STAR TRIBUNE

The '''Star Tribune''' (also '''Star trib''' or '''Strib''', as it is often referred to) is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. A statewide version is also available across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The paper's largest competitor is the St. Paul-based ''Pioneer Press'', though it competes with a number of other papers in its wide circulation area.

Contents

History

Management

See also

References

External links

History

Today's ''Star Tribune'' is the product of the merger in 1982 between the ''Minneapolis Star'', an evening newspaper, and the ''Minneapolis Tribune'', a morning newspaper published by the same company.
Several earlier mergers preceded that one by many years, as outlined below. The ''Minneapolis Tribune'' was founded in 1867, and operated by the Murphy family between 1891 and 1941. The ''Minneapolis Journal'' was founded in 1878 as an evening paper. The ''Minneapolis Times'' was a morning paper starting in 1899; it was purchased by the ''Tribune'' in 1905 and its name was used in various forms until 1948. Finally the ''Minnesota Daily Star'' began printing in 1920, and later became the ''Minneapolis Star'', distributed in the evening.
The Cowles family bought the ''Star'' in 1935 and the ''Journal'' in 1939 and the two were merged into the ''Star-Journal'', soon truncated to ''Star''. The Cowles family bought the ''Tribune'' in 1941. The papers were operated as separate morning and evening papers. In 1982, the papers were merged into the '''Minneapolis Star and Tribune''', and in 1987 adopted the present name ''Star Tribune'' and the slogan "Newspaper of the Twin Cities." In 1998 The McClatchy Company purchased Cowles Media Company and sold off its other holdings, keeping the ''Star Tribune''.
In 1987, the paper had separate Minneapolis, St. Paul, and statewide editions but today it has two editions: a Minneapolis-St. Paul metro-area edition, and a Midwest edition covering news throughout Minnesota and parts of surrounding states.
On December 26, 2006 McClatchy Co sold the paper to private-equity firm Avista Capital Partners for $530 million, less than half of what McClatchy paid for the paper in 1998, when it bought the Star Tribune from Cowles Media for $1.2 billion.^[2]

Management

In March 2007 Par Ridder was named Publisher of the Star Tribune. Ridder was a member of the Ridder family that owned Knight-Ridder, the publishers of several newspapers including the (rival) St. Paul Pioneer Press. Ridder's departure has caused some talk of litigation as he took Pioneer Press property with him that contained employee information. Ridder also took several high-ranking staff with him to the Minneapolis paper, which raised eyebrows as the employees in these roles usually have non-compete clauses in their contracts (which prohibit their employment with rival papers for a period of time specified under their employment agreement).
In May 2007, reorganization of the newsroom began so as to focus more reporters on the suburbs of the Twin Cities. An increase in local coverage is intended to include local businesses and organizations.^[3]

See also

★ ''City Pages''

★ ''The Minnesota Daily''

★ ''MinnPost.com''

★ ''Pioneer Press''

References

1. 2007 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation
2. McClatchy's Minneapolis Sale Aids Web Efforts Sarah Ellison
3. Star Tribune to refocus on increasing local coverage Matt McKinney

External links

★ ''Star Tribune'' website