Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

It was nice to get away for a few days last week and attend the annual Minnesota Newspaper Convention.

Because of the pandemic, it’s been a few years since my wife and I actually attended the convention in person.  It was nice to be back and we joined nearly 500 other newspaper people at the convention.

It was nice to rub shoulders with fellow publishers and editors and realize again how most of the state’s weekly newspapers continue to thrive.

A highlight of the event was the Pope County Tribune again winning first place in the “Best Magazine” competition statewide for the Minnewaska Visitor Guide.

This marks the sixth consecutive year the Tribune’s Minnewaska Visitor Guide has won first place in that category, and the magazine won second or first-place honors in the past eight years.

While winning the award is affirmation of the hard work that the Tribune staff puts into this product, it is also important to acknowledge all the local businesses who advertise in the magazine and the community support it receives from many organizations, especially the Glenwood Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Welcome Center.

The Tribune faces stiff competition in this category each year, with judges receiving hundreds of entrants from weekly newspapers across Minnesota.  Every submission is judged by professionals in that category from another state’s newspaper association.

This year judges said they were impressed with the guide’s content, the layout and design and its “excellent photos.”

This year’s Minnewaska Visitor Guide is now available and was being sent to visitor centers around the state last week.

Former Tribune & Times Editor

elected President of MNA

Chad Koenen, a former Pope County Tribune Sports Editor and former Editor of the Starbuck Times, was re-elected president of the Minnesota Newspaper Association.

Koenen, now co-owner of Henning Publications, LLC and co-publisher of the Citizen’s Advocate in Henning, New York Mills Dispatch and Frazee-Vergas Forum, was elected president at the organization’s annual meeting at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest in Brooklyn Park, Minn.

Another area publisher, Ted Almen, who owns the Kerkhoven Banner, the Clara City Herald and the Lakes Area Review in New London-Spicer, was elected to serve on MNA Board of Directors.

Children in Finland are taught

to spot misinformation

Fascinating New York Times story out of Finland, where media literacy is part of the national core curriculum starting in preschool, and the country ranked first out of 41 European countries on resilience against misinformation for the fifth time in a row, according to a survey.

Officials say Finland’s success is not just the result of its strong education system, which is one of the best in the world, but also because of a concerted effort to teach students about fake news, the Times reports.

Would it work here? The effort would likely crumble amid too much fighting about facts and truth and history.