Norman B. Black

Norman B. Black purchased The Fargo Forum in 1917 and ran it as publisher until his death in 1931, founding the family newspaper business that became Forum Communications Company, still controlled by his descendants five generations later.

Based in Fargo, ND Org Forum Communications Company Role Founder; President & Publisher, 1917–1931

Notable work and positions

The Forum (Fargo, N.D.) — Founder of family ownership; President and Publisher (1917–1931)
Forum Communications Company — Founder
Grand Forks Evening Times — former Manager (1906–c. 1911)
North Dakota Press Association — former President

Biography

Norman Baldwin Black was born September 27, 1865, in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, the son of a Scottish immigrant. He became a printer's apprentice at 13 and entered the newspaper business in Ontario before moving to Wisconsin, where he and his brother leased and later bought weekly newspapers in Merrill and Marinette. He also worked in Wisconsin politics, serving as secretary of the local Republican Party and as head of the state's Factory Inspection Department in Milwaukee, a position he lost when Robert M. La Follette's progressive faction took control of Wisconsin politics. Black later worked as a traveling salesman for the Minneapolis Paper Company, a job that gave him a sales territory covering North Dakota and introduced him to the Red River Valley.

In 1906, Black entered North Dakota newspaper work as manager of the Grand Forks Press, also known as the Grand Forks Evening Times, building a new printing plant and installing a modern press; after about five years, the paper was consolidated with the Grand Forks Herald. He served as president of the North Dakota Press Association for several years. In 1917, Black and several associates arranged to purchase The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican from owner J.P. Dotson for $100,000, putting down a $100 option and traveling to New York to borrow the balance; the sale was announced in the paper's April 17, 1917, edition, and Black became publisher on May 1, 1917. He went on to purchase the Minot Daily News in 1920 and the Fargo Tribune in 1924, making the Tribune the Forum's morning and Sunday edition, and in 1926 built the Forum's headquarters building in downtown Fargo, which the paper still occupies. Through the Forum, Black editorially opposed North Dakota's Nonpartisan League political movement. He established a policy that ownership of the paper would remain with people responsible for its operation, with no outside stockholders, and installed H.D. “Happy” Paulson as editor and his own son, Norman D. Black, as circulation and business manager.

Black was a charter member of the Fargo Rotary Club, was known locally for his singing voice, and donated a pipe organ to Fargo's First Presbyterian Church and to Concordia College. He died January 8, 1931, in Fargo at age 65 after a three-week illness, having served 13 years as the Forum's publisher. In 1933, he became the first inductee into the North Dakota Newspaper Association's Hall of Fame. Black willed his estate, including his controlling interest in the Forum, to his wife, Jennie (“Jenny”) Black, who became the company's majority stockholder and board president, serving until her death in 1954; her will established the Norman B. Black Foundation, later renamed the Forum Communications Foundation. The paper and company have remained under the control of Black's descendants for more than a century: his son, Norman D. Black, was publisher from 1931 to 1944; his grandson, Norman D. Black Jr., from 1944 to 1969; Black's great-granddaughter Jane married William C. Marcil Sr., who was publisher from 1969 to 2010; and Marcil's son, Bill Marcil Jr., has served as publisher and as Forum Communications' president and CEO since 2010.

Career highlights

1. Purchase of The Fargo Forum, 1917Bought the newspaper for $100,000, beginning more than a century of continuous ownership by his family, now Forum Communications Company.

2. Expansion into the Fargo Tribune and new headquarters, 1924–1926Acquired the Fargo Tribune as the Forum's morning edition and built the downtown Fargo building that remains the company's headquarters.

3. North Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame, 1933Became the first person inducted into the North Dakota Newspaper Association's Hall of Fame, two years after his death.