Duluth News Tribune Breaks In New Downtown Duluth Headquarters

DULUTH, Minn. — The staff at the Duluth News Tribune, the city’s long-standing newspaper, is getting comfortable in their new modern-day newsgathering headquarters in downtown Duluth.

DNT Newsroom

“I’m really glad that people know they can walk down the street or drive down the street, Superior Street, and see this is your local paper produced by people sitting and working right here in Duluth, Minnesota,” said Jay Gabler, arts & entertainment reporter at the DNT.

FOX 21 was invited to tour the new facilities and talk about the importance of local news — and supporting it.

Jay Gabler, DNT Arts & Entertainment reporter

With the overwhelming amount of information coming at us on the daily these days, including an overload of misinformation, supporting local news is more important than ever.

For the Duluth News Tribune, their new street-side headquarters at 222 W. Superior Street is a transformation from a paper-centric operation for decades to a now multi-media, digital operation.

The newly renovated 5,100 square foot facility Is in the former Minnesota National Bank building.

The newsroom is home to 27 employees.

Rick Lubbers, exec. editor of the DNT

For Gabler, the brand new space reflects the DNT’s commitment to the future, and with the same journalism standards the news organization has held for decades.

“Given the financial challenges of our industry in a changing media landscape, it seems that everybody recognizes the extraordinary importance of having reporters who are on the ground in the community out there, telling the stories, you know, through the tools of independent journalism,” Gabler said.

Rick Lubbers, executive editor of the paper, has an office over-looking the newsroom.  He said Duluth is lucky to have a newspaper like the DNT that continues to evolve when other newspapers in the country are folding.

“It’s a tough time in the industry, as we know. We hear stories all the time about various papers, you know, closing or folding, whether it’s in the state here or elsewhere around the country,” Lubbers said. “But we are very fortunate to be here, and we enjoy working and living here and providing these stories.”

Lubbers said the new space gives his team “a little bit more of a bounce in our step to do that job.”  But he said the core fundamentals of the job haven’t changed.

“Of course, it’s still the same commitment. It’s still the same technique and philosophy and urgency and all those things that we talk about with journalism, but we’re just fortunate to be able to do it in a nice, bright, bright, shiny, brand new place,” Lubbers said.

The Duluth News Tribune is part of the Duluth Media Group, which also includes the Superior Telegram, Cloquet Pine Journal, and The Woman Today.