Tupper promoted to editor of The Daily Republic

The Daily Republic has filled its vacant editor position by promoting an employee from its newsroom.

Seth Tupper, the newspaper’s assistant editor and city hall reporter, was promoted to editor Thursday. The position opened March 15 when then-editor Korrie Wenzel was promoted to publisher.

Wenzel announced Tupper’s hiring to the newsroom staff in a brief meeting Thursday afternoon.

“Seth and I have worked together for some time now and have identical beliefs in what a small daily newspaper should be,” Wenzel said. “Seth is one of the top writers and reporters in the state and has been for some time now. I think it is, and will be, a natural transition for him to move into more of a management role. He knows what news is.”

Tupper, 31, grew up in Wessington Springs and Kimball and graduated from Kimball High School. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from South Dakota State University, where he served as editor of the student newspaper, the Collegian. He fulfilled his college internship requirement by covering a state legislative session for the South Dakota Newspaper Association’s Community News Service.

After college, Tupper worked as sports editor at the Daily Globe of Worthington, Minn., from 2002 to 2003. He was The Daily Republic’s region editor from 2003 to 2005, when he left the newspaper briefly before returning that same year to accept the position he filled until Thursday.

Tupper has won numerous journalism awards, including the 2007 Outstanding Young Journalist award in the daily newspapers category of the South Dakota Newspaper Association’s Better Newspapers Contest.

As editor, Tupper will lead a staff of 13 employees in The Daily Republic’s newsroom. He’ll be responsible for the news content of the six-day daily newspaper, several special sections and the newspaper’s Web site, www.mitchellrepublic.com.

“For 131 years, The Daily Republic has been writing the history of Mitchell and the surrounding area,” Tupper said. “It’s with great respect for that tradition that I begin my duties as editor, and I will work very hard to produce a quality newspaper not only for today’s readers, but also for posterity.”

Tupper has worked a total of eight years for Forum Communications Co., the Fargo, N.D.-based owner of The Daily Republic and other newspapers, television and radio stations, commercial printing operations and interactive media divisions in North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Tupper and his wife, Shelly, an Armour native, have two children: Kaylie, 3, and Lincoln, seven months. They are members of the Dakota Discovery Museum and the Congregational United Church of Christ.

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