Forum’s new strategy: slash, burn & panic?

By RON BROCHU


The forced exit of Superior Telegram publisher Leslee LeRoux has enhanced speculation that the community newspaper is destined to be absorbed by the Duluth News Tribune (DNT), despite official denials.

LeRoux, a Superior native, had no inkling of her fate when she strolled into the Telegram's downtown office May 21. Ad sales for the twice-weekly broadsheet exceeded budget, allowing the upcoming Friday edition to be larger than usual ­24 pages in addition to a 20-page TV tab. Despite industry trends, advertisers were showing faith in the 118-year-old publication, which until last year was published daily, excluding Sundays.

LeRoux's only peeve was an afternoon meeting with Duluth News Tribune Executive Editor Rob Karwath. He had dropped the appointment into her calendar without explanation and declined to reschedule even though his timing would interrupt the Telegram's layout. In most cases, however, that would only suggest DNT arrogance again had reared its head. News Tribune execs care little about inconveniencing colleagues at affiliated publications, all of which they consider inferior.

Only later did LeRoux discover why Karwath wouldn't modify his plans. He intended to permanently erase her name from the masthead. Karwath told LeRoux that Forum Communications, owner of both the Telegram and DNT, no longer employs publishers ­ a corporate cost-cutting move. He asked LeRoux to pack her belongings and vacate her office without saying goodbye to co-workers ­a policy usually employed by large companies that fear the outgoing employee will stage a scene or sabotage their computers.

"They treated her like an embezzler," said Wisconsin Public Radio reporter Mike Simonson, who has known LeRoux for two decades. "She did not deserve that at all. She should have been given two weeks notice ­to say goodbye to her staff and her readers. She would have been classy about it."

As LeRoux exited the building with her makeshift cardboard luggage, employees stared in disbelief. For the second time in two weeks, a top-level exec was leaving. Just days earlier, Forum had moved advertising director Randy Johnson to the Duluth News Tribune office, where he was given a new assignment managing the automobile advertising sales effort. Telegram employees were yet to digest that decision when their publisher was eliminated.

In a DNT story, Karwath said "We certainly have every intention to keep the Telegram strong in print and online." Some didn't find his comment very convincing, especially those who witnessed the staff drop from about 40 a year ago to less than 20 today. Said one disheartened staffer: "It's just a matter of time before they get rid of each of us."


The ugly side of bliss

On Fox 21 News, Karwath reports for the DNT as the affable news partner, the soft-spoken boyish editor who reads stories generated by underlings who shun TV. But inside the organization, he's become the Hand of Caesar, doling out disciplinary actions and cutting jobs inside and outside of the newsroom.

Earlier this month, he descended upon the Lake County News-Chronicle in Two Harbors to sack long-time editor Forrest Johnson. Simple math would say Johnson's demise left the newspaper with just 3.5 positions. But in reality, the loss was much greater. Like all small-town newspaper editors, Johnson clocked far more than 40 hours each week.

In protest, 65 people gathered outside the News-Chronicle to support Johnson, who had been with the newspaper for nearly 20 years. But he wasn't universally popular. Some in the local business community felt Johnson was too negative about a waterfront housing plan proposed by developer Sam Cave, and they took their concerns all the way to Forum board chair Bill Marcil. The controversy seemed to die down, but once under the corporate microscope, Johnson was unable to escape.

Forum has not revealed the reason for his release, and Johnson has not been available for comment. But Karwath clearly felt the action was insignificant. Unlike the News Tribune's three front page stories about Lew Latto¹s radio plight, Johnson¹s turn of fortune generated no buzz in the Duluth paper, although the Lake County weekly ran a photo of the protest.

Last September, Karwath also was the messenger who axed DNT managing editor Andrea Novel Buck, a 19-year DNT employee. Facing orders to chop about $300,000 from his newsroom budget, Karwath and other DNT execs decided Buck was among editors who were expendable. Most of them were women. Once the managing editor was axed, opinion page editor Robin Washington was promoted to the newly created position of news director ­ a highly unusual title in the print world.

Clearly, however, cuts by the Fargo-based publisher extend beyond the Northland and may even suggest a degree of panic has gripped the organization. In recent months, Forum has eliminated veteran employees at numerous properties, including:

· Mike Burke, who was general manager at the New Richmond News. He had 28 years of experience

· Michael Kuehn, general manager at the Red Wing Republican Eagle, eight years

· Brady Bautch, Internet Publisher of Forum's RiverTown Newspaper Group in southwest Wisconsin, eight years

· Robin Kruse, Pierce County Herald advertising sales rep for 26 years

· Sandy Burdine, Hastings Star Gazette sales clerk for 28 years

· Melissa Kinneman, classified sales rep at the RiverTown Newspaper
Group

· Jo Erickson, advertising assistant and receptionist, Red Wing Republican Eagle

Why would any organization boot so much experience out the door? Some believe it's not Forum's decision at all. Instead, they suspect some shots are being called by the consortium of banks that borrowed Forum enough money to buy the Duluth and Grand Forks newspaper groups at a price said to exceed $100 million.


Times are changing

When Forum purchased the DNT, Telegram, News-Chronicle and Cloquet Pine Journal, Marcil assured employees that his family-owned company has never shuttered an acquired newspaper. That¹s no longer the case. On May 7, Forum closed the Stillwater Courier and one of its rare startup properties, the Lake Elmo Leader. Employees received two days' notice, according to a story published in the competing Stillwater Gazette.

Lake Elmo suffered a slow, painful death. In 2006, the paper closed its Lake
Elmo office and operated from the Courier's Stillwater office. Then in April 2008, Forum cut its only Lake Elmo reporter and stretched its Stillwater Courier staff to cover both communities.

In closing the two newspapers, Forum eliminated Yvonne Klinnert, who was editor of the Stillwater Courier and Lake Elmo Leader; Mark Brower, a Stillwater Courier/Lake Elmo Leader reporter, and Andy Blenkenship, reporter/photographer at the two publications.

Cuts continued last week, when Forum closed its North Dakota capitol bureau and released Scott Wente from the staff of its Minnesota capitol bureau.


Not important?


By eliminating veteran employees, Forum also is losing institutional memory and community relationships that most newspapers strive to develop.

"It's a great loss to the community ­ to the newspaper," Simonson noted.

That loss is particularly difficult for the Telegram, where the newsroom and advertising sales staff have seen several cuts. When LeRoux took over approximately nine months ago, most considered her a breath of fresh air. Ken Browall, her predecessor, spent much of his time analyzing spreadsheets and union contracts. Unlike most publishers, he seldom ventured into the community, and during his tenure, Browall began to spend more time at the DNT than at the Telegram, even though he claimed to dislike the DNT's culture, particularly in the newsroom.

LeRoux, however, was an extrovert who loved Superior and enjoyed community relations.

Her Telegram tenure began in 1983 as a reporter. After a stint reporting in Galveston, Texas, she returned home and became Telegram editor, then was transferred by Murphy McGinnis Media to expand the Duluth Budgeteer, raising distribution to twice-weekly. During that time, she hired Rick Lubbers, who went on to become DNT sports editor, and Kyle Eller, now editor of The Northern Cross, published by the Duluth Catholic Diocese. Eventually, she was given editorial oversight for all Murphy McGinnis properties.

After an ownership change, Forum hired her in a marketing capacity at Living North Magazine. Then she advanced to become Telegram publisher. In addition to her PR role, LeRoux also worked side-by-side with newsroom staffers, coaching writers and assisting with pagination.

"Her loss will not only be felt by the newspaper and the city of Superior, but by the talented, emerging reporters throughout the region," said freelance writer Joan Farnam, a former colleague at the Budgeteer. "By firing her, they've clearly shown that they are not interested in owning a newspaper that communicates well and is a lively 'forum' for the community. Instead, their focus seems to be their profit margin, which is undoubtedly shrinking because of decisions like these."

In his own story about LeRoux, Simonson also used the term "firing." Karwath objected and sought a correction, saying the term unfairly besmirched his former colleague. Pointing to the way LeRoux was ushered out the door, Simonson refused, then asked Karwath why he employed the tactic. The DNT newsroom exec took a corporate stance, refusing to answer.

While Forum's growing list of terminations is reducing corporate costs, it's also flooding the market with a wide array of talented journalists and sales people. At least three Northland organizations currently are discussing plans to launch an internet alternative to the News Tribune, similar to the MinnPost.com venture launched by former Twin Cities mainstream journalists. So far, however, none of the local efforts have gone into publication. And even tenured start-ups like MinnPost are yet to turn a profit.

Ron Brochu formerly was Telegram executive editor.

This article first appeared in the May 29, 2009 Reader Weekly.