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IT WAS AN INSULT THAT inspired Sang Mouacheupao to start Hmong Today, a bi-weekly newspaper for the Hmong community in the Twin Cities.
"I was told that a Hmong person can never do a newspaper; Hmong are not consistent," he said,
Six months later, in October 2003, he started working on Hmong Today. The first issue came out Jan. 1.
Mouacheupao was not completely new to journalism; he had been working at the Hmong Times, a bi-weekly for Hmong launched about five years ago. Starting his own paper was a little scary, he said, "I never took journalism classes in college, I didn't take an ethical class, I never learned what I can and cannot do."
He graduated from Macalester College in 1995 with a degree in political science. He had wanted to go to law school, but didn't get accepted at the University of Minnesota. He got his first taste of journalism at the Hmong Times and found he liked it.
He is learning fast. Hmong Today has been a success. Mouacheupao had expected to run the paper with a loss for about a year. Instead, the paper is already breaking even.
The newspaper is different from traditional publications for the...