A calm but powerful voice for progress and decency in his community, Robert Berglund was paramount to teaching “community journalism” to several generations of newspaper reporters and editors of the Tribune-Record-Gleaner in Loyal, Wisconsin.
Robert Berglund began his newspaper career straight out of high school, when he began as an apprentice at the Turtle lake Times in 1949. In 1956, after a stint in the army and time as a postal clerk in Turtle Lake he married his wife, Florence. The two purchased the Loyal Tribune and the Spencer Record in 1968, and the Greenwood Gleaner in 1969. They took merged the three struggling weekly newspapers – with a combined circulation of about 1,300 – into the Tribune Record Gleaner, which is still serving communities in the Loyal area today with more than double the circulation of about 3,000.
Berglund was active in both the newspaper community as well as the Loyal community. He served as an officer or director of Wisconsin Newspaper Association beginning in 1976 and became president of the statewide association in 1982. Berglund earned the Loyal Chamber of Commerce’s “Citizen of the Year” award in 1984. He served on several boards in Clark County, and was involved in the Loyal American Legion Post, the Loyal Lions Club and was chair of the Clark County Republican Party.
Berglund’s commitment to Wisconsin newspapering has been proven time and time again through an unyielding pursuit of community journalism and through his and the publication’s strong ties to the towns they serve. To this day, his influence is still evident in the high quality of writers and editors of the Tribune Record Gleaner and the commitment they have to their readers.
