Brooks joins Pioneer Journal as new publisher

WADENA —The Wadena Pioneer Journal recently welcomed a new publisher, Devlyn Brooks, to its award winning staff.

Brooks brings a wealth of news and business experience to his role as publisher of Forum Communications newspapers in Detroit Lakes, Perham and Wadena.

Over the course of his career, he has served as a regional reporter and copy editor at the Bemidji Pioneer, and was managing editor at the International Falls Daily Journal, Faribault Daily News, and the Northfield News.

He was a news editor at the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead and editor of The Bakken Today, which covered the North Dakota oil patch.

Along the way he taught media writing as an adjunct faculty member at NDSU, and early in his career launched and ran a newspaper, the Agassiz Shoreland, in northwestern Minnesota.

He served as digital content operations manager and later operations manager in Forum Communication Co.'s Interactive Media Group, helping deploy the company's digital content strategy – which aims to engage the public with the company's more than 30 newspaper and broadcast websites. FCC's websites reach more than 4 million readers each month.

For the last four years he has been president of Forum Communications’ Modulist, a media services company that processes paid user content for newspapers and other media. It specializes in the processing of obituaries, milestones (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) and business announcements, allowing people and businesses to tell their stories how they want them told.

Brooks has also been a part-time Lutheran pastor over the past five years, acting first as a synodically-authorized minister, and then as an ordained minister, at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn.

As publisher, Brooks is responsible for overseeing operations at the newspapers in Detroit Lakes, Perham and Wadena. He oversees sales, news, circulation and other personnel, sets sales goals, makes final decisions on editorial policy, and serves as the newspapers’ ambassador to the community.

Brooks and his wife, Shelley, have four children – Garrett, 24, is a registered nurse in Burnsville; Carter, 19, is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota; Ava, 17, is a senior at Moorhead High School; and Siri, 14, is a freshman at Moorhead High.

Brooks replaces award-winning publisher Melissa Swenson, who stepped down last month to pursue other opportunities.