Such changes are often unavoidable and far beyond our limited scope of power to control. Technological advancements in the printing field and increasing newsprint costs have their effects on us, far away though we may be from their source.

All these changes must be successfully absorbed into the paper’s structure. Indeed, any business should be prepared to do a little changing of its own, rather than just blow with the prevailing wind.

Long-range planning is imperative. In the event of management or personnel changes, exact prerequisites in connection with job descriptions are necessary.

It would seem that there are two primary prerequisites for editorial work on an ethnic newspaper. I hesitate to rate them in importance because both must be considered. One without the other makes a mockery of the position.

The first is newspaper experience. Ethnic newspapers are still, after all, newspapers and, as such, they should conform to journalistic and print standards. All too often, it is incorrectly believed that someone who likes to write would make an excellent newspaperman. A flair for adjectives does not help you out much when you’re taking a picture, laying out a page or doing the final paste up work. Only a trained and/or experienced newspaperperson can come up with professional results.

And secondly, you need possession of our interest in the ethnic heritage concerned. I will dwell on this at some length, not because it is more important than journalistic experience in running an ethnic newspaper but because its emotive appeal is so high.

There are plenty of unemployed journalists out there – some of them with training, some with experience and some with both. But the number of those willing to take on Lögberg-Heimskringla, for example, is a very small percentage of the total.

Besides the obvious disadvantage of not knowing the language or the culture, such persons do not have the necessary enthusiasm for such a project ... understandably, in most cases.

But it is that enthusiasm that is the making or breaking of an ethnic newspaper. To use an old-fashioned phrase, working on any ethnic newspaper becomes a “labour of love.” It is (and must be to succeed) more than just a job.

The purpose of ethnic newspapers is to promote a knowledge and appreciation of a particular culture and to maintain links between persons of similar backgrounds and interests. If those involved in the manufacture of the final product do not share in that purpose, the paper is defeating its own ends.

It may seem difficult to find a person combining both journalistic experience and a specified ethnic background.

But at least if you know what you’re looking for, you’ll be able to recognize it when you see it.