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By Griff Wigley, on January 18, 2012, 12:05 am
 Like many newspapers around the state, the Northfield News regularly publishes articles via an arrangement with MPR News.
On Monday, the paper ran an MPR story titled More Minnesota lakes and rivers added to impaired list. The paper chose this photo (click to enlarge) to accompany the article.
I’ve lived in Minnesota my whole life and I’ll be damned if I can identify where this picturesque lake might be.
Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?
By Griff Wigley, on January 9, 2012, 6:32 am
By Griff Wigley, on December 30, 2011, 8:54 pm
  About four years ago, I blogged about how you could stop the Northfield Area Shopper from being delivered at your residence or at a nearby residence that was vacant.
The way to do it now is the same way: contact Northfield News publisher Sam Gett via the Northfield News Contact Us page.
By Griff Wigley, on May 29, 2011, 8:46 am
It irritates me that, year after year, the only detailed information about the 9 am Memorial Day ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park is via a big paid advertisement in the print edition of Northfield News. Nothing online, that I can find:
 Northfield Area Veterans Memorial: hasn’t been updated in years- VFW Post 4393 – Northfield: last updated 2008
- Northfield.org: no blog post, nothing on the calendar for 5/30
- Northfield Patch: no story, nothing on the events calendar, only a brief blurb here
- Northfield News: no info, only a sidebar with brief info to their story, Trumpeting our fallen heroes
- Facebook: There is a person (not a group, not a page, just a person) whose first name is Northfield and last name is Vfw. “Has worked at Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW, Lives in Northfield, Minnesota, Married From Northfield, Minnesota, Born on January 1, 1945.” This anonymous person put up an event titled Veterans of Foriegn [sic] Wars and American Legion Memorial Day Service but without any detailed info.
Why the dearth of information online? Is there some sort of exclusive arrangement that the vets organizations have with the Northfield News? It’s maddening.
(To see a large version of the print ad, right-click on the image and open in a new tab/window or view it here.)
By Griff Wigley, on May 26, 2011, 12:37 pm
  Paul Krause, Paul Krause Creative, stopped by my corner office at the GBM this morning to inform me that his documentary ‘Harvest’ will air on TPT’s Minnesota Channel (2.2) this weekend.
Scheduled times are Saturday, May 28 at 7pm, Sunday at 1am, 3am and 1pm.
Harvest sculptor Ray ‘Jake’ Jacobson is recovering at Three Links Transitional Care unit from recent back surgery. Paul expects that Jake will soon be back to work on another exciting project for Northfield that he’s got in the works.
Here are three photos from my October 2008 Harvest Sculpture Dedication album:
  
By Griff Wigley, on May 22, 2011, 7:30 am
  
This weekend, the Northfield News used a photo of the trees cut down on N. Linden St. to illustrate its Talk comes too late for trees story about the N. Plum St. trees, despite the fact that the trees on N. Plum have not yet been cut down. The photo was used for both the print and online versions of the story.
It’s not an insignificant issue, as the residents of N. Plum St. are still pleading (at last Tuesday’s Council meeting and online, e.g. here and here) with city officials to halt plans to cut down the trees, evidently scheduled to begin on Monday.
Although the text of the article doesn’t mention whether or not the trees have already been cut down, the accompanying tag line of the photo in the print version reads:
The widening of Plum Street cost residents decades-old trees.
The past tense of the verb ‘cost’ indicates to the reader that the widening and the cutting have already been done.
The print version of the story has the photo byline "News photo by Suzanne Rook." The file name/URL of the photo is 5-21-plum-street-trees.jpg
The online version of the story indicates that it was submitted by Managing Editor Jerry Smith on Friday night at 10:30:
Submitted by Jerry Smith on Fri, 05/20/2011 – 22:30
Also, the information provided in this paragraph is puzzling:
City maps show 12 trees will be removed during construction. Two are ash trees, which are susceptible to emerald ash borer, an invasive species known to be in Ramsey County. Another 24 ash trees may also be removed, while the survival of 132 trees is construction dependent.
The Plum St. tree map on page 8 of the city’s slide presentation on the project shows at least 29 trees marked with an X which the legend says means ‘Remove.’ Page 9 says:
31 trees are currently noted for removal with 32’ street width;
6 Trees could potentially be left with 30’ street width
I’m not implying that the Northfield New has any hidden agenda on this issue. But it’s difficult to see how the use of the photo and the accompany tag line could be just a simple mistake or oversight.
By Griff Wigley, on March 31, 2011, 7:57 am
 I noticed last week that the Northfield News editorial, Your voice could help save the post office, didn’t mention the fact that Northfield Patch had launched an online petition a couple days earlier, Save the Northfield Post Office! Sign the Online Petition.
No surprise there. The Northfield News won’t link to needy area non-profit organizations in their stories (see this week’s story on the Community Action Center’s Food Shelf as an example), let alone their media competitors or any area bloggers.
But yesterday the Northfield News behaved very badly by putting up their own Save the Northfield Post Office Online Petition, linking to it from their Facebook Wall, and using nearly the exact wording of Patch’s petition. The minor wording changes:
Patch: We, as Northfield residents, stand strongly opposed to the consideration of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to close the downtown Northfield Post Office.
News: As Northfield residents, we stand strongly opposed to the consideration of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to close the downtown Northfield Post Office.
And:
Patch: The downtown post office has been at its current location since 1936 and has become as much a symbol of Northfield as anything else in our community.
News: The downtown post office has sat majestically overlooking the Cannon River at its current location since 1936 and is considered a symbol of Northfield as much as anything else in our community.
Everything else is word-for-word the same.
 I don’t know if this plagiarism but it’s a shitty thing for Northfield News Publisher/Editor Sam Gett, Managing Editor Jerry Smith, and Associate Editor Suzy (Suzanne) Rook to do.
It’s this type of bullying behavior that makes me root for Goliath (media giant AOL is the owner of Patch) against David (Michigan-based Huckle Media LLC is the owner of the Northfield News and 16 other hometown newspapers).
If you know know former Northfielder Renee Huckle Mittelstaedt, now president and co-owner of Huckle Media LLC, consider contacting her about this. No, Huckle Media doesn’t have a website (aarrgghh!) but Renee can be reached via her LinkedIn account and her Facebook account.
By Griff Wigley, on March 7, 2011, 6:27 pm
 I normally prefer more narrowly focused blog posts. And any one of the three subjects in the blog post title would typically suffice.
But Jane McWilliams is teaching a Cannon Valley Elder Collegium course this spring titled The Future of Journalism (4 slots left as I write this) and local media moguls from KYMN, the Northfield News, Northfield Patch, Northfield.org, and yes, even Locally Grown are among the guests she’s having attend various class sessions.
- Since Northfield Patch is the new kid on the block here in town, its time to scrutinize their effort, both locally and nationally. What has been their impact on Northfield thus far? What do you like about what they’re doing? What’s disappointing or problematic?
 Patch is a national chain of hyperlocal news sites owned by AOL. There have been many other high profile hyperlocal news projects launched, with many failures already. What’s being learned out there?- Journalism (local, state, national, international) continues to be in a state of extreme flux. What do you like and not like about what you’re seeing?
If you come across interesting resources related to these issues, be sure to post them in a comment with a link and, if you’re up for it, an excerpt.
By Griff Wigley, on February 22, 2011, 6:27 am
In yesterday’s StarTribune: Time may be right to move public notices to the Web. Governments want to save cost of running them in newspapers. Opponents say public will be harmed.
The law requires notices in newspapers of board proceedings, tax levies, forfeited properties, financial statements and project bids. Against the rising tide of Internet use, many see dumping newspaper notices as a cost saver whose time has come.
Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, has introduced a bill to let local governments skip the papers and publish such notices only on their websites. Drazkowski, who is leading a GOP charge against several state mandates, said using websites will help jurisdictions make up for cuts in state aid. "This is a way to allow local governments the freedom and flexibility to do the best job they can," he said. The bill has six sponsors, including Bloomington DFLer Ann Lenczewski. It has not been introduced in the Senate.
 Bill Name: HF0162. "Political subdivisions authorized to publish proceedings, official notices, and summaries on their Web sites in lieu of newspaper publication."
Anyone know how much the City of Northfield, the Northfield School District, and Rice County pay the Northfield News to publish public notices every year?
By Griff Wigley, on February 1, 2011, 10:26 am
The editors at the NEG have done the tallying and we now have the results of the Northfield Entertainment Guide and Locally Grown readers’ poll of the
Best of Northfield 2010
(6-page PDF)
 The official announcement was made today at 8:45 am when Mr. NEG, Rob Schanilec and I announced the winners on KYMN Radio 1080 with Jeff Johnson.
The Feb. 2011 issue of the Northfield Entertainment Guide includes the results and is now available throughout Northfield, and in Flash and PDF format on the NEG site. Here’s the intro to the Best of 2010 section:
Here it is, loyal Entertainment Guide readers, the long-awaited results to Northfield’s Best of 2010! Our dedicated team of vote counters was wowed by the number of responses we received, but not surprised by the varieties of winners you found for each category.
It confirms our belief that Northfield is a talent-filled town with delights to be found around each and every corner. Though some categories were close, a winner shone through in each and we present them here, with the steady runners-up in italics just behind. Looking at the field of choices, one thing became quite clear to us: the true winner in this poll is the town of Northfield. Congratulations to everyone involved, and here’s to another year!
By Griff Wigley, on January 28, 2011, 11:00 pm
This animated ad is currently appearing in rotation throughout the Northfield News website. The book is titled The Rising Cannon, but half of the ad trumpets The Raising Cannon.
 
Ironically, the misspelled ad appears in rotation adjacent to a stories about A) the book itself; and B) the Middle School Spelling Bee.
By Griff Wigley, on January 5, 2011, 11:36 pm
The Jan-Feb 2011 issue of Redoux Home is out. The bi-monthly publication, which debuted last summer, is published by Nichole Day Diggins, Flying Pan Productions. Elizabeth Child is the editor.
 redoux home is an innovative home and garden lifestyle magazine that speaks to where you live.
Our goal is to bring fresh perspectives, inspiration and sustainable ideas to readers in the Northfield, Faribault, Dundas, Cannon Falls and Red Wing areas.
The new issue includes some hoar frost photos by Patsy Dew and yours truly.
By Tim Freeland, on November 30, 2010, 5:35 pm
 After years on hiatus, we are re-launching “Light up Northfield,” a residential, exterior Christmas light contest.
We will be judging Christmas-light & decorations within the Northfield city limits or a maximum of 5 miles from the city borders. We will be announcing 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners on December 17th, 2010. Winners will receive a prize package full of great tickets and passes to regional events. Winning names will be announced and photos of their homes will be displayed on KYMN’s website.
Entrants are encouraged to upgrade their lighting displays with eco-friendly and cost saving LED lights, but is not required. Winners will be judged on overall creativity and showmanship.
Enter your exterior residential Christmas light display and win. See all the details at KYMN!
By Griff Wigley, on November 28, 2010, 2:59 pm
 In a town with a thousand PhD’s, nobody refers to or addresses any of them with ‘Dr.’ or ‘Doctor.’
But for some reason, KYMN (example here) and the League of Women Voters of Northfield (example here) use it with the superintendent of schools. The Northfield News used to do it (2008 example here) but appears to have discontinued it. I was glad to see that Northfield Patch did NOT do this last week in its first district-related story. Not even the school district itself does it, sticking instead to "Superintendent Richardson" in its minutes, though some school board members have a tendency to address him as ‘Doctor’ during the course of a board meeting.
I have nothing against Chris Richardson or the previous Northfield District superintendents, but IMHO, only medical physicians should be addressed as ‘Doctor’ or have the ‘Dr.’ in front of their names. Why treat superintendents as if they’re somehow special?
Our local college presidents (one has a Doctor of Philosophy/PhD, the other a Juris Doctor/JD) don’t get the Doctor/Dr. treatment from KYMN (example here). Not even former school superintendent Charlie Kyte (example here) does. So if they don’t, then neither should Richardson.
How about it, Jeff? How about it, Jessica?
By Griff Wigley, on October 28, 2010, 4:59 pm
 
AOL has hired former Northfield News reporter Corey Butler Jr. to be its new editor of Northfield Patch (not yet open). The corporate Patch About page says that it’s "a community-specific news and information platform dedicated to providing comprehensive and trusted local coverage for individual towns and communities."
Patch is also soon launching in Eagan, Edina, Golden Valley, Richfield, and St. Louis Park. I was to meet with Minnesota Patch regional editor Don Wyatt today in Apple Valley but he had to cancel.
MinnPost’s David Brauer has blogged about Patch’s arrival in MN (see his posts: July, Aug, Sept, and Oct). There’s plenty more to read online about Patch, as it’s commonly seen as the most well-funded of the national hyperlocal community news ventures. AOL has deep pockets.
Since Patch goes after local advertising dollars, I see them as a competitor to the Northfield News, KYMN, and the Northfield Entertainment Guide. Since Patch does community event info and seeks content from citizens, they’re also a competitor to Northfield.org. Some of their sites have discussion threads on their stories so in that sense, they’re a competitor to Locally Grown.
Competition is good though, right?
By Griff Wigley, on October 21, 2010, 2:37 pm
 It’s all over the MSM, blogosphere and twittersphere today. MPR’s News Cut blog has a good overview: Should Juan Williams have been fired?
The story of the day today seems to be NPR’s firing of Juan Williams, who exercised the poor judgment to go on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox to admit to being concerned when he sees Muslims on an airplane, but cautioned O’Reilly not to brand Muslims as terrorists.
Lots of Fox and NPR fans in Northfield so this should be a good discussion.
By Griff Wigley, on July 16, 2010, 7:21 am
 This week’s Northfield News has a story titled Price increase creates rush for passports (see Rice County’s announcement, New Passport Fees, Effective July 13, 2010.)
At the end of the article is this curious one-liner:
The cost to renounce your U.S. citizenship is $450.
Huh?
If you’re really interested (yikes!), see the Wikipedia entry Renunciation of citizenship and the US Gov. page, Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship.
By Griff Wigley, on July 15, 2010, 6:40 am
 Prairie’s Edge Humane Society (PEHS) has a new segment on KYMN called “Animal Attractions.” Kathy Jasnoch and Sandy Vesledahl are live on Jeff Johnson’s Morning Show every 2 weeks at 6:50 am on Thursdays. Sandy emailed me this:
We discuss 4-5 animals that we would like to highlight that are available for adoption and then any upcoming events or projects or whatever happenings at PEHS.
7:10 am update: I’ve added an in-studio photo above. And the dog that they seemed most eager to find a home for: Chance!
 
By Griff Wigley, on June 27, 2010, 10:34 am
 
I noticed yesterday that proprietor Tim Sellers has a sign in the window of Tiny’s that reads:
Yes, Tiny’s is open
Tues-Sat 9:30 to 5:00
No thanks to the Nfld News
The Northfield News ran an article back in April titled: Locals try to save a Northfield landmark.
A longtime downtown business is expected to close in the coming months. Tiny’s Hot Dogs at 321 Division St. is set for a sheriff’s sale June 3, according to a legal notice published last week. Owner Timothy Sellers has until Dec. 3 to rework his mortgage or come up with the necessary funds to cover the debt. Sellers declined to comment, but support of the longtime Northfield shop has quickly grown.
By Griff Wigley, on June 16, 2010, 12:04 pm
By Tim Freeland, on April 12, 2010, 9:28 am
 [show_avatar email=tim@kymnradio.net]Just a reminder that without a clear channel like WCCO carrying the Minnesota Twins, you’ll need your local syndicate to get the best quality sound when you’re out and about listening to your soon-to-be-World-Champion-Minnesota-Twins! With permission of MLB, we broadcast all games in real time, cutting in local ID drops, commercials, and liners.
So, when you go from TV, to the yard, to the car, keep it tuned to 1080AM KYMN for your Twins action!
By Kiffi Summa, on March 19, 2010, 10:14 pm
 Point of View by Kiffi Summa.
[show_avatar email=kiffisumma@gmail.com]I have been for several years, and continue to be, seriously opposed to the Northfield News practice of allowing anonymous comments on their website.
You might ask, ”Why? How seriously does anyone take comments to which a person does not care to attach their name?”
My answer is this: Some people take those anonymous comments seriously enough to bring some of that defamatory material, mis-representations of fact, outright lies, etc., to this opinion based community discussion, thereby convoluting the discussion in a way which, I believe, is a detriment to community relationships.
Griff gets angry with me if I refer to the Northfield News’s anonymous commenters, and says they are not relevant simply because of their anonymity and being “off-site” , even if they relate to a current subject thread on Locally Grown.
I disagree, strenuously.
There is no journalistic purpose served by allowing anonymous comments; the ‘gossip’ factor drives hits to their website, which then encourages advertising sales.
A good portion of their website comments do not deal with being for or against an issue brought forward by an article in the print version of the newspaper; instead they are personal attacks meant to harm, if not actually libel; they are often attached to an article to which there is no relevant content link.
Example: A few weeks ago a rash of escalating offensive comments were attached to various articles, including one to that week’s City Administrator’s Memo. The one attached to the administrator’s memo was removed, and an admonition (citing lack of relevance to the city memo as reason for removal) was posted from Jaci Smith, the Northfield News Editor; however, all the other comments were allowed to remain in place.
Anonymous comments allowed on newspaper websites have been the subject of some spirited debate. What do you think is their impact in our community?
By Griff Wigley, on February 22, 2010, 8:04 am
  A week or so ago, local filmmaker Paul Krause, Dancing Sun Multimedia, previewed his new documentary, Harvest, for local media, including freelancer Alyssa Ford who’s doing a story on it for the Star Tribune this week. I weaseled my way into Paul’s studio in downtown Northfield for a photo and a sneak preview.
“Harvest” chronicles the creation of Ray Jacobson’s sculpture of the same title. From the initial drawings to the final installation on the riverfront, the film reveals every step required to craft the three thousand pound, bronze sculpture.
Continue reading ‘Harvest’ documentary premieres this week
By Griff Wigley, on February 4, 2010, 11:47 pm
 Susan Hvistendahl alerted me to an article titled A Guy’s Take on Love and Romance in the Jan/Feb issue of Girlfriends magazine published by I 35 Target Media, a sibling of the Northfield News.
It features a roundtable discussion (“chatfest”) about “marriage, dating, romance and relationships in general” with some Northfield-area guys including Hans Olsen, Mike Miller, Adam Andreasen, Nathan Kuhlman, Ed Kuhlman, Drew Weis, James Schlicting, Jason Hoffman and Dan Freeman.
By Griff Wigley, on February 1, 2010, 11:30 am
 The editors at the NEG have done the tallying and we now have the results of the Northfield Entertainment Guide and Locally Grown readers’ poll of the Best of Northfield 2009 (4-page PDF). (The official announcement was made today at 7:45 am when Mr. NEG, Rob Schanilec and I announced the winners on KYMN Radio 1080 with Jeff Johnson.)
The Feb. 2010 issue of the Northfield Entertainment Guide (PDF) includes the results and is now available throughout Northfield, and in Flash format on the NEG site. Rob writes in the intro to the Best of 2009 section:
Continue reading Winners: Best of Northfield 2009
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6 comments - (Comments are closed) 
Civic Orgs, Media 
Animal Attractions, Kathy Jasnoch, KYMN, Prairie's Edge Humane Society, Sandy Vesledahl 
Anonymous comments on the Northfield News website
[show_avatar email=kiffisumma@gmail.com]I have been for several years, and continue to be, seriously opposed to the Northfield News practice of allowing anonymous comments on their website.
You might ask, ”Why? How seriously does anyone take comments to which a person does not care to attach their name?”
My answer is this: Some people take those anonymous comments seriously enough to bring some of that defamatory material, mis-representations of fact, outright lies, etc., to this opinion based community discussion, thereby convoluting the discussion in a way which, I believe, is a detriment to community relationships.
Griff gets angry with me if I refer to the Northfield News’s anonymous commenters, and says they are not relevant simply because of their anonymity and being “off-site” , even if they relate to a current subject thread on Locally Grown.
I disagree, strenuously.
There is no journalistic purpose served by allowing anonymous comments; the ‘gossip’ factor drives hits to their website, which then encourages advertising sales.
A good portion of their website comments do not deal with being for or against an issue brought forward by an article in the print version of the newspaper; instead they are personal attacks meant to harm, if not actually libel; they are often attached to an article to which there is no relevant content link.
Example: A few weeks ago a rash of escalating offensive comments were attached to various articles, including one to that week’s City Administrator’s Memo. The one attached to the administrator’s memo was removed, and an admonition (citing lack of relevance to the city memo as reason for removal) was posted from Jaci Smith, the Northfield News Editor; however, all the other comments were allowed to remain in place.
Anonymous comments allowed on newspaper websites have been the subject of some spirited debate. What do you think is their impact in our community?