After 50 years, printing of News Herald returns to Cook County with a new look

After over 50 years of being printed across Minnesota and the region, the Cook County News Herald is coming home.

This spring marks a significant transition for the over 100-year-old newspaper as it returns to local printing and steps into a new era of change.

Although the printing will occur in the News Herald building, the end result will look different this time.

Instead of the familiar broadsheet format readers have held over their coffee for generations, the News Herald will now appear in a 28-page magazine-style layout.

The new format reflects not just an aesthetic change but the evolving realities of running a small-town rural newspaper in the 21st century.

“It costs a lot of money to print the paper the way we’re printing it now,” Editor Brian Larsen said. “And to transport it.”

Throughout the past decades, the News Herald has been printed in Duluth, Superior, Hibbing, Virginia, Brainerd, and even Thunder Bay, Ontario. Each move was made in response to changing costs, quality, or availability concerns. As presses closed or consolidated, options for small publications like the News Herald grew fewer and farther between.

Since CherryRoad Media, a New Jersey-based company, purchased the News Herald in November 2020, it has been printed at Page 1 Printers in Slayton, Minn., approximately 417 miles and a seven-hour drive away.

“But that press is old, and they were running into a lot of problems,” Larsen said. “So they decided to close that press down.”

Given the over 400-mile distance from printing to weekly distribution to Cook County readers, transportation disruptions or delays have been frequent throughout the years. Larsen said he had spent many nights worrying about delivery and often many nights spent at the post office fixing things at 2 a.m.

Given the limited options, CherryRoad Media decided to invest in printing equipment, allowing the Cook County News Herald to take on its own in-house printing operations.

And rather than a Cottrell press, like the one the News Herald used up until 1970, the new printer is a Xerox machine.

Editor Brian Larsen with new magazine-style format

Larsen hopes the move to a magazine-style design will serve as “a long bridge” between the cherished tradition of print newspapers and the inevitable complete transition to an online digital format.

“I hope it works for the public,” Larsen said. “It’s not going to be the same as taking a big newspaper and sitting and having my coffee.”

Larsen considers himself a print guy at heart. While he recognizes the redesign’s cost benefits and practicality, it is also deeply personal. One of the things he will miss the most is the sound of opening a newspaper.

“There’s comfort in that,” he said.

Larsen said, “I just love papers. And so this is going to be different. There’s no doubt about it.”

While the layout of the News Herald will change, the local voices, columns, articles, and community stories will remain the same.

Inside look at the new Cook County News Herald design

With the News Herald’s printing set to return to Cook County in mid-May, Larsen anticipates a handful of late nights producing copies for subscribers. Still, thanks to modern Xerox technology, the process won’t require the same large crew that was once essential from the paper’s founding in 1893 until its last locally printed edition in 1970.

“In the past, you would have a group of 20 people that would come in and put the paper together,” Larsen said. “They would have big parties.”

The big parties were typically known as the ‘Wednesday Night Crew,’ where community members would sit around a table together and perform ‘hot-type’ duties. They would help print the newspaper on the Cottrell press, fold each newspaper, and then bundle it for the morning deliveries.

Throughout the 1960s, until the last paper was printed in 1970 and ultimately moved to Carlton, Editor Ade Toftey and the crew worked together to produce the paper for Cook County readers.

Cook County News Herald photos from one of the final 1970 ‘Wednesday Night Crew’ evenings are below.

News Herald readers can expect to see the new magazine-style format in their mailboxes in mid-May. An online version will still be available for subscribers. 

WTIP’s Kalli Hawkins sat down with Cook County News Herald Editor Brian Larsen to talk about the design and printing changes for the newspaper, the challenges of operating a rural newspaper, and more. The audio from the feature is below.

Kalli Hawkins April 25, 2025