When Pam doesn’t shoo me away, I set the laptop on the kitchen table to write these. I’ve spent a lot of time in this room having lived here most of my life. A lot has changed: cupboards, appliances, floor. One thing hasn’t. The latest copies of The Journal and Sleepy Eye Herald Dispatch are nearby, on the table or the cupboard.
For as long as I have had consciousness, I’ve spent time with newspapers. It’s a habit, newspaper and coffee in the morning. “Habit” might not be as accurate as “addiction.” Taking my newspaper and coffee away in the morning would be kind of a torture.
The Herald Dispatch was a bi-weekly when I was young, published on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In the early ’80s, it went weekly, in line with other small-town papers. The Herald Dispatch was created by a merger of the Sleepy Eye Dispatch and the Sleepy Eye Herald in 1908. I don’t remember that. But I can imagine someone saying, “This town ain’t big enough for the both of us.”
At times, we subscribed to one of the Twin City papers and the Mankato Free Press. I often buy an Advance Press in Springfield, a Comfrey Times, or a Hanska Herald when I’m in those towns. Whenever we travel, I buy a local paper, a slice of time and place in wherever we happen to be.
Did I say I love newspapers?
Now I get the Star Tribune online. I read that on my phone which is OK. But it lacks the tactile sensation of the paper laid out on the table in front of me with a smear of coffee on it. A newspaper in physical form is a two-page collage that invites you to find other stories, pictures, and even ads that you weren’t intending to.
The Journal and Herald Dispatch still come in our mailbox. Both those parts of my life are undergoing transitions. Clay Schuldt is taking over as news editor of The Journal and David Forster as editor of the Herald Dispatch. They’re both young and talented, and this subscriber is excited to see their work. At least Clay and David are young to me, as are most people now.
Kevin Sweeney is going to try to retire at the Journal again. He came back in that position last fall when his first replacement didn’t pan out. Kevin came to New Ulm in 1985 after a stint with a big eastern newspaper. Well, it was the Albert Lea Tribune, so not too far east.
I always enjoyed Kevin’s writing. His reports on St. Patrick’s Day in New Ulm are classic. A problem with being editor is you don’t have time to write a lot. Being editor is like being an umpire. You only get noticed when you screw up.
Clay is a good writer, but I imagine he will do less of that. Clay still has my Sleepy Eye buddy Fritz Busch as a reporter and new hire Daniel Olson. Daniel’s just out of college so probably filled with piss and vinegar. I look forward to his writing. (I’m not sure I can say that; we’ll see if Clay leaves it in.)
Over here in the middle of the county, Deb Moldaschel is stepping down as editor at the Herald Dispatch, Deb served admirably in that position for nine years. She had done other things before coming to journalism late in her career. She brought a lot of life experiences to the role, especially Sleepy Eye experiences being a lifer.
It can’t be said enough how difficult a time this is for newspapers. Over 2,000 have closed in the United in the last twenty years. As such, Kevin and Deb deserve extra credit. Then there was that little matter called COVID they had to maneuver. 360 papers closed in the first year of the pandemic.
The Herald Dispatch had fallen under the holdings of Gannet a few years ago. Gannet is the largest newspaper chain in the country. Despite their legacy, they were known for “vaporizing” newspapers: gutting the staff, selling off assets, and shutting down those they couldn’t profit from. Two winters ago, CherryRoad Technologies bought a group of weeklies from Gannet including our Herald Dispatch. Indications are they actually mean for them to survive and even thrive.
David Forster is beginning as editor of the Herald Dispatch. I got to know David from the Pix Coffee Shop and Brewery and the Babe Ruth Centennial committee. David graduated from St. Mary’s in 1998 and is among a group around his age who have found their way back to Sleepy Eye. Partly because it’s a good place to raise kids and partly because it’s not a bad little town.
After high school, David went to St. Thomas. He fell into the journalism program there. St. Thomas has cranked out a number of prominent journalists. Kevin Sweeney graduated from there in 1973. A year later, this Sleepy Eye kid began as a journalism major there before ultimately being drawn back to the farm where I sit at the kitchen table.
David spent time at the Fargo Forum before working at the Virginian Pilot and Southside Daily, also in Virginia. He might be the most experienced journalist ever to work at the Herald Dispatch.
When I was young, I did part time work for the Herald Dispatch. Weeds started there and migrated to the Journal after some years off to raise kids. I admit, I still get a little excited when I see something I wrote appear on a page of print.
I may not have a lot of powers of persuasion, but I would encourage everyone I know to subscribe to their local newspaper. I am convinced that newspapers still have value and do things that social media can’t. There are 2,000 places that have lost theirs. If that happened here, I would have to drink coffee and stare at an empty kitchen table each morning.