End of a good run

For more than 40 years Larry Dobson has been in the world of community newspapers.
While his career in telling countless stories in the community came to an end last week with the closing of his two newspapers, the Byron Review and Star Herald, his career, along with his wife Melanie’s, have been very important for the communities they served.
For the Dobsons, their journey of becoming apart of the newspaper community is a unique one to say the least.
Larry got into journalism in the 1970s when a work accident led to an injury, which led to part of his thumb being cut off.
Then the single parent of four picked up a camera and eventually began taking photos for different resorts and hotels, while also filling in at different newspapers.
After moving from Rochester to south of D.C. for two years, he moved back to the Midwest in 1983 where he became the editor of a local newspaper.
After spending about a decade in South Dakota, Larry and Melanie moved to Sleepy Eye where Larry was publisher of the Sleepy Eye Herald Dispatch, for two years before retiring.
Then two years later after their daughter Emily suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car crash, they found themselves in a difficult financial position as they waited for insurance to kick in.
“We used up all our resources and had to sell our house,” Larry said.
Knowing that they would need to have careers that would allow them to take care of Emily at the same time, they decided on owning their own business.
As Larry explained the business he was most qualified to own would be a newspaper so they shopped around and found out the Byron Review, Hayfield Herald, Dodge Center Star Record, and The Advertiser were for sale.
In 2003 the Dobsons bought the papers and shopper and began their journey of owning their own papers.
For Melanie, owning the papers also meant that she would be beginning her newspaper career.
“I didn’t know much about it at first,” Melanie said.
Little by little though she became more involved and eventually did a little of everything, from graphic design, to sales, to editorial and everything in between.
Towards the end, Melanie’s primary role was editor of the papers, where she managed the coverage of all the different towns that they covered.
One of the biggest learning curves for Melanie was the fact that she never was someone who liked being in charge of things and, as a leader of the newspaper, that was the case.
“It was a big learning curve for me,” she said. “It has been very good for me,” she added.
Since joining the community, they have been very involved in many different areas.
“Larry and I have always been involved in the community,” Melanie said.
Some of the ways that they are involved in the community include being on different boards and on different event committees.
For Larry, one of the biggest changes he’s noticed is seeing less and less people every year being involved.
“People have less of a sense of community,” Larry said. “It’s harder every year to get people involved,” he added.
Over the years the Dobsons have seen the different changes that have taken place for their papers just like papers across the country.
One of the changes that they made was merging the Hayfield Herald with the Star Record to form the Star Herald.
Another major change they made came in 2008 during the height of the recession and take off for newspapers doing things online.
This prompted the Dobsons to close their shopper and create a website-- something they described as being profound.
“That was a big change,” Larry said.
One of the things that they pointed to as being the best part of working in the world of community newspapers is the people.
“The people is the thing that made it great,” Larry said.
Over the years they explained that they get to watch the kids they do stories on or take photos of at different events grow up and raise families.
“I always get choked up when the seniors graduate,” Melanie explained.
Another great thing about community newspapers that they pointed to is the ability to make meaningful connections with people in the community.
“You begin to understand a lot about people and the challenges they face,” Larry said.
Aside from people in the community they have also made plenty of connections and built relationships with people that have worked with them over the years.
The importance of the relationships and impact  that the Dobsons have made in the community and with staff was evident last week in the final edition of the Star Herald.
In the paper, a page was arranged by staff to be filled with stories and comments from people who worked there and members of the community to show their support for the Dobsons.  
“The comments from people about their appreciation has been really reaffirming and nice,” Melanie said. “It’s nice to be recognized for hard work,” she added.
Overall the Dobsons described their journey of owning local newspapers as a fun and enjoyable one.
“It’s a unique kind of business being in community newspapers,” Larry said.
While they are sad that they had to close their papers due to financial reasons, they are also sad to see newspapers struggling across the country because they are still very valuable.
“Printed products have a lot of value,” Larry said, “It’s sad to see what’s happening with newspapers. We need them more than ever today,” he added.
Despite not owning the papers anymore, the Dobsons will continue to be a big part of the community through their commitment and passion of helping out in many different ways.