Minnesota paper adds community editor, reporter to staff

The following excerpt was sent out from Wadena Pioneer Journal in West Central Minnesota:

Beginning this week, you will begin to see bylines by Community Editor Thalen Zimmerman and reporter Frank Lee, both of whom will be based out of the Pioneer Journal office, covering the east end of our Highway 10 corridor for our larger newsroom team.

Zimmerman, who most recently worked at our sister newspaper the Echo Press in Alexandria, Minn., graduated from Bemidji State University in 2021 with a degree in Mass Communication. After school, he started at the paper as an intern and worked his way into a reporter position. While in Alexandria, he covered general news stories, wrote feature pieces and produced a bi-weekly podcast.

Lee, who joins the Pioneer Journal as a reporter, most recently worked at the Brainerd Dispatch — another Forum sister newspaper — as a features writer. In addition, he also was editor of the paper’s weekly arts and entertainment section.

Before joining the Dispatch, Frank also spent years at the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times, where he started as a staff writer and worked up to the role of assistant features editor. Being the Times is owned by the Gannett newspaper company, Frank’s stories also have appeared in other publications across the country, including USA Today. Frank has won professional awards from the Minnesota Newspaper Association, both during his time at the Dispatch and the St. Cloud Times.