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Daily Republic receives top award in 2013 SDNA newspaper contest

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MITCHELL, S.D. – The Daily Republic has been judged the best small daily newspaper in South Dakota for the fourth consecutive year.
During a recent ceremony held at Mount Rushmore, the Mitchell newspaper was presented with the General Excellence award for South Dakota daily newspapers that circulate fewer than 12,000 printed copies.
The banquet was part of the first-ever joint convention of the South Dakota and North Dakota newspaper associations, held Thursday through Saturday with most events at the Ramkota Hotel and Conference Center in Rapid City, S.D.
The Daily Republic’s circulation division includes seven other daily newspapers in Brookings, Huron, Madison, Pierre, Spearfish, Watertown and Yankton. The competition, called the Better Newspapers Contest, is managed by the South Dakota Newspaper Association and was judged this year by members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
Other Daily Republic highlights from the contest included the Sweepstakes award for its circulation division, which is presented to the newspaper that compiles the most points from the individual awards; and the designation of Sports Editor Luke Hagen as the Outstanding Young Journalist among all daily newspapers in the state.
Hagen is the second consecutive and fourth overall Daily Republic winner of the award since the award’s inception in 2000. One winner is chosen annually from a weekly newspaper and a daily newspaper, and entrants must be younger than 30.
Overall, The Daily Republic won 27 awards in the contest, including 21 in news and six in advertising.
The SDNA contest results were the second round of awards announced last week for South Dakota newspapers.
In results of The Associated Press Great Plains Contest announced earlier in the week, The Daily Republic won first place in 10 of 15 categories in its circulation division, and won 22 of the 45 available awards in the division.
Following is a list of The Daily Republic’s awards in the SDNA contest announced Friday. Unless otherwise noted, the awards were in the division for daily newspapers with circulation of less than 12,000.
<strong>NEWS</strong>

Korrie Wenzel

- Best Freedom of Information Project, all newspapers daily and weekly, Korrie Wenzel, Seth Tupper, first place.
- Outstanding Young Journalist, all daily newspapers, Luke Hagen.
- Best Newspaper Website, all daily newspapers, Denise Ross, third place.
- Best Public Service Project, all daily newspapers, Korrie Wenzel, second place.

Seth Tupper

- Best News Series, Chris Mueller, Anna Jauhola, third place.
- Best Feature Story, Tom Lawrence, first place.
- Best Feature Story, Candy DenOuden, third place.
- Best Feature Series, Korrie Wenzel, Seth Tupper, Chris Huber, second place.
- Best Sports Reporting, Brooke Cersosimo, first place.

Luke Hagen

- Best Sports Series, Luke Hagen, third place.
- Best Sports Column, Luke Hagen, second place.
- Best Editorial Writing, Korrie Wenzel, first place.
- Best Editorial Writing, Seth Tupper, second place.
- Best Local General Interest Column, Korrie Wenzel, first place.
- Best Local Humorous Column,

Denise Ross

Candy DenOuden, third place.
- Best Spot News Photo, Chris Huber, first place.
- Best Sports Photo, Luke Hagen, first place.
- Best Sports Photo, Chris Huber, third place.
- Best Typography and Design, Korrie Wenzel, Seth Tupper, second place.
- General Excellence, Korrie Wenzel, Seth Tupper and staff, first place.

Chris Mueller

- Sweepstakes, Korrie Wenzel, Seth Tupper and staff, first place.
<strong>ADVERTISING</strong>
- Best Use of Color, Jen Phillips, first place.
- Best Classified Section, Penny Hohbach and staff, first place.
- Best Use of Art Service, Krissy Weber, third place.
- Best Use of Local Photography, Janet DeRouchey and Chris Huber, second place.
- Best Use of Local Photography, Lorie Hansen, third place.

Anna Jauhola

- Best 2×4 Ad, Laura Senska, third place.

The Daily Republic is owned by Forum Communications Co. Forum Communications is a multimedia information company based in Fargo, and owns dozens of newspapers, websites and television and radio stations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Candy DenOuden

Laura Senska

Lorie Hansen

Janet DeRouchey

Krissy Weber

Penny Hohback

Jen Phillips

Brooke Cersosimo

Chris Huber

Tom Lawrence

Daily Republic earns 10 first-place awards in 2013 Great Plains Newspaper Contest

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The Daily Republic of Mitchell, S.D., took first place in 10 of the 15 categories in its division of the 2013 Great Plains Newspaper Contest.
The Daily Republic competes in the Medium Markets division, which includes 14 daily newspapers in North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. The contest is managed by The Associated Press, which recently announced the award recipients.
Overall, The Daily Republic won 22 of the 45 awards available in its division.
The Great Plains contest is the first of two annual contest announcements for South Dakota newspapers. Results from the South Dakota Newspaper Association contest will be announced in the coming days.

The Daily Republic received the following awards in the Great Plains contest:

Seth Tupper

- Spot news, Seth Tupper, “From Avon and Mitchell … scaled high political heights,” first place.
- Spot News, Tom Lawrence, “Rush to cash checks collapses bank floor,” second place.
- Enterprise story, Tom Lawrence, “Transporting trouble,” first place.
- Enterprise story, Anna Jauhola, “Unsafe bacteria found in 6 of 11 hotel pools, spas,” second place.
- Spot sports story, Luke Hagen,

Tom Lawrence

“Mudcats beat Crofton in a thriller,” first place.
- Spot sports story, Luke Hagen, “Burnell Glazer retires from coaching,” second place.
- Sports feature story: Luke Hagen, and “Is Cadwell Park too big?” first place.
- Sports feature story: Brooke Cersosimo, “Uniforms shrink, concerns linger,” second place.
- Sports column: Korrie Wenzel, “Record spurs memories of Morgan’s night in 1992,” first place.

Anna Jauhola

- Personal column: Korrie Wenzel, “Janklow the Moody,” second place.
- General news: Chris Mueller, “Police chief accused of meth cover-up,” first place.
- General news: Tom Lawrence, “Sheriff: Sleeping guard allowed escape,” second place.
- Editorial: Korrie Wenzel, “Lack of alert after escape shows system is badly flawed,” first place.
- Headlines: Seth Tupper, “Head, heart, hands, health … and hair: In wake …,” second place.

Luke Hagen

- Headlines: Tom Lawrence, “Wing contests a saucy affair; Thunderstorms slam …,” third place.
- Spot news photo: Chris Huber, “Local lake house destroyed by fire,” second place.
- Feature photo: Chris Huber, “In honor of 9/11,” first place.
- Feature photo: Chris Huber, “O’Gorman spoils Kernels’ title hopes,” second place.
- Sports action photo: Luke Hagen, “Cats win it,” third place.

Brooke Cersosimo

- General news photo: Chris Huber, “City hit hard by fires,” first place.
- General news photo: Chris Huber, “Driver has court appearance, details emerge in fatal crash,” second place.
- Website: Denise Ross, first place.

The Daily Republic is owned by Forum Communications Co.

Korrie Wenzel

Forum Communications is a multimedia information company based in Fargo, and owns dozens of newspapers, websites and television and radio stations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Denise Ross

Chris Huber

Chris Mueller

Forum Communications awarded rights to broadcast North Dakota high school activites

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By Tom Mix

VALLEY CITY, N.D. – When TV viewers flip on the North Dakota high school state tournaments next year, they will see new faces in the broadcast booth.
After a three-decade long run of being televised on the North Dakota NBC Network, the broadcast rights for the state’s football, boys and girls basketball and boys and girls hockey state tournaments were officially awarded to Forum Communications in April.
Forum Communications, which owns ABC affiliates WDAY-TV in Fargo, N.D., and WDAZ in Grand Forks, N.D., has already started planning several parts to the upcoming broadcasts, the key one being on-air talent.
“The inner workings are certainly underway,” WDAY sports producer and assistant programming director Stacey Anderson said. “In house we have Dom Izzo and Jody Norstedt, who both have play-by-play experience and we have Pat Sweeney up in Grand Forks at WDAZ.
“We have pretty large stable of broadcasters that can do play-by-play. We are confident in the talent we have already in place.”

North Dakota High School Activities Association logo

The North Dakota High School Activities Association Board of Directors officially approved the television contract by a unanimous vote. The contract runs through the fiscal years of 2013-14 to 2017-18 and is worth $680,000.
The last time WDAY-TV broadcasted a NDHSAA state tournament event was 1982, however the station broadcasted the first three Dakota Bowl football championships starting in 1993 prior to that event being added into the NDHSAA television rights contract.
“These North Dakota High School Activities Association state tournaments are some of the top-tier events in North Dakota and we are really excited about having them and putting them on TV,” Anderson said.
“I think it’s a great day for the NDHSAA, WDAY, WDAZ and ABC sports in North Dakota.”
Anderson did not know how the tournament broadcasts would be split up among the on-air talent and said that could depend on which teams qualify for each tournament based on coverage-area regions.
Television stations KBMY in Bismarck, N.D., and KMCY in Minot, N.D., both ABC affiliates and owned by Forum Communications, will air NDHSAA state tournament programming in the western part of the state.
KBMY and KMCY do not produce live news broadcasts so highlights and pre-tournament team feature stories from teams in the west will be funneled to Fargo through several methods.
Anderson said a working agreement with CBS affiliates KXMB in Bismarck and KXMC in Minot will provide highlight footage from the western part of the state. Those stations as well as WDAY and WDAZ will produce features on select teams that qualify for the state tournaments.
WDAY-TV also broadcasts several Minnesota boys basketball section tournament games, which Anderson said the station plans on retaining.
One part of the contract that was discussed Tuesday was that the NDHSAA will not be able to allow other media outlets to televise or internet stream games during a Forum Communications state tournament broadcast.
Anderson said Forum Communications doesn’t recognize the NDHSAA as a media outlet, so as an association, it can stream footage of state tournaments to the Internet. However, it will not be able to hire another media outlet to produce those webcasts.
“That was a big thing for us,” NDHSAA board president Scott Ulland said of the web streaming flexibility. “We want to look into what else we can do for our patrons and our students in regards to webcasts.”

Tom Mix is a reporter at The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He can be reached at tmix@forumcomm.com or at 701.241.5562.

WDAY-TV, WDAZ, KBMY and KMCY and The Forum are all owned by Forum Communications Co. Forum Communications is a multimedia information company based in Fargo, and owns dozens of newspapers, websites and television and radio stations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Forum Communications Co. taking newsgathering to new heights

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Jim Manney (left), Forum Communications video manager, and Chris Dorsey, Forum Communications director of multimedia accounts and digital advertising, show the quadcopter, a remote-control aircraft, or drone, that was used for fly-over flood coverage. Photo by Rylee Nelson

By Rylee Nelson
Forum News Service

FARGO, N.D. – Forum Communications Co. has enlisted new aerial perspectives to provide its readers and viewers with over-the-top coverage of the 2013 Red River Valley flood.
Fly-over video captured by way of a remote-control aircraft, or drone, shows the swelling river from a unique angle. This unique approach to reporting the big story is now catching national attention.
In the past few years, high-definition, durable cameras have become increasingly available. And while the use of drones has been somewhat controversial in fields such as law enforcement, the devices are being used in a variety of ways — by outdoorsmen, extreme sports enthusiasts, and in this case, by news gatherers.
Chris Dorsey, director of multimedia accounts and digital advertising for Forum Communications, has been flying his quadcopter, mounted with a GoPro, high-definition video camera, to provide a unique view of the flooding. The idea began from a personal interest of Dorsey’s to simply fly remote-control aircraft. From there, he and Jim Manney, Forum Communications video manager, put together a plan to use the aerial machine for video on InforumTV.com, a video-focused news website owned by Forum Communications.
“The whole idea stems from the idea to take our viewers to a place they have never been. A place they couldn’t go,” Manney said.

Jim Manney (left), Forum Communications video manager, and Chris Dorsey, Forum Communications director of multimedia accounts and digital advertising, demonstrate the quadcopter, a remote-control aircraft, or drone, that was used for fly-over flood coverage. Photo by Rylee Nelson

The rather small idea has gained big attention from national audiences this week. Even the Weather Channel commented on how neat the idea was, Dorsey noted. Several national media outlets have contacted Dorsey and Manney to use the video in their own broadcasts.
For Dorsey and Manney, it’s a matter how far they can go to bringing new and unique perspectives to viewers.
“Video is such a huge part of where we are going … it is information for the public. This is evident in our investment in InforumTV,” Dorsey said, noting that the quadcopter may be used for other story coverage in the future, such as the Fargo Marathon or even a RedHawks baseball game.
Still, Dorsey and Manney say they are well aware of their boundaries when it comes to the use of the personal aircraft. To begin flying the device, they had to be in contact with the FAA to make sure they were following drone law. They also say they want to respect people’s privacy. You won’t find them flying over anyone’s fence.
Video of the Red River flooding is available on www.inforumtv.com.

Rylee Nelson is a Forum News Service reporter stationed in Fargo. He can be reached at rnelson@forumcomm.com.

InforumTV.com is owned by Forum Communications Co. Forum Communications is a multimedia information company based in Fargo, and owns dozens of newspapers, websites and television and radio stations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Forum Communications Co. announces 2013 Forum Forward class

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FARGO, N.D. - Forum Communications Co. has named its Forum Forward class for 2013, company officials announced Friday. This year’s class is comprised of eight individuals, salespeople, reporters, editors and multimedia producers from all over the company’s geographic footprint.

Forum Forward is an internal company leadership program created in 2009 to broaden the leadership skills of the dedicated employees across Forum Communications Co.and to build the company’s next generation of leaders.

This year’s class includes:

Jon Buller, director of finance for the Duluth News Tribune

- Applicant: Jon Buller, Director of Finance, Duluth News Tribune

Phil Frebault, director of advertising for Rivertowns Newspaper Group

Mentor: Phil Frebault, Advertising Director, RiverTown Multimedia

Leah Kastner, supervisor, FCC Media Planning

- Applicant: Leah Kastner, Media Planning Supervisor, Digital

Kirsten Stromsodt, deputy editor of The Forum

Mentor: Kirsten Stromsodt, Deputy Editor, The Forum

Greg Locnikar, customer service representative, Forum Communications Printing-Fargo

- Applicant: Gregory Locnikar, Customer Service Representative, FCP-Fargo

Chris Dorsey, FCC director digital and major accounts sales

Mentor: Chris Dorsey, Director Digital & Major Accounts, Forum Communications Company

Lori Weber Menke, multimedia manager at the Grand Forks Herald

- Applicant: Lori Weber Menke, Multimedia Manager, Grand Forks Herald

Rob Horken, general manager at WDAY TV

Mentor: Rob Horken, General Manager, WDAZ-TV

Jeff Nelson, news director at WDAY TV

- Applicant: Jeff Nelson, News Director, WDAY TV

Mary Jo Hotzler, director of the Forum News Service

Mentor: Mary Jo Hotzler, Director, Forum News Service

Dave Roepke, news editor at The Forum

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Jon Clites, regional sales manager at WDAY

Applicant: Dave Roepke, News Editor, The Forum
Mentor: Jon Clites, Regional Sales Manager, WDAY

Kevin Smith, advertising director at the West Central Tribune

- Applicant: Kevin Smith, Director of Advertising, West Central Tribune

Roger Sievers, multimedia producer for the Rivertowns Newspaper Group

Mentor: Roger Sievers, Multimedia Producer, RiverTown Multimedia

John Svingen, advertising director at The Pioneer of Bemidji, Minn.

- Applicant: John Svingen, Director of Advertising, The Bemidji Pioneer

Carmen Wallander, customer service manager at Forum Communications Printing-Fargo

Mentor: Carmen Wallander, Customer Service Manager, FCP-Fargo

Each year, FCC employees have the opportunity to apply for Forum Forward and company executives choose the finalists who undergo a year of site visits, leadership studies and mentoring. Each graduate is assigned a mentor from inside the company, someone who has demonstrated leadership and the ability to help build the skills of their employees. The class then spends a year traveling to various FCCsites and learning from respected leaders in all aspects of the company’s ventures.

Forum Communications Co. is a multimedia information company based in Fargo, N.D. Forum Communicationsowns dozens of newspapers, websites and television and radio stations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.