Operations at the Minneapolis Spokesman and St. Paul Recorder newspapers didn't skip a beat when Launa Q. Newman took over the reins after her husband, Cecil, the papers' founder and editor, died in 1976.
Launa Q. Newman: First and foremost, a Twin Cities publisher
She was the guiding force at the Spokesman and the Recorder for 30 years, taking over after her husband died.
February 9, 2009 at 12:52PM
"She was the saving force behind the newspapers," said Tracey Williams, Newman's granddaughter and the current owner and president of the Spokesman. "She took pride as an African-American woman to run a newspaper with such elegance."
Newman, 87, died Tuesday in her Bloomington home after a battle with ovarian cancer.
Newman learned the printing business while working side-by-side with her husband, who founded the publications in 1934. While he focused more on the editorial side, Newman ran the business side and attended to management details. In her role as publisher, which she assumed in 1976, Newman faced some early challenges, including ushering the newspapers into the era of electronic publishing and opposing naysayers who said she could not keep the papers going.
"She was a no-nonsense person and could give you straight talk," said Bill Wilson, director of Higher Ground Academy, a K-12 charter school in St. Paul. He said he met Newman when he ran for the St. Paul City Council. "She had a great strength and a love for people and the printed word. She had a great way of engaging and involving people," Wilson said.
Newman served as publisher for 30 years, until 2007, when she merged the publications to create the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, which has a circulation of about 10,000.
Newman was an avid bridge player and was a member of several local clubs. She served on the board of the Minneapolis Boys Club and was one of the first black members of the Woman's Club of Minneapolis, where she was extremely active in meetings and "did a lot of hard work to get things done," said longtime friend Phebe Givins of Minneapolis.
Born in 1921 near Topeka, Kan., Newman grew up in Iowa and graduated from North High School in Des Moines. She attended business school there and met her first husband, Wallace O'Neal Jackman. She moved to Minneapolis in 1958, and nine years later married her second husband, Cecil, whom she met through a neighbor who worked as a stringer at the paper.
Newman is survived by her son, Wallace (Jack) Jackman, of Des Moines; daughter Norma Williams of Bloomington; and sisters Ernestine Walker of Lakeland, Fla., and Venita Wells of Des Moines.
Services will be at 11 a.m. today at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, 519 Oak Grove St., Minneapolis. Visitation will be at 10 a.m.
