An electrical malfunction in the press room at the Bemidji Pioneer halted production and resulted in late delivery of the Saturday edition of the newspaper, according to Publisher Dennis Doeden.
At approximately midnight Saturday, the electrical circuit board in the press room malfunctioned. A press operator noticed the problem immediately and shut off power to the printing press.
The newspaper was then sent to the Forum Communications Printing facility in Detroit Lakes where printing resumed at about 4 a.m. Due to the problems, Saturday's paper was delivered to its readers several hours later than usual.
"The majority of our readers were understanding of the situation," Doeden said, adding that extra circulation personnel were on hand to field calls from customers Saturday morning.
"We're pleased we didn't have to miss a day of publication," he continued, "but we realize that this caused an inconvenience for people who expected their paper at the normal time."
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Norris Thompson, a technician from Forum Communications Co. headquarters in Fargo, N.D., repaired the curcuit board on Saturday and got the press up and running so the Sunday edition could be printed in Bemidji.
"Norris is an absolute genius," Doeden said. "He can fix anything."
Because of the printing issues, the Pioneer originally changed the deadline for the Sunday edition so the paper could be sent to Detroit Lakes for printing and in order to ensure that the paper could be delivered at its regular time this morning.
That early edition would not have included coverage of sporting events that occurred Saturday night, including Bemidji State's hockey playoff game in Detroit against Alabama-Huntsville. Because of the repairs, those events are covered in today's edition.
