Newspaper stops giving endorsement and publishes full text of candidate interviews instead

� Grand Forks Herald � The election is nine days away - and the Herald's editorial columns should be filled up with endorsements.

Not this year, however.

Earlier in the year, Editorial Page Editor Tom Dennis convinced me and other members of the editorial board that we should try something different. Instead of endorsements, the board would offer interviews of candidates. These would be posted on the Herald's Web site, www.GrandForksHerald.com for anyone interested to read.

Interviews of most candidates have been posted. A few are yet to be transcribed. They should be on the Web site by the end of the week.

This is a great idea.

I would be all in favor of the editorial board endorsement coming along with the full text of the interviews of those meetings. Better still, release the full text of the meetings along with a podcast of each of the meetings as well.

By the way, a full text of the interviews I've been a part of at the Pgh Tribune Review, including audio and video, have been posted to a blog in Never-never Land dot com because I've NEVER been invited to an interview with that newspaper.

So, while the rest of the country is moving these endorsement interviews into the modern age, it is impossible to get candidate interviews with some newspapers in this town.

It is no wonder why there are hundreds of newspapers throughout the nation that are in deep financial troubles. The industry is dying because of a lack of motivation and creativity.