How Big An Obstacle Is The Star Tribune’s Paywall?
If the Strib and other newspapers would’ve had the foresight to charge for online editions when they first launched, we wouldn’t think twice about paying in 2011. But as it stands, new paywalls feel like a takeaway.
read moreThe End Of Newspapers Is Closer Than You Think
If present trends continue, the newspaper business will die before my 11-year-old daughter graduates from college.
read moreHow The Twin Cities Could Soon Become A One-Newspaper Town
For years, I’ve believed that the Twin Cities would inevitably end up with one newspaper. That’s been the trend nationwide for half a century. Why should we be the only place that bucks it? Events in California could determine whether we finally succumb to that trend.
read moreStrib, PiPress: Some Gain, More Pain
This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com. Recent developments in the media business offer some hope for the future of Minnesota’s two largest newspapers. But those welcome rays of hope ultimately could be dimmed by other, more powerful currents that threaten to drag down both of the old-media giants. First, the good news: [...]
read moreTrainer Bob Has Let Us Down, But So Has Bar La Grassa
We were rolling through another typical Tuesday afternoon over at Fast Horse world headquarters — Classic Vinyl was on Sirius Radio, Scott was complaining about the quality of the office candy bowl, and I was rolling through Hootsuite, checking on Twitter streams. Amidst the tweets of lunch updates, top 5 tips and Tuesday mundaneness, rolls [...]
read moreAn Inspirational Friend of the Pony
Just want to give a quick shout-out to our friend, Ruth Bachman, subject of a nice feature by Jeff Strickler in today’s Star Tribune. Ruth serves with Jorg on the board of the University of Minnesota Foundation, and we’ve been helping her spread the word about her efforts to raise $1 million for research at the [...]
read moreGrammar Police Alert
I ran into a Star Tribune friend this morning, who mentioned something interesting about the paper’s staffing. Local media-watchers are aware of the recent major cutbacks in copy editors at the paper; David Brauer has covered it ably for MinnPost. The strategy is to do everything possible to protect the jobs of reporters and other [...]
read moreDetroit, Know Thy Consumer
An insightful piece by our own Jorg Pierach led the Star Tribune’s op-ed section on Sunday. For those of you who may have missed it, here’s an intro and a link. SO, a hydra-headed task force headed by a couple of noted economists — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers — will try [...]
read moreThe Strib's Biggest Little Fan
We were verging on going paperless at our house. Our Star Tribune subscription ran out, and we dawdled about renewing it. You have to understand how surprising that was. I’m 51 (today! thankyewverymuch), and I started reading the Minneapolis Tribune in Fergus Falls when I was 6 years old. You could get it delivered every [...]
read more"We won't make a lot, but we won't lose much, either"
Now this is a fascinating look at the birth of old-media doom: a 1981 report by a San Francisco TV station about people getting newspapers over their home computer! It runs about 2 minutes. At 50 seconds in, you’ll see that among the first 8 newspapers available over CompuServe was the “Star and Tribune.” So, [...]
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