Duluth News Tribune

Independence of Duluth News Tribune Political Endorsements

The recent DNT endorsement of Chip Cravaack, a conservative Republican who enjoys a lot of Tea Party support, made me want to tap the PDD community for information and discussion of the DNT endorsements over the years. The Fargo-based, private company Forum Communications became owner of the DNT in 2006. Since then, the DNT and the many other Forum newspapers overwhelmingly tend to endorse conservatives and Republicans as a bloc.
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The axe falls again at the DNT

What happened?

The News Tribune laid off two employees today, including education reporter Sarah Horner.

Why?

It’s a long story. And I’ll preface it by saying that while this comes from someone on the union side of the fence, what follows are facts that I don’t believe the company would protest.

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News Tribune dumps Karwath, McLoughlin

Two more high-ranking executives in local media are out of work. Duluth News Tribune Executive Editor Rob Karwath and Circulation Manager Tim McLoughlin were laid off today. This follows the firing on Monday of Julie Moravchik, who was news director at Fox 21 News.

Duluth News Tribune Publisher Ken Browell released this statement:

Effective today the company has restructured management within the Editorial and Circulation Departments, resulting in the elimination of two management positions at the News Tribune. Executive Editor Rob Karwath and Circulation Manager Tim McLoughlin have been laid off. Both of these individuals have made significant contributions to the News Tribune during their careers. These were difficult business decisions. I will miss Rob and Tim both personally and professionally.

More harsh online criticism of the Duluth News Tribune

Just when PDD had gone a full month without a post specifically targeting the local daily newspaper, Business North coughs this up for us to share:

DNT Web ‘deep’ linking challenged

Duluth News Tribune paid circulation dropped nearly 16 percent in past year

DNTCircStats2009cf

The Duluth News Tribune is seeing its readers migrate to the Internet faster than ever before. Paid distribution of its Monday through Saturday print editions dropped 15.8 percent from Fall 2008 to Fall 2009.

DNTSunCirc2009b

The Sunday edition saw a 13 percent drop during the same period.

Source: Duluth News Tribune Statements of Ownership, Management and Circulation