Lee Bloomquist of BusinessNorth in Duluth, Minnesota writes about the publication’s beginning as it celebrates its 35th anniversary.
Bloomquist writes, “‘We started in (a business) incubator in Superior with two computers and a copy machine that could print pages,’ said Wayne Nelson, BusinessNorth founder in a recent interview. ‘We had a part-time reporter and an ad person.’
Nelson had previously worked for the Duluth News Tribune and then moved to the Twin Cities for a time, where he worked for City Business, he said, a business publication now known as the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.
“‘I came back to Duluth without a job, about two shirts on my back and $4,000 in the bank or something like that,’ said Nelson. ‘I worked overnight in a group home and then got back on at the Duluth News Tribune. I worked there until 1991. They were going to lay off some people and I was at the top of the (pay) scale, so I said, ‘Why don’t you lay me off and save two people at the bottom (of the scale).’’
“After getting laid-off at the News Tribune, Nelson moved to start BusinessNorth. ‘I always wondered if that Twin Cities model would work up here. But we had to go wide. We covered 16 to 18 counties in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.’
“The first BusinessNorth issue was published in June 1992, Nelson said.”
Read more here.
