Forum emerged from large field of early papers
By Gerry Gilmour
The Forum - 12/25/1999

At The Forum, the business of news has always been held as a public trust.

Fargo-Moorhead's newspaper was among the region's first and became the sole survivor among a field of early partisan publications in the community.

Today - as part of the growing Forum Communications Co. - The Forum counts itself among a small surviving group of independent, locally controlled daily newspapers operating in an industry dominated nationally by corporate media companies.

Publisher William C. Marcil says the newspaper survived and thrives still because of the strong and progressive management of three generations of the Black family, which acquired The Forum in 1917.

"The Blacks considered publishing a newspaper to be a public trust," said Marcil. "That has been the philosophy of this company since 1917. We will not abuse the power of the press."

The story of The Forum unfolds near the close of the 19th Century, when the fledgling Fargo-Moorhead community was home to a handful of local newspapers - most of them under-capitalized and overly political.

"Those were the days of personal journalism," Melva Moline wrote in "The Forum: Its First Hundred Years," published in 1978, "a time when editors attacked each other venomously, a time when the lines between good and evil were sharply drawn, all of which made exciting reading and built circulation."

Maj. Alanson William Edwards was among those early crusading publishers. He and a partner, Dr. H.B. Hall, published the first issue of The Republican - a forerunner to The Forum - on Sept. 25, 1878.

Edwards and Hall did not get along, and Edwards bowed out of the picture, emerging a year later as publisher of The Daily Argus. He was eventually forced out of that paper as well, and went on to found The Forum, first published on Nov. 17, 1891.

Across the river, The Moorhead News was founded in 1883.

The big blaze

The biggest story of the 1890s was the fire which swept through Fargo's downtown on June 7, 1893. Among other buildings, the fire destroyed the buildings housing both The Daily Republican and The Forum.

The fire was started, apparently, when live ashes were thrown from the rear of a downtown restaurant. A 30 mph wind swept it through the downtown area.

The day after the fire, The Forum declared that Fargo, "though crushed to the earth, will rise from her ashes, yet better fitted for her position as the metropolis of North Dakota."

In 1894, the Daily Republican purchased and incorporated with The Forum, creating The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican, which quickly established itself as the newspaper of record for the community.

The Forum carefully chronicled the devastating winter of 1896-97 - one eerily like the winter of 1996-97 - and on March 31, 1897 warned readers that "the old Red River evinces a disposition to go on a tear."

And it did.

The spring flood covered the entire Red River Valley, stretching 50 miles wide in some places and leaving Fargo and Moorhead streets flooded for weeks.

In 1910, The Forum reported that 30,000 North Dakotans turned out in Fargo on Labor Day to greet Theodore Roosevelt. "Welcome Home Theodore," was that day's headline. Editorially, The Forum said: Fargo is glad to have entertained the most widely known man in the world. The city rejoices in its ability to welcome the thousands who have helped by their presence to make the event such a success."

The Forum in 1912 was sold to J.P. Dotson of Crookston, Minn.

Start of an era

The Black era began in 1917 when Norman B. Black bought the newspaper. The railroad worker's son was born in Port Hope, Ontario, in 1865.

The senior Black began his newspapering career in Wisconsin, then in 1903 became a paper salesman. His sales territory included the Red River Valley. The lure of the valley and the newspaper business brought him to a management position with the Grand Forks (N.D.) Press in 1906 and then the Grand Forks Times a year later.

He was with the Times when it merged with and became the Grand Forks Herald in 1911. Though he was publisher of the Herald, he held no stock, and resigned in 1916 to become secretary of the Good Government League.

After several futile efforts to purchase The Forum, he received a telephone call from Dotson, and, at a meeting in Fargoîs Gardner Hotel, negotiated an option to buy The Forum for $100,000.

The first two people he brought on board were his son, Norman D. Black, and H.D. "Happy" Paulson, who would become editor.

The senior Black took a prominent role in the community, both in commerce and charity. As a member of the Salvation Army advisory board, Black was the driving force behind the annual campaign that brings Christmas baskets to the needy.

Forum stockholders in 1921 purchased The Minot Daily News, and sent Hal Davies to run it. Davies eventually bought the paper.

In 1924, The Forum purchased the Fargo Tribune, successor to The Fargo Argus, putting all of the papers founded by Maj. Edwards under a single banner, and making The Forum a morning, evening and Sunday paper.

Meinecke Johnson Co. in 1926 began construction of a new home for The Forum, a $300,000, three-story structure at First Avenue North and Fifth Street.

The Forum occupied the first two floors. The third was leased to Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. of North Dakota. Installed in the building was a new, 48-page Goss press.

Norman B. Black died in 1931, at the age of 66. His widow, Jennie Black, succeeded her late husband as president of the company.

Norman D. Black succeeded his father as publisher

H.D. Paulson continued as editor of The Forum and vice president and secretary of the corporation.

In a letter to readers, they renewed Norman B. Blackîs pledge to be guardians of the institution, and use their "energies, experience and conscious efforts to produce a newspaper worthy of the state, a credit to the metropolis and respected by all its readers."

Among the big stories covered in the î30s: President Franklin Roosevelt's visit to see the cracked, alkali flats around Devils Lake, N.D., which were once covered with water.

Forum stockholders in 1935 acquired a minority interest in WDAY Inc. and in 1938 sold their interest in the Minot Daily News.

In 1939, the fourth and fifth floors were added to The Forum building. Norman D. Black died in 1944. He was succeeded by his son, Norman D. Black Jr. Jennie Black remained president of the company.

Christmas editorials were a tradition, and the 1945 installment summed up the close of World War II.

"This Christmas marks a milestone on the road from a terrible cataclysm to a new feeling of security in the world... . This is Christmas, 1945, and there is peace."

A decade of change

In 1951, the 48-page press was replaced with a 96-page press installed in a new addition to The Forum building. In 1955, The Forum purchased and began publishing The Moorhead Daily News.

The papers were merged in 1957. "We now have that dirty word, a 'monopoly' publishing situation," Norman D. Black Jr. told his staff. "But now that we don't have to spend money competing against each other, let's figure out ways to use that money to serve the people of Fargo and Moorhead, North Dakota and Minnesota, even better than either newspaper could do individually."

Also in 1957, the third, fourth and fifth floors were added to the Northwestern Bell addition.

The Forum also covered one of its biggest stories ever in 1957. At 7:40 p.m., of June 20, a message from a squad car crackled over the police radio in the newsroom: A tornado was headed toward town.

Five and a half hours after the tornado struck, The Forum went to press, and on May 5, 1958, The Forum was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the event and its devastating aftermath.

In 1960, The Forum acquired a controlling interest in WDAY, and expanded the business with the establishment of a satellite, WDAZ-TV, at Grand Forks.

Norman D. Black Jr. died in 1969 and was succeeded by his son-in-law, William C. Marcil.

Marcil, a Sherwood, N.D., native and University of North Dakota graduate, had met and married Jane Black while they were working in finance jobs in Minneapolis.

Marcil came to work for The Forum in 1960 and rose through the advertising department.

In 1984, the current ownership consolidated from 36 to two the number of stockholders in the company.

As a result of that decision, Marcil says, The Forum is able to commit to the long-term, rather than reacting to meet the short-term demands of stockholders.

"Weîre fortunate that we consolidated ownership to one family," Marcil says. "Our commitment to our readers, to our employees is to keep this newspaper independently owned."

Branching out

Marcil recognized that the business would have to expand in order to remain strong and independent.

Expansion began with the acquisition of the West Central Tribune at Willmar, Minn.

"It was logical for us to expand into Minnesota because we knew most of our potential for circulation growth was in Minnesota," Marcil says.

The Minnesota push continued in 1985 with the purchase of the Detroit Lakes Tribune and Park Rapids Enterprise.

The Forum in 1993 went full-color, with the installation of a state-of-the-art Man-Roland offset press.

Today, Forum Communications Co. consists of The Forum, The Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer/Advertiser, KBMY/KMCY-TV of Bismarck and Minot, N.D., Detroit Lakes newspapers, The Dickinson Press, Forum Commercial Printing Co. of Fargo, Kayeîs Printing in Fargo, Sign Pro of Fargo, WDAY-TV/Radio of Fargo, The Daily Republic of Mitchell, S.D., The Morris (Minn.) Tribune and Hancock (Minn.) Record, Park Rapids Enterprise, Blackduck (Minn.)/American Shopper, Wadena (Minn.) Pioneer Journal and WATCO Printing of Wadena, West Central Tribune, the Daily Globe of Worthington, Minn., and the Echo Press of Alexandria, Minn.

Marcil says Forum Communications Co. will continue to explore options for further acquisitions in the Midwest.

"Our commitment - to our advertisers, our readers and our employees - is to stay independently owned," Marcil says.