 The July 27, 2005, front page of thePioneer Press | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Digital First Media (Alden Global Capital) |
| Publisher | Greg Mazanec |
| Editor | Mike Burbach |
| Founded | 1849 |
| Headquarters | 10 River Park Plaza, 7th Floor Saint Paul, Minnesota 55101 USA |
| Circulation | 90,615 Thursday 137,068 Sunday (as of 2020)[1] |
| ISSN | 0892-1083 |
| OCLC number | 48259426 |
| Website | twincities |
TheSt. Paul Pioneer Press is anewspaper based inSaint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It serves theMinneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the east metro, includingRamsey,Dakota, andWashington counties, along with westernWisconsin, eastern Minnesota andAnoka County, Minnesota. The paper's main rival is theStar Tribune, based in neighboringMinneapolis. ThePioneer Press is owned byMediaNews Group, controlled byAlden Global Capital.[2] It no longer includes "St. Paul" as part of its name in either its print or online edition, but its owner still lists the paper's name as theSt. Paul Pioneer Press[3] and the paper also calls itself theSt. Paul Pioneer Press on its Facebook[4] and Twitter pages. Its URL and digital presence is TwinCities.com.[5][6]
ThePioneer Press traces its history to both theMinnesota Pioneer,Minnesota's first daily newspaper (founded in 1849 byJames M. Goodhue), and theSaint Paul Dispatch (launched in 1868). Ridder Publications acquired thePioneer and theDispatch in 1927. Ridder merged with Knight Publications to formKnight Ridder in 1974. The two papers were operated for many years as separate morning and evening papers, but in 1985 were merged into the all-day publication theSt. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, which later dropped the "and" from "and Dispatch" in 1986, simply becoming theSt. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch. The publication eventually made the transition to a morning-only paper, and on March 26, 1990, the word "Dispatch" was dropped. The paper is sometimes called the "Pi Press", just as "Strib" is used for theStar Tribune.
During World War II the paper hadwar correspondents in the field. There were 30 correspondents from various papers atIwo Jima, including A.J. Crocker of the Pioneer Press.[7]
From 1947 to 1949, the newspaper printed the comic stripLi'l Folks, by Twin Cities nativeCharles M. Schulz. This comic introduced a number of characters who would later return in 1950 in the syndicated comic stripPeanuts, includingCharlie Brown and a dog strongly resemblingSnoopy.
In 1952, theDispatch began sponsoring atreasure hunt as part of theSaint Paul Winter Carnival. Clues to finding amedallion are printed in the paper, and the first person to find and return it with the clues and a registered carnival button wins a sum of money. The prize started off at $1,000 and as of 2004 rose to $10,000.
The paper has won threePulitzer Prizes: in1986,1988, and2000.
On March 10, 1999, the day before theUniversity of Minnesota men's basketball team was to begin play in theNCAA Tournament, thePioneer Press published a story written byGeorge Dohrmann with allegations that a staffer wrote coursework for many Minnesota basketball players within the past five years.[8] Immediately, Minnesota suspended four players suspected of academic fraud, and in 2000, theNCAA vacated all postseason appearances by Minnesota from 1994 to 1998 and docked scholarships for four years, among other penalties.[9] Dohrmann would win aPulitzer Prize forbeat reporting in 2000 for his reports on the scandal.[10] Dohrmann and his editor prepared for hostile reactions to the newspaper from the local community.[11] Minnesota governorJesse Ventura accused thePioneer Press of timing the article to be published around NCAA Tournament time for the sake of "sensationalism journalism", and thePioneer Press got many hostile calls and letters in response to the story.[12]
In 2004 thePioneer Press made news itself. The great-great-grandson of George Thompson, a former owner/editor of the paper, took a 1914 pocket watch of his grandfather's to theAntiques Roadshow when it came to St. Paul.[13] There he learned it was not ordinary, with an estimated value of $250,000. Afterward, the grandson sent the watch toSotheby's, where it sold for $1.5 million.[13] ThePioneer PressPatek Philippe is on display at the Patek Philippe Museum inGeneva.[13] In 2020 the show updated its appraisal of the watch's value to $2–3 million.
The McClatchy Company acquired the paper in June 2006 when it boughtKnight Ridder. As owner of theStar Tribune, McClatchy had to sell thePioneer Press because ofantitrust concerns.[14] ThePioneer Press was subsequently sold by McClatchy toMediaNews Group later in the year.
The hedge fundAlden Global Capital now owns a controlling share of thePioneer Press.[15] In its operating year of 2017,The Pioneer Press under Alden announced a profit of $10 million with a 13% operating margin after Alden cut the newspaper's workforce to around 60 people. Alden has faced notable criticism for this from editorial staff ofThe Denver Post.[16]
In 2006 thePioneer Press had 206 reporters, copy-editors, and editors who were members of a union. By September 2023, that number had dropped to 29.[17]
44°56′33″N93°5′0″W / 44.94250°N 93.08333°W /44.94250; -93.08333
