operation. Regrettably, that is happening all across the country, even affecting ownership in much larger towns. Chain owners are more interested in the bottom line than in providing a lively editorial page and good news coverage.

After all this hassle over staffing, keeping three papers solvent and being treasurer of Unity Press, there was a lot of pressure and tension. It was starting to affect my health. I decided to sell all my holdings and seek something different.

A broker brought Bill Brister to me and we worked out a sale. Brister had been publisher at the St. Cloud Daily Times and when Gannett bought that paper he took his holdings and first bought the paper at Chippewa Falls, Wis., where he put his son in as editor. After working out a deal with me he put his daughter and son-in-law in charge at Blue Earth.

Their total newspaper experience was in the mail room at the St. Cloud Daily Times. They were in over their heads and Brister then turned to his brother who was just out of the military. He had no newspaper experience. He hid in his office and never was seen around town. This was a disaster and Brister lost his shirt and had to sell. Brister also lost the second wife he brought to town and she accounted for part of his loss.

Before he sold the papers, he sued me for misrepresentation. He claimed that I didn't properly document the way the Blue Earth Post did job printing for the Eye and Enterprise. He claimed this affected the total income of all three papers.

Brister ended up selling out to Bob Tuff, publisher at Blackduck. Brister dodged paying the commission to the broker who sold the paper. The last I heard he was in Texas.

The Tuffs were also unhappy. Since they were paying off the contract they assumed from Brister they claimed the final price I worked out with him was too high. I told them to give the paper back to me. They didn't want to do that so we worked out a deal with them which avoided me going back to Blue Earth. Finally, when Tuffs sold to Darwin Oordt, printer of a competitive shopper in Blue Earth, I finally was paid off.

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