From what I am told, It's a bit looser at the Herald than many might think.
The Herald top editors are pretty handsoff as far the newspages, and that's where the bias is (the top editors that is).
I'm told that the copy editors have a lot of freedom as far as how they lay out their own pages at the Herald. And all the copy editors I know at the Herald, and that's five or six, are all Sioux fans. The sports section also are Sioux fans, except for Kevin Fee, who is much more neutral.
The newroom is led by the managing editor, Kevin Grinde, in the Herald's case, and I can tell you for certain that he is not anti-nickname at all. He's a graduate of Bemidji State and cheers hard for the Beavers and the Fighting Sioux.
Mike Jacobs, as editor and publisher, has his hands on all divsions of the paper, and tends to spend more time worrrying about the bottomline and the money making ends of the paper -- advertising and circulation.