No. 3 - Under new ownership

This summer I did an internship at the Post-Bulletin in Rochester, Minnesota. It was all very exciting because it was my first time getting to work in a real news room. It was also a very chaotic time for all the employees at the newspaper because the paper had just switched over to new ownership under Forum Communications Company, a media company based out of Fargo, North Dakota.

The Post-Bulletin became one of 30 newspapers owned by Forum Communications. Forum Communications is described as “a multimedia news company,” and in addition to owning newspapers, the company also owns broadcast stations and radio stations.

The first day that I worked at my internship was the second day that the Post-Bulletin was printing under Forum communications. It was also the first official work day where the reporters had to operate under the new printing schedule, which switched from printing around noon to printing the night before being delivered. This was. A weird shift because the paper still delivered like an evening paper, but it was being printed like a morning paper. It was also a big switch because the paper had been printed at the Post-Bulletin’s press but had now been moved to being printed in a town 50 minutes from Rochester.

At first the change of the printing time was the most noticeable change in the newsroom, and one that the editors and reporters had to tackle first. The questions became when to do the daily stand-up meeting? When did stories have to be submitted? These questions worked through over the summer as the process become more refined.

Soon came more changes with deadlines as the page editors worked to manage laying out two papers and changes to the newsroom staff as more positions were added.

There was a feeling of general content in the newsroom staff with the change in ownership of the paper. Many of them seemed to be excited about the change in ownership, and they said that they felt good changes were on the way.

There have been concerns about the rise of investment companies purchasing newspapers, but Forum Communications is a private company that has been increasing the number of papers that it purchased.

Source: Newspaper Ownership http://newspaperownership.com/new-media-barons/

Source: Newspaper Ownership http://newspaperownership.com/new-media-barons/

While there are concerns about concentrated ownership of media, small shared ownership may allow for reduction in production costs, like sharing printing presses, like what is done with the Post-Bulletin and the Red-Wing Republican Eagle. However, this still poses challenges to those working in a newsroom, which I will look into more in my next blog post.