04/30/2024
Herald Journal response on the status of Hutchinson and Litchfield newspapers
CherryRoad Media announced on Friday that it will begin new weekly newspapers in Hutchinson and Litchfield as of May 9.
This follows the closure of the Hutchinson Leader and Litchfield Independent-Review by its owner, MediaNews Group/Alden Global Capital, last week.
Based in New Jersey, CherryRoad operates 80 newspapers across the US, including 10 in Minnesota: Montevideo, Granite Falls, Redwood Falls, Sleepy Eye, St. James, Cottonwood, Crookston, International Falls, Two Harbors, and Grand Marais.
Three years ago, a similar situation occurred in International Falls: Alden Capital shut down the existing newspaper, and CherryRoad began a new replacement publication.
The new papers are titled Hutchinson Station and Litchfield Rail, which are references to the communities’ history. The Leader and Independent Review had been published since the 1800s.
Herald Journal Statement
While CherryRoad has the resources to invest immediately in start-up publications, locally owned Herald Journal Publishing, based in neighboring Winsted, Minn., was exploring expanding its current newspapers to serve the Hutchinson and Litchfield areas.
Herald Journal acquired the McLeod County Chronicle in Glencoe and the Arlington Enterprise in October and is still in the process of phasing those newspapers fully into its operation.
Alden’s unexpected move also included the closure of the Crow River Press printing plant in Hutchinson, leaving Herald Journal scrambling to find an alternative printer for its five existing papers. Starting this week, NorthStar Media in Cambridge will be filling that role.
Those papers are the Herald Journal (Winsted, Lester Prairie, Howard Lake, Waverly, Watertown, Mayer, New Germany), Dassel-Cokato Enterprise Dispatch, Delano Herald Journal, McLeod County Chronicle, and Arlington Enterprise.
Going forward, the extent of Herald Journal’s efforts in Hutchinson and Litchfield is yet to be determined. “We believe the health and perception of the newspaper industry is at stake,” said Herald Journal owner Chris Schultz. “Whether this becomes a competitive or cooperative situation will be determined, as it should, by the communities’ responses in support of either or both publishers. All efforts by Herald Journal will take some time to develop. We want to be careful not to promise anything we can’t eventually accomplish.”
Herald Journal remains a diversified media and marketing company, and with or without newspaper products in Hutchinson or Litchfield, is ready to serve business needs for commercial printing, signage, website development and hosting, digital marketing, promotional products, agency placement services, and overall marketing planning. Contrary to apparent rumors, Herald Journal is NOT being sold to CherryRoad, Schultz noted.
Public notices
Public notices, also referred to as “legals,”are items that each government unit is required to publish in an official newspaper to keep its citizens informed. These include meeting notices and minutes, public hearings, advertisement for bids, etc.
Publishing in a newspaper ensures notices are more likely to be seen by the intended citizens and protects the government unit from accusations of hiding items that are potentially controversial.
Among the criteria for acting as an official newspaper is that a publication must have existed for at least one year. This means that the Station and Rail will not have qualified legal status until May 2025.
Thus, also last week, the McLeod County Chronicle was designated the official newspaper for the City of Hutchinson, while the Dassel-Cokato Enterprise Dispatch was named the official newspaper for the City of Litchfield, Litchfield School District and Meeker County.
Although CherryRoad will likely include such public notices in its newspapers, publication in the Chronicle and Enterprise Dispatch will meet the legal requirements.
Herald Journal is also building email newsletter distribution lists for Hutchinson and Litchfield, similar to its existing weekly emails which carry news headlines, links to important stories, and advertising. Since subscriber numbers for the Chronicle and Enterprise Dispatch are initially relatively low from Hutchinson and Litchfield, the public notices will also be included in the email newsletters to help fulfill their purpose of informing the public.
The newsletters are available for free, and readers will be able to sign up soon on the Herald Journal website https://herald-journal.com/herald-journal/.
HERALD JOURNAL PUBLISHING, INC.
Chris Schultz
320-282-7865
[email protected]
