Saying adios, so long, goodbye to the best boss – by far – I ever had
Let’s start out this week’s column by clearing something up. There has been a bit of confusion about some of the operation here at the Faribault County Register.
I am not, and never have been, the boss at the Register. Lori Nauman has been the publisher/general manager at the Register for 24 years, and that is the position of being the boss.
I have been the managing editor for the past 17 years. It sort of means that Lori has been the business manager and overall boss of the whole operation. I have been in charge of the newspaper itself.
Now that I have cleared all that up (I hope), it is time to do a little reminiscing.
I remember sometime in October of 2007 coming to Blue Earth to be interviewed for the job as managing editor at the Register.
Lori had been quite surprised to get my application since she knew I owned some newspapers and wondered about why I would possibly be applying for an editor’s position.
The answer was that I was selling my newspapers and I wanted to do a job I loved – writing, editing and designing a weekly newspaper – and not worry about other things. After a whole lot of years of being the publisher/owner, editor, reporter, photographer, ad sales rep and custodian at my newspapers, I was ready to just do the part I loved the most.
I figured it would be great just being the editor and have someone else be the publisher, ad sales person and other things I was tired of. And, I was right.
I still remember the interview that was conducted by Lori and Bruce Fenske, the publisher of the New Ulm Journal, another Ogden newspaper, in Lori’s office.
Bruce and I had known each other for years, and the interview became more of a chit chat about newspapers, and newspaper people we both knew.
I got the job.
It did not take very long for me to figure out that Lori was an excellent boss. And it took no time at all for she and I to become a team that was dedicated to publishing the best possible weekly newspaper that we could.
And we became close friends and will stay that way even after she leaves the Register and enjoys some very well deserved days of retirement.
I have often said that Lori was the best boss I ever had. That was a little bit of a joke because she is essentially the only boss I ever had, since I was always my own boss. But, the truth is, she really is the best boss, and most if not all of us who have worked with her at the Register will attest to that fact.
It is one of the reasons why we at the Register all say we really enjoy our jobs and are happy going to work every day. Not everyone can say that.
I do have a favorite story about Lori that she told me not to write about or talk about. But, you know, she is no longer my boss and she can’t fire me, so here goes.
I forget exactly how this came up, but one day at work Lori and I discovered that we had actually met long before I came to Blue Earth to work at the Register.
It was January of 1999 and I was the president of the Minnesota Newspaper Association (MNA). That meant I was the emcee of the banquet at the annual MNA convention.
Our guest speaker was going to be the newly elected governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura.
The executive director of the MNA and I were to greet the governor and escort him up to the banquet hall. Gov. Ventura was late, and we were not even sure he would show up. Panic was setting in.
Eventually he did arrive, and the executive director and I were trying to hustle him along to the banquet hall where everyone was eagerly awaiting his arrival and for the meal and program to start.
Two ladies who had been sitting at the bar area came out and waylaid the governor and wanted to visit with him, get his autograph, take a selfie with him (OK there wasn’t much of that in 1999) or whatever.
Meanwhile I am almost dragging Governor Ventura away from these two ladies so we could keep going.
I was fuming.
Yes, years later, Lori admitted to being one of the ladies from the bar. The other one was her boss at the time, Kelly (Anderson) Coy.
So our first “meeting” was not under the best of circumstances. However, we have had many laughs about it since that time.
I have to admit things will be different here at the Register without our fearless leader. However, we are very fortunate to have another terrific boss coming on board. We are excited to have Kristin step in and take over for Lori.
Life is still good.
Now if only we could find another reporter…