Baton about to be passed with Morris newspaper

(Image from Stevens County Fair)

We're nearing the date of the transaction of the Morris paper. This development has been like a shot of caffeine for Motown residents during the sleepy summer. Perhaps the younger folks like "generation iGen" won't be particularly excited. This is the generation that has co-dependency with their phones or something like that.
Did you know there's substantially more risk for baseball fans getting hurt by foul balls at games now? And it's because people are looking down at their phones when a foul line drive might be coming at them.
OK, so we're looking at new owners of the Morris fishwrap, from Benson where popular belief is that the economy is going to h--l. We're supposedly better off here? Please pay no attention to the Shopko store closing. Or the old Sunwood Inn being a zombie. Or, to Thrifty White having vacated downtown. Note the barren look that the Shopko parking lot presents. Back when Pamida was there, the parking lot issue was potholes, very bad.
A source told me Saturday that Sue Dieter remains "out" at the newspaper, confirming the original reports I had gotten. So, I'm concluding that Sue could not have built up much good will during her years at the paper. She was a 100 percent toady for what Fargo's Forum Communications wanted to do. You might say that's a typical and understood attitude, to just do what your employer wants.
Problem is, a local newspaper is supposed to transcend business aims just a little. It is an institution embedded in community interests. Instead the Morris paper just tried sucking revenue from wherever they could get it. And the community noticed. We're more close-knit than Fargo, even with so many of us retreating to "the lake" in summer.
We're on the home stretch of summer now. I guess September 1 is the magical date for new newspaper ownership. We're probably looking at a short-term honeymoon. Keep in mind that the new owners are not really "local." They got established in Benson and Elbow Lake.
 
Return to Quinco: hurrah!
It is very refreshing to see the paper will be printed at its old "home" of Quinco Press in Lowry. It never made sense to me, to see the departure from there to Willmar. I remember that when the change was made, there were all sorts of oversights and glitches with details, making me wonder if anyone was minding the store at all. Perhaps that type of carelessness led to what we're seeing now with the ownership change.
Dieter has reportedly told people she's "unemployed" as of September 1. I was wondering if she might go out and secure a new position of some type, somewhere, to achieve a graceful exit. No dice, apparently. Am I sad to hear this? Well to a degree yes, I am. It's never good news to see someone cast adrift. Is this a case of Sue "making her own bed and sleeping in it?" I don't know.
I have also heard that the company's van driver, a Mr. Howe, has been let go. I don't know the man but I assume he's capable. It appears he drives a "truck" nowadays, bigger than a van, and that puzzles me because it would seem their loads are smaller. I mean, no more Ad-Viser at all! You'll remember that was the free shopper. I used to go to Quinco every Friday and spend essentially all day loading that thing. An employee there teased me one day: "Brian, is there going to be room in the van for you?" That problem is solved now: no Ad-Viser. This used to be a nice little extra service to advertisers.
Oh, and the Morris paper itself has been just once a week for some time, whereas it was twice through my whole tenure. The pages were bigger. Everything was bigger and better. I know that as Forum ownership wore on, Jim Morrison did not seem to have his heart in the things they were trying to do. It struck me as slash and burn, and the public eventually noticed.
 
Can it be done?
Reviving a newspaper in the year 2019 will be daunting. Good luck trying to get the attention of "iGen!" We're relying on Reed and Shelly Anfinson. Good luck for sure.

Get familiar with Mr. Reed Anfinson

The odds are heavy against yours truly ever getting a chance to contribute with the paper again. It would be hard not to be gun-shy. As a blogger I can take my time writing with no deadline bearing down on me. I can be selective without fear of offending people. After all it's my blog(s) and I can do what I want with them. If something upsets you, just depart from looking at it.
I think today, sports parents are so sensitive and caffeinated, it would be a daunting task to even try living with them, sadly. When I first began with the paper back in the Dark Ages of 1980, it seemed like the parents were happy if I just showed up for games regularly.
Sports info ought to just migrate to online totally anyway. The paper does a fair amount of this but it wouldn't have to be the paper. It could be anyone. I have been pushing for this transition for years. Be like small college sports and make the Internet your one-stop destination. We may be seeing that with sports schedule information, as for the first time, this info is not in the printed school calendar.
The print newspaper only comes out once a week. That is a highly limiting factor.
I would have to listen to any opportunities re. the van-driving work again. The new owners might already have some biases formed about me. Or, they might have already received ax-grinding communications about me. Quite expected. From the usual barking dogs of the Morris public school teachers union?
I am getting along fine with my current lifestyle, and keep in mind I'm getting up in years. My next birthday will be my Medicare birthday. As a "boomer" I never acknowledge getting old.
My last day walking out of the newspaper building on Pacific Avenue - June 2, 2006 - I felt sad not just for myself but bewildered about why the paper had become such a limp, lifeless and joyless place. At least that stands to be changed now. Let's give a nice middle-finger salute to Fargo!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com