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| Photos by Kathleen Rolfsrud
"Is that Homer Simpson in the lobby? Tell him we're closed."
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This week, after 32 years in that location, the former Southwest Newspapers abandoned its downtown Shakopee offices and moved to a purpose-built space in nearby Savage. . . along with its new name - Southwest NewsMedia.
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| A guide could have explained this space. Perhaps. |
With the company's emphasis now on social media and digital enterprise, the sleek, open, splashy warehouse could be mistaken for the digs of a hopeful Silicon Valley startup. It was a sight to behold for the retiree, who once led a newspaper that had covered the Civil War and printed with technology familiar to Johann Gutenberg.
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| That's my Boy! Global. Connected. |
As part of the august duties of the eternal Publisher Emeritus and Guiding Light of the Shakopee Valley News, the old man took a private tour today, without guidance -- other than an occasional nod from a solitary Asian-looking technical priest, preoccupied this Sunday morning with reconnecting the firm with The Heavens -- or did he say The Clouds? We still don't get it.
The aging publisher spotted a few relics from his 35-year tenure that ended in a 2008 retirement. The occasional chair has survived, as well as some (gasp) paper-filing cabinets and the big wall-sized hand-painted map of the territory still proudly covered by six stalwart community newspapers and their affiliated publications. But everything else was new, smelled new, was new. . . and different too. Some things were very different.
The aging publisher spotted a few relics from his 35-year tenure that ended in a 2008 retirement. The occasional chair has survived, as well as some (gasp) paper-filing cabinets and the big wall-sized hand-painted map of the territory still proudly covered by six stalwart community newspapers and their affiliated publications. But everything else was new, smelled new, was new. . . and different too. Some things were very different.
It will take a while for the hundred or so employees, young and old, to adjust to their new headquarters. Change has never been easy.
But it is a Brave New World that faces Old Media and the folks at Southwest seem to be embracing it with gusto.
We wish them all the best of luck, most grateful that they are the ones doing the heavy-lifting now.
Meanwhile, there are nails to sort out in the garage.
