Digital producer joins News Tribune staff
Jun. 8—A familiar Duluth face has joined the team at the Duluth News Tribune.
Dan Williamson brings nearly two decades of journalism experience to his new role as a digital producer for the newspaper, where he will assist with producing videos, podcasts, social media content and photos. He previously worked as director of development for the Duluth Salvation Army and was sports director and anchor at WDIO-TV in Duluth.
An Alexandria native, Williamson has lived in Duluth since 2012 and considers it home.
"If I'm here in Duluth for the rest of my life, I'll be a lucky person," he said.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mass communication and broadcast journalism from St. Cloud State University. He worked as a news and sports anchor at KSAX-TV in Alexandria and as the sports director and anchor at KXMB-TV in Bismarck, North Dakota. He has also was a radio and web sports commentator and reporter/photographer/producer for Lifetouch Media Productions in the Twin Cities for the syndicated program "Life to the Max."
Williamson said he looks forward to exercising his creativity to tell stories about Duluth and to acquire new skills on the News Tribune team.
"I'm a creative soul. That's what excites me — to be able to come up with an idea or visualize something and be able to implement it," he said. "I like the fact that there's things I can learn. They say when you stop learning, you stop growing, and I want to keep growing."
One of Williamson's favorite experiences of his career and time in Duluth was getting to know Mark Sertich, the Duluthian known as the world's oldest hockey player. Other highlights of his career are covering a Super Bowl, a Major League Baseball All-Star game, national championship runs for the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team and multiple state prep tournaments.
"We are looking forward to Dan Williamson using his talents to enhance the digital-publishing efforts on our website, aiding in the production of video and podcast content, and promoting our stories, photographs and videos on our various social media channels," Executive Editor Rick Lubbers said. "Dan's TV broadcasting experience is a nice bonus as we ramp up our digital-publishing efforts."
In his free time, Williamson enjoys spending time outdoors and being active by inline skating and playing golf, volleyball and other sports. He also loves to be near or on the water and spend time with his family and friends.
