The Rake Magazine

This just in ...

Vikings will not buy Star Tribune Property

by Par Ridder, publisher and CEO August 29, 2007 -

The Minnesota Vikings have advised us that they do not intend to buy the four blocks of Star Tribune property around the Metrodome. To date there is no change to the legal status of the purchase agreement as previously announced.

While we had reached agreement on a deal in principle, the collapse of the I-35W Bridge and the turbulent credit markets have caused the Vikings to reevaluate their plans.

As you know, in anticipation of this sale, we have started work on the 425 Portland Building that will make it possible for us to move all the Star Tribune employees out of the Freeman Building and into the Portland Building.

We are going to continue with the move since the costs savings of not operating two buildings plus the benefit of everyone under one roof are worth the disruption.

We will be working with Avista and our real estate advisors over the next few weeks to determine our next steps.

The current employee parking program remains the same for now, with the exception of the 2007-2008 Vikings home games. We do have a one-year lease with Impark to manage our parking lots during Vikings home games. (See today's Stribnet story for details.)

Thank you, Par

My first question is what does the bridge collapse have to do with the Vikings backing out of this? The thing will be replaced long before they'd ever build a stadium.

A friend -- a tipster -- kicked over a letter sent out this past Aug. 13, roughly two weeks ago, by Steve Alexander, the Star Tribune's Sr. VP for Circulation. Addressed, I gather, to new subscribers, it "welcomes" them to the Star Tribune family, thanks them for subscribing, and then commences telling them "a little bit about our newspaper."

Two things caught my eye: One is where Alexander mentions "350 full-time journalists" working at the paper. At best, I can determine the Star Tribune currently has around 90-120 reporters and photographers -- the people actually gathering news and returning it to the building for processing, and I'm told that even by the most generous reckoning the 350 number has been significantly reduced ... this summer alone.

But we'll let that pass.

What really piqued my interest was when Alexander tells his new customers that, "For almost 140 years, the Star Tribune has been part of the Twin Cities community. Since 1945, we've been committed to ongoing philanthropy through the Star Tribune Foundation, which currently distributes $3 million annually."

Really? $3 million? Annually? Right here in Minneapolis-St.Paul, I assume you're saying?

If I sound surprised it's because I was under the distinct impression that when McClatchy sold the Strib to Avista Capital Partners it closed down the Star Tribune Foundation -- which made grants to local arts and civic organizations, good corporate neighbor kind of stuff, and matched employee contributions to alma maters and such things -- and took what was left in any Foundation accounts with them to California, which is a long ways from Minnesota.

As is the case these days, no manager or executive at Minnesota's largest media organization deigned to respond to a question from this scurrilous mongrel blogger. (I'm sure Joel Kramer's new team will have no problem getting Strib execs to return their calls or e-mails.)

My call to Mr. Alexander was quickly passed over to Ben Taylor, Sr. VP for Marketing and Communications ... and Mr. Taylor did not respond to my voice-mail asking him to clear up the status of the Foundation.

One call led to another, and I soon found Ms. Sam Fleitman, formerly the Star Tribune Foundation's manager, now working for Andersen Windows' foundation. Ms. Fleitman's job at the Star Tribune disappeared with the Avista purchase, and so did the Foundation and everything in its accounts.

But, just to be clear, does the Star Tribune Foundation still exist, I asked Fleitman?

"Not in this town," she said. "McClatchy took the Foundation with them and I believe is using what resources were left through their other papers."

In other words, it would be hard to be "currently" distributing "$3 million annually" here in Minnesota ... through a defunct Foundation.

And what about outstanding, multi-year commitments, perhaps? You know, deals where the Foundation agreed to fund two or three years down the line?

"We paid all of them off through 2008," said Fleitman, who had been the Foundation's manager for nine years before Avista shut it down. "This would be money promised to the Walker and places like that, for example. And what was outstanding certainly wasn't $3 million. I should know."

Fleitman cautions that she obviously has no on-going contact with the Star Tribune. So it is possible -- possible -- that Avista has re-established the Foundation and is once again pouring money into local arts groups and do-gooding organizations. But if they are, the only person who seems to know anything about it is Mr. Alexander, and maybe Mr. Taylor, and they ain't talkin'.

Not that it quite rivals the Wall Street Journal stealing a Pulitzer Prize out from under the local dailies' nose with Bill McGuire's United Health back-dating scam, but it's a little embarrassing to miss a U.S. Senator -- Larry Craig, aka "The Militia Senator" and "The Right and Honorable Senator of the Aryan Nation", not to mention one of the far right's High Priests of Gun Worship and Family Values -- soliciting anonymous gay sex right there in our own airport.

WCCO TV's Jason DeRusha over on MnSpeak.com offers this explanation why no one in town caught the Craig arrest back June or the court action earlier this month:

"1. Airport Police are a pain in the neck... and extremely secretive. Even yesterday, no one would come back to the office to send us the report or give us the mug shot. "They close at 4 p.m." is what I was told.

"2. Because airport police is separate from Minneapolis Police, or the Sheriff's office, media would have to go to the airport to request reports. The arrest information doesn't leave their property, and as the charge was a minor charge, I don't think it even went to the county attorney. It was like a ticket.

"3. No one locally would raise an eyebrow about a "disorderly conduct" at the airport for a guy named Larry Craig even if they saw the report's front page.

"4. The plea deal at the courthouse happened the week after the bridge collapse. So the usual suspects who would have tipped someone off, were too busy with other things to even concentrate on this.

Someone nationally had to tip off Roll Call, the Capitol Hill Newspaper. That's who broke the story."

»» Submitted by »»» jderusha at 7:44 AM on August 28.

Earlier today I called the Star Tribune's dogged Minneapolis reporter Rochelle Olson, surprised that she of all people hadn't caught that one. "The name alone wouldn't have meant anything to me," she said. "Believe me, I wish I had. But I didn't. Are you going to rip me?"

No. I've missed WAY too many good stories to lob stones over this, which as I say, isn't quite on the same level as a billionaire ripping off shareholders and contributing to the outrageous cost of health care in this country. But since Olson has just about everything else in Minneapolis to cover, thanks to Avista/Par "right-sizing", it is worth wondering aloud how maybe if the big paper did have more bodies working city government and cop beats, downtown and out with MAC, they might have had a source who would have tipped them to this particular "Larry Craig" flashing the card of a U.S. Senator after getting yanked out of toilet stall. A cop tipster was about the only way a local reporter would have gotten the story last June.

Meanwhile, I gotta ask, what gives with these guys? I mean Republican Congressman Mark Foley and the pages, McCain's Florida guy Republican Bob Allen soliciting gay sex in a public restroom because he was frightened of black guys in the vicinity, uber-evangelical proselytizer Ted Haggard (wild guess -- Republican) buying meth ... meth! ... and banging a gay body builder, Jeff Gannon credentialed by the White House as a reporter for Talon (virtual) press (wha?) and later revealed to have worked with a gay escort service, the chairman of the Clark County Republican Party out in Vegas fellating some kid while he slept, and now Larry "Wide Stance" Craig tapping feet in Minnesota, as well as Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias and his romps with a D.C. escort service and Republican Louisiana Sen. David Vitter and the --female -- hookers. (Do those last two guys get a pass for just nailing women?)

I mean, can we just agree that from this point forward any politician or evangelist who declares themselves pro-family values and makes a huge, vote-getting, money-making scene about ripping gay marriage decrying the slippery slope from gayness to turtle sex is in effect acknowledging both their own closeted homosexuality and an affinity for a little clandestine quick-and-dirty, probably in a noisy john, with meth and without?

It is so far beyond easy satire, Jon Stewart's gotta be stumped.

By the way, check out these characters reenacting Sen. Wide Stance's Lindbergh Terminal shtick.

Why didn't Shelby and Vascellaro do this?

Also, Glenn Greenwald at Salon has a terrific "then and now" with right-wing bloggers and pundits excoriating, Mike Rogers, the guy who blogged about Wide Stance last October ... and what they are saying today. His post comes with every imaginable link to all things Wide and Stancey.

In its entirety:

INTERNET-BASED DAILY NEWS ENTERPRISE TO BE LAUNCHED THIS YEAR

MINNEAPOLIS, August 27, 2007
MinnPost.com -- an internet-based daily providing news and insight for Twin Cities and Minnesota readers -- will launch later this year.

Joel Kramer, CEO and editor, announced that he has raised $1.1 million in startup funds for the not-for-profit enterprise. Four local families have contributed a combined $850,000, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, based in Miami, announced a donation of $250,000.

"Communities need news every way they can get it," said Eric Newton, vice president of Knight Foundation's journalism program. "What makes this experiment interesting are its non-profit model and the willingness of such a broad spectrum of the community to give money and time to this effort."

MinnPost.com will offer exclusive front-page news stories as well as
"posts," a new format in which professional journalists engage in an
informal conversation with readers about what they're learning and what to make of it. Posts will be a bit like blogs, but unlike many blogs, they will be built around original reporting -- not just opinions or links to other people's work.

MinnPost.com, which will publish Monday through Friday, also will offer daily roundups providing perspective on metro, state, national and international news, stories from selected content partners (currently under discussion), commentary from community leaders and experts, and comment from and involvement of readers. MinnPost will be nonpartisan, and all opinion pieces will be signed.

More than 20 Twin Cities journalists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning
Pioneer Press reporter and best-selling novelist John Camp and former Star Tribune columnist Doug Grow, have already committed to contributing regularly to MinnPost.com, according to managing editor Roger Buoen, former deputy managing editor of the Star Tribune.

In addition to Kramer and Buoen, MinnPost editors will web editor Corey Anderson, former online managing editor of City Pages; news editors Don Effenberger and Casey Selix, both former editors at the Pioneer Press; and MinnPost in Print editor Beth Thibodeau, formerly an editor at the Star Tribune.

"MinnPost.com is all about substantive news for Minnesotans who are
intensely interested in the world around them and want more insight and analysis than they're getting from their media choices today," said Kramer, who served as editor of the Star Tribune in the 1980s and as publisher and president in the 1990s. "It will combine the best of traditional journalism with new forms of newsgathering and storytelling made possible by the Internet. MinnPost.com will emphasize original, high-quality content five days a week, plus carefully chosen work from other sources. You can read it online, or in a printable newspaper format, MinnPost in Print."

The 25 journalists who have agreed so far to contribute to MinnPost are:

Judy Arginteanu, former editor and reporter for the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune, will report about the arts and other topics.

Brady Averill, who has covered the Minnesota congressional delegation for the Star Tribune, will write about a variety of topics.

Dave Beal, a former business editor and columnist for the Pioneer Press, will write about business and the economy.

Steve Berg, who has worked as a Washington Bureau reporter, national correspondent, and editorial writer for the Star Tribune, will report on urban design, transportation, and national politics.

Judith Yates Borger, who has written for The New York Times, Star Tribune, and Pioneer Press, will report on legal affairs, science, and other subjects.

Cynthia Boyd, a former reporter and columnist for the Pioneer Press, will write on education, health, social issues, and other topics.

David Brauer, Minnesota Public Radio's media analyst, local magazine writer, former City Pages reporter and Southwest (Mpls.) Journal editor, will cover media, Minneapolis City Hall, and Hennepin County politics.

John Camp is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling
novelist who writes under the pen name John Sandford. He won a Pulitzer in 1986 for a series of stories in the Pioneer Press -- collectively titled Life on the Land: An American Farm Family -- about a Minnesota farm family's struggles during the Midwest farm crisis. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for a series of articles on Native American culture. He is also well known for numerous popular detective novels and thrillers. He will report and write on a variety of topics.

Steve Date, a teacher and photographer working on a documentary film about a West Virginia coal mining town, will do video blogs on a variety of topics.

Delma Francis, who has worked as an editor or reporter at the Lexington Herald, Courier-Journal and Louisville Times, Hartford Courant, Richmond Times-Dispatch and Star Tribune, will report on education, health care, and other topics.

Doug Grow, a former sports columnist for the Minneapolis Star and metro columnist for the Star Tribune, will write about public affairs, state politics, and other topics.

Kay Harvey, a former reporter and editor for the Pioneer Press, will report on aging, demographics, gender, and psychology.

Beth Hawkins, former reporter and editor for City Pages, will write about criminal justice, schools, and other topics.

David Hawley, a former arts critic and reporter at the Pioneer Press and author of a half-dozen plays and two nonfiction books, will write about the arts and other subjects.

Chris Ison, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, former editor and reporter at the Star Tribune, and winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for articles about a string of arsons in St. Paul, will write occasionally on a variety of topics.

Sarah Janecek, publisher of Politics In Minnesota, will write about public affairs and politics.

Joe Kimball, a former columnist and reporter for the Star Tribune, will report on St. Paul City Hall and Ramsey County politics.

Linda Mack, who formerly wrote about architecture for the Star Tribune, will cover architecture.

Mike Mosedale, who has written for City Pages and newspapers in Connecticut, Wisconsin, and California, will report on the environment, Indian affairs, and other topics.

Greg Patterson, former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and Star Tribune, will report on race and diversity and business-related topics.

Steve Scott, formerly religion editor and writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and a past visiting scholar in religion journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, will cover religion.

Casey Selix, former assistant business editor and reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, will write about nonprofits, the arts, women, and other topics.

Carla Solberg, who has written for Minneapolis/St. Paul Business, Twin Cities Business, and Upsize Business, will report on local business developments, the health care industry, and other topics.

Jay Weiner, who has covered sports and other topics for the Star Tribune, will report on sports and public policy, outdoors and the environment, and religion.

Bob Whereatt, former political reporter for the Star Tribune, will write about public affairs and state government.

Some of these journalists will do regular posts, some will write front-page stories, and some will do both. Additional contributors are expected to be named later.

"This is a tough time for newspapers," Kramer said. "Declining advertising revenue has led to substantial cuts in staff and news space, and serious, ambitious news coverage has suffered. But this creates a real opportunity, too, because so many outstanding journalists have left Twin Cities newspapers, and they and a variety of talented free-lancers are eager to bring their talents and experience to MinnPost."

In addition to the website, MinnPost in Print will be a quick-read but thoughtful daily newspaper published Monday through Friday in 8.5 x 11 format, printable on home and office computers and expected to be available in high-traffic locations over the lunch hour.

MinnPost has raised $850,000 in startup donations so far from four couples -- Sage and John Cowles, Vicki and David Cox, Laurie and Joel Kramer, and Terry Saario and Lee Lynch.

Lee Lynch has been elected first chair of the board of MinnPost. Other board members are John Cowles, David Cox, Joel Kramer, Kathleen Hansen, professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota and director of the Minnesota Journalism Center, John Satorius, an attorney with Frederikson & Byron, and Patrick Irestone, CEO of Meritide, a software firm in Roseville.

Kramer said he will seek additional foundation support to help finance MinnPost's early years, but that the plan is to become self-sufficient eventually, based on two main revenue sources: sponsorship/advertising and member donations. "We believe a lot of Minnesotans will support this kind of high-quality journalism," Kramer said. He invited people to visit the website, www.MinnPost.com, to learn more and keep up with progress toward the launch.

MinnPost is currently looking to hire a leader for the business side of the organization and a sponsorship/advertising director, Kramer said.

The MinnPost.com website is being developed by Clockwork, a firm in Northeast Minneapolis. MinnPost's office will be in Southeast Minneapolis.

Additional information and reaction to follow.

Everyone's criteria for a valuable on-line news site is different. Mine requires that professional writers are able to produce BETTER copy than they were able or allowed to do within the heavily-mediated institutional voice of daily newspapers. Otherwise, what's the point? This attitude assumes that dullness and blandness afflicts daily journalism as much as piratical ownership and craigslist.

Joel Kramer, the former Strib editor and publisher, now launching the non-profit on-line "paper", MinnPost.com, was fielding a stream of calls this morning. "But you got me now," he said, "so go ahead."

OK. What license are you suggesting to the writers coming on board that'll make them better than they were in print?

"Well, I think it is a constant refrain from writers that they're looking forward to doing better work. We intend to produce stories that are clearly edgier and display more courage and at the same time more informality."

And what about the license for language?
"We won't be using curse words." No cussing? Shit.

Kramer cleared up a few misperceptions -- some of them fomented by this site. Among them is the MPR question. The answer there is, "No. We have no equity or business relationship with MPR, or with anyone else. We did approach The Rake, but that was when were looking at a for-profit model. When we decided to go non-profit, those discussions ended."

Still, Kramer describes MinnPost.com's audience, (that's the official name), as a "news-intense audience deeply steeped in the values of traditional journalism but open to the more free-wheeling aspects of the web. More to the point, they are readers who use multiple news sources every day." He says whoever told me he foresaw an audience of "100,000 to 200,000" heard wrong. He says he sees the potential audience, "in the hundreds of thousands".

"And we are," he says, "totally focused on that audience."

Still, my curiosity was always that this "news-intense" audience more or less mirrors MPR's radio audience, and the "membership" aspect of Kramer's financial model -- where readers will be encouraged to show their support by writing checks -- looked to be trespassing a bit on MPR's turf.

"Well, I certainly wouldn't describe it as trespassing," he replied. "I mean, you could just as well say we were trespassing on the Star Tribune or the Pioneer Press."

Ok, OK, loaded choice of words. But "news intense and ... membership". But no MPR business alliance/partnership?

No. I guess. What he says he is examining are "content partnerships" where MinnPost.com and a partner might "publish the best work from each other's site." He says he sees ways, "Our audience will overlap with other organizations."

I asked if the $250,000 coming from the Cowles family accompanies an understanding that additional funds will come with the passing of quarters and fiscal years? The answer was, "No. The donors we've listed were asked only for a one-time commitment. The Knight Foundation was particularly pleased that our intention is to be self-sustaining, through sponsorships, advertising and memberships. We might get a national grant from time to time for investigative reporting or something. We will certainly be applying."

Rumors of the fee structure for writers he says were also wrong, but $200/week for two blog posts and $600 for stories either cherry-picked from the most intriguing blog-post or assigned by MinnPost.com editors sounds an awful lot like what the rumor mill was spinning.

Kramer did say that, "Not every name on this morning's list will be a poster," and that commentary, beyond the voice of the blogger/poster, will be drawn "from the community", but, "there won't be commentary every day." Writers, he says, will not be under any exclusivity constraints.

The presence of John Camp, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former PiPresser and best-selling crime novelist gives the site some national marquee weight. And Politics in Minnesota publisher, Sarah Janecek, gives MinnPost at least one contributor to the right of Dennis Kucinich.

Kramer says he's open to the higher-tech gew-gaws of audio and video, but suspects that end of MinnPost.com will not be functional when the site debuts later this fall. (That's a hoped-for start, BTW). He says he is already getting calls from other writers offering their services and is actively looking for younger writers.

"We hope to do a lot of things," he says. "I'm just not sure we'll be able to do them all the first year."

I mention an oft-repeated concern around town as he worked toward his announcement. Namely that if he screws this up, if MinnPost.com doesn't offer something appreciably better than the two dailies and/or doesn't draw traffic sufficient to sustain itself within three or four years, it could have the effect of discouraging other investors in trying it again. I mean, not to lay on the pressure, but that's what people are saying.

"Well, it's always pretty much the same thing, isn't it? No risk, no reward. There are a lot of things we have to get right and we're working pretty hard to see that we do just that."

Meanwhile, watching from the balcony is former City Pages editor, Steve Perry. Perry is working toward a for-profit site that would appeal to at least the faction of the "news-intense" audience that wants steady, rolling analysis on news of the day -- in the vernacular of sophisticated people -- and interaction with each other. Perry's reputation will draw a different type of writer than those at the top of Kramer's list.

Paul Schmelzer at Minnesota Monitor did an interview with Perry last week.