End of an era: Former Southwest News Media leader reflects on newspaper closures

Editor’s Note: On April 27, Southwest News Media will cease publishing six longstanding newspapers due to falling advertising revenue and a shift toward digital platforms. This announcement follows the 2020 closure of the Eden Prairie News, which prompted the creation of the Eden Prairie Local News. Stan Rolfsrud, with his long tenure at Southwest News Media, shares his insights here on the loss and evolution of local journalism.

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Like just about everyone these days, I lament the loss of the local newspapers produced by Southwest Media. I retired as president of this organization in 2008 and have a unique perspective on the cause of its demise and the possible revival of small, independent community news sources.

I am surprised by the surprise and disappointment so many have voiced. It’s been a long time coming. Our enterprise always had a Main Street-based business model. During my 35-year tenure at Southwest, we enjoyed many changes and innovations, and we capitalized on them, always producing quality products, loyal followers, and a healthy bottom line.

But those same positive movements ultimately spelled the demise of community-based, locally-owned businesses. We thrived on mom-and-pop businesses, general mass audiences and almost insane market growth, which kept our business as a leader in community-based journalism.

But any observer will tell you that those conditions, for better or worse, have changed drastically during that time. Mom and Pop sold out. We once had locally-owned dry goods stores, jewelers, realtors, banks, and the like on our Main Street, vying for attention in their limited and growing market. One by one, they disappeared, and our readers chose to spend their dollars at national chains whose marketing plans did not include us. Our model was unsustainable.

We had innovated successfully for many years, adjusting to the collectivization of Main Street. But once the Internet started giving away classified advertising, anyone with our waning business model could see it was the beginning of the end. I’m surprised it’s not more apparent to observers. 

We immediately took advantage of the emerging computer and internet technology to cut costs and build more products. For a time, we had more exclusive use of the now-common publishing tools. 

People now self-publish and self-select their news, using tools once developed for the industry. Everyone is an editor now, choosing the news for themselves, and is vulnerable to a variety of miscreants. When we got it wrong (or right), we were sued because we were responsible for our content. Try suing an internet troll these days and see where you get. Made-up news by our country’s adversaries gets equal treatment with ours. No one is responsible for misinformation.

Eventually, people will demand more accountability as they gain sophistication from using platforms based on click-bait responses to salacious headlines. These tools will ultimately bring back some form of reliable, unbiased and trusted information, and the community will get what it wants.

I’m a capitalist, and I’m an optimist. And I am retired. Maybe you can fix it.

Charting the evolution of local journalism in Eden Prairie

Ironically, the Eden Prairie Community News started out quite similarly to the present iteration of the Eden Prairie Local News organization, but without the internet efficiency and technical advantages.

Residents of the nascent community (there was one stop sign on Highway 5 at the time) recognized a need and voluntarily organized a newspaper, moving from basement to basement, taking advantage of the new Selectric typewriters and offset printing press to hand-make camera-ready sheets. They were able to pay an occasional editor and helper and make ends meet.

But it was tiresome work and eventually the 30-odd owners decided to sell to the owner of the nearby Chaska Herald, Bill McGarry. In 1976 he merged it with his paper, added typeset copy and printed it at the new plant in Young America. He had inherited a new editor, Tom Bartel, who would one day found City Pages with his wife, Kris. Staffers like Mark Gonzales, Dick Dahl, Cori Scarbnick, Tom Lapic, Judy Borger and so very many more gave the EP News its start and reputation, one of two at a time on the always tiny staff. 

After a slow start, the newspaper eventually thrived. Despite a diminutive “Main Street” so important to a strong community newspaper, innovation was rewarded. Free distribution was introduced, along with voluntary pay, assuring a mass audience of newcomers without losing a subscription base. Citizens responded and willingly supported the enterprise with annual voluntary checks.The paper thrived under the leadership of Mark Weber and a staff of dedicated journalists and salespeople, as Eden Prairie grew as well, at long last getting its own post office. Papers were still entered Wednesday nights in Hopkins, however.

Times changed and overtook the Main Street business model as the traditional newspaper folded in 2020. It took longer for its parent organization, fielding six other newspapers, including the 160-year-old Chaska Herald, to call it quits, with its final publication coming out this week. I served as the Herald editor in the 1970s, becoming publisher in 1980.

In Eden Prairie, meanwhile, much like in the ’70s, a community-based organization, recognizing a need, sprung up, using the new technological tools, with volunteers and some paid, and produced a new delivery system of vital information for Eden Prairie’s residents.

Not everything changes; some things stay the same.

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About the author: Stan Rolfsrud is a founder of Southwest Suburban Publishing. He moved to Eden Prairie in 1973, before his fledgling firm bought the Eden Prairie Community News from a group of local residents. The firm eventually spawned or purchased seven titles under his direction, until his retirement in 2008, in time to miss the digital dive experienced by so many community newspapers, including the Eden Prairie News. He lives with his wife of 44 years in Elevate at Southwest Station, and hopes to one day ride the light rail to the Twins game.