Grinde elected NDNA president

Kevin Grinde, managing editor of the Grand Forks Herald, has been elected president of the North Dakota Newspaper Association.

The association has as its members the 10 daily and 80 weekly newspapers in the state and acts as an advertising sales and service agency for its members as well as providing educational opportunities for its members and the promotion of open government for the public.

Grinde is a native of Grand Rapids, Minn., and 1984 graduate of Bemidji (Minn.) State University in mass communications. He has held positions with the Grand Forks Herald since 1985 and was named managing editor in 1998. He and his wife, Sara, are the parents of three adult children.

Also elected to the board of directors on May 1 at NDNA’s 124th annual convention in Fargo were First Vice President Wanda Olaf, advertising director of the Williston Herald; Second Vice President Kathleen Leinen, editor of the News-Monitor at Hankinson; and Third Vice President John Irby, editor of The Bismarck Tribune.

Jill Freisz, publisher of the Grant County News at Elgin and the Carson Press, was re-elected to the board of the director, and Tom Monilaws, general manager of the Kelly Publications newspapers in Casselton, Mayville and Hillsboro, was elected to a two-year term on the board.

The carry-over members of the board are Allan Burke, co-publisher of the Emmons County Record at Linton and Jackie Thompson, publisher of the Walsh County Record, Grafton.

Grinde succeeds Jon Flatland, publisher of the newspapers in Finley and Cooperstown, as president of NDNA.

NDNA presented Distinguished Service Awards to three persons for their contributions to the newspaper industry and their communities. The recipients were longtime reporter and columnist Marilyn Hagerty of the Grand Forks Herald; her late husband, Jack Hagerty, the long-time editor of the Grand Forks Herald who died in 1997; and to Lloyd B. Case, president of Forum Communications Co. of Fargo.

Tags: nd business, business, newspaper