| "The Heart and Voice of the North" | |
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 The September 20, 2024, front page of theStar Tribune | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Star Tribune Media Company LLC (Glen Taylor) |
| Publisher | Steve Grove |
| Editor | Kathleen Hennessey |
| Opinion editor | Phil Morris |
| Founded |
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| Headquarters | Star Tribune Building 650 3rd Ave S. Suite 1300 Minneapolis,MN United States |
| Circulation | 102,000 Digital Subsribers[1] 71,000 Daily 123,000 Sunday (as of 2025) |
| ISSN | 0895-2825 (print) 2641-9556 (web) |
| OCLC number | 43369847 |
| Website | startribune |
The Minnesota Star Tribune, formerly theMinneapolis Star Tribune, is an American daily newspaper based inMinneapolis,Minnesota. As of 2023, it is Minnesota's largest newspaper and theseventh-largest in the United States by print circulation, and is distributed throughout theMinneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the state, and theUpper Midwest.
It originated as theMinneapolis Tribune in 1867 and the competingMinneapolis Daily Star in 1920.[2] During the 1930s and 1940s, the two papers consolidated, with theTribune published in the morning and theStar in the evening. They merged in 1982, creating theMinneapolis Star and Tribune, renamed theStar Tribune in 1987. After a tumultuous period in which the newspaper was sold and resold and filed forbankruptcy protection in 2009, it was purchased by local billionaire and former Minnesota State SenatorGlen Taylor in 2014.[3] In 2024, the paper was renamedThe Minnesota Star Tribune.[4]
TheStar Tribune typically contains national, international, and local news, sports, business, and lifestyle stories. Journalists from theStar Tribune and its predecessor newspapers have won sevenPulitzer Prizes.
TheStar Tribune's roots date to the creation of theMinneapolis Daily Tribune by ColonelWilliam S. King,William D. Washburn, andDorilus Morrison. The two men previously operated different Minneapolis newspapers, the State Atlas and the Minneapolis Daily Chronicle. The newspaper was designed to unify the local Republican Party under one newspaper.[5] TheTribune's first issue was published on May 25, 1867. The newspaper went through several different editors and publishers during its first two decades, including John T. Gilman, George K. Shaw,Albert Shaw, andAlden J. Blethen. In 1878, theMinneapolis Evening Journal began publication, giving theTribune its first competition. On November 30, 1889, downtown Minneapolis'sTribune headquarters caught fire. Seven people were killed and 30 injured, and the building and presses were a total loss.[6]: 3, 10–14 [7]
In 1891, theTribune was purchased byGilbert A. Pierce andWilliam J. Murphy for $450,000 (equivalent to $14.2 million in 2024[8]). Pierce quickly sold his share toThomas Lowry, and Lowry sold it to Murphy, making Murphy the newspaper's sole owner. His business and legal background helped him structure theTribune's debt and modernize its printing equipment. The newspaper experimented with partial-color printing and the use ofhalftone for photographs and portraits. In 1893, Murphy sent theTribune's first correspondent toWashington, D.C. As Minneapolis grew, the newspaper's circulation expanded; theTribune and theEvening Journal were closely competitive, with the smallerMinneapolis Times in third place. In 1905, Murphy bought out theTimes and merged it with theTribune.[6]: 15–18
He died in 1918, endowing aschool of journalism at the University of Minnesota. After a brief transitional period, Murphy's younger brotherFrederick E. Murphy became theTribune's publisher in 1921.[6]: 23, 29
The other half of the newspaper's history begins with theMinnesota Daily Star, which was founded on August 19, 1920, by elements of the agrarianNonpartisan League and backed byThomas Van Lear and Herbert Gaston. TheDaily Star had difficulty attracting advertisers with its overtly political agenda and went bankrupt in 1924. After its purchase by A. B. Frizzell and formerNew York Times executive John Thompson, the newspaper became the politically independentMinneapolis Daily Star.[6]: 55–56 [9]
In 1935, the Cowles family ofDes Moines, Iowa purchased theStar. The family patriarch,Gardner Cowles Sr., had purchasedThe Des Moines Register and theDes Moines Tribune during the first decade of the century and managed them successfully. Gardner's son,John Cowles Sr., moved to Minneapolis to manage theStar. Under him, it had the city's highest circulation, pressuring Minneapolis's other newspapers. In 1939, the Cowles family purchased theMinneapolis Evening Journal, merging the two newspapers into theStar-Journal.Tribune publisher Fred Murphy died in 1940; the next year, the Cowles family bought theTribune and merged it with their company, giving it ownership of the city's major newspapers. TheTribune became the city's morning newspaper, theStar-Journal (renamed theStar in 1947) was the evening newspaper, and they published a joint Sunday edition. A separate evening newspaper (theTimes) was spun off and published separately until 1948.[6]: 57–62 [10]
In 1944, John Cowles Sr. hiredWisconsin native and formerTulsa Tribune editorWilliam P. Steven as managing editor of the two newspapers; Steven became vice president and executive editor in 1954. During his tenure in Minneapolis, he was president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association in 1949 and first chairman of the organization's Continuing Study Committee. By August 1960,John Cowles Jr. was vice president and associate editor of the two papers, and it was soon apparent that he disapproved of Steven's hard-nosed approach to journalism. When Steven chafed under the younger Cowles's management, he was fired.[11][12]
After Steven's ouster, Cowles Jr. was editor of the two newspapers; he became president in 1968 and editorial chairman the following year. He had a progressive political viewpoint, publishing editorials supporting thecivil rights movement and liberal causes.[13]
In 1982, the afternoonStar was discontinued due to dwindling circulation, a trend common for afternoon newspapers. The two papers merged into a single morning paper, theMinneapolis Star and Tribune. Cowles Jr. fired publisherDonald R. Dwight. His handling of Dwight's termination led to his removal as editor in 1983, although his family retained a controlling financial interest in the newspaper.[13]
In 1983, theStar and Tribune challenged a Minnesota tax on paper and ink before theSupreme Court of the United States. InMinneapolis Star Tribune Co. v. Commissioner, the court found that the tax (which targeted specific newspapers) violated theFirst Amendment.[14] In 1987, the newspaper's name was simplified toStar Tribune, and the slogan "Newspaper of the Twin Cities" was added.[10]
In 1998,the McClatchy Company purchasedCowles Media Company for $1.4 billion, ending the newspaper's 61-year history in the family in one of the largest sales in American newspaper history. Although McClatchy sold many of Cowles's smaller assets, it kept theStar Tribune for several years. On December 26, 2006, McClatchy sold the paper to private equity firmAvista Capital Partners for $530 million, less than half of what it had paid for Cowles eight years earlier.[15][16]
In March 2007, Par Ridder was appointedStar Tribune publisher after his predecessor, J. Keith Moyer, left the newspaper after the sale.[17] Ridder is a member of the Ridder family, which had ownedKnight Ridder (publishers of several newspapers, including at that time the rivalSt. Paul Pioneer Press). Ridder's arrival resulted in litigation when it was discovered that he had stolen a hard drive containing information about employees and advertisers, which thePioneer Press called "trade secrets". Ridder also took two high-ranking staff members to the Minneapolis paper, which raised eyebrows since such employees usually havenon-compete clauses in their contracts. On September 18, 2007, Ridder was removed from his post by a Ramsey County judge,[18][19][20] and he resigned on December 7.[21]
On January 15, 2009, the paper, then the country's 15th-largest daily, filed for bankruptcy underChapter 11.[22][23][24][25] On September 17, theUnited States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved a bankruptcy plan for theStar Tribune, which emerged from bankruptcy protection on September 28. The paper's senior secured lenders received about 95% of the post-bankruptcy company.[26]
Since 2010, theStar Tribune has given out awards to the "Top 150 Workplaces in Minnesota".[27][28]
Since theStar Tribune's bankruptcy, its former ownership group, led by New York City–based Avista Capital Partners, has no stake in the company.[26]
Wayzata Investment Partners became majority owner of the Star Tribune Company in August 2012, with a 58% stake.[29] In 2014, the company was acquired byGlen Taylor, owner of the NBA'sMinnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA'sMinnesota Lynx. A formerRepublican state senator, Taylor said theStar Tribune would be less liberal under his ownership. He also said the paper had already begun a shift and would focus on accurately reporting both sides of all issues.[30][31] In May 2015, the company acquired alternative weeklyCity Pages fromVoice Media Group.[32]City Pages continued publishing until it became another victim of advertising revenue loss and theCOVID-19 pandemic. It shuttered in October 2020, and the website was moved to theHennepin County Library's archives.[33]
In September 2025, the paper announced it would sell its printing plant in Minneapolis, lay off 125 workers, and outsource printing to a plant in Iowa.[34]
After the 1987 formation of theStar Tribune, the newspaper was published in three editions: one for Minneapolis and the western suburbs, one for St. Paul and the eastern suburbs, and a state edition for Minnesota and the Midwest. The St. Paul edition was discontinued in 1999 in favor of a metro edition for the Minneapolis–St. Paul area and a state edition for areas beyond the metropolitan area.[35][36]
Although the newspaper competes with the St. Paul–basedPioneer Press in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, theStar Tribune is more popular in the western metropolitan area, and thePioneer Press is more popular in the eastern metro area. The newspapers share some printing and delivery operations.[37][38]
TheStar Tribune went online in 1995, introducing the StarTribune.com website the following year. In 2011, the website erected apaywall.[10][39]
TheStar Tribune has five main sections: main news, local news, sports, business, and variety (lifestyle and entertainment). Special weekly sections include Taste (restaurants and cooking), travel, Outdoors Weekend, and Science + Health. The Sunday edition has a more prominent editorial and opinion section, Opinion Exchange.
Journalists with the pre-mergerMinneapolis Star andMinneapolis Tribune won threePulitzer Prizes:
Star Tribune journalists have won three Pulitzers:
In 2021, the staff of theStar Tribune won the Pulitzer prize for breaking news coverage for the "urgent, authoritative and nuanced" coverage of themurder of George Floyd.[46]
In April 2023, Steve Grove became the new publisher after Michael Klingensmith stepped down. Grove was the head of theMinnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development under Minnesota GovernorTim Walz.[47] He formerly worked as a reporter and a Google executive, leading theGoogle News Lab. Klingensmith had served as publisher since 2010.[21]
After the Cowles family consolidated the city's newspapers, their offices were gradually moved to the former theDaily Star headquarters in downtown Minneapolis. The building was renovated from 1939 to 1940 and expanded in a larger renovation from 1946 to 1949. After 1949, the building housed the offices and presses of theStar and theTribune. During the 1980s, an annex, the Freeman Building, was built across the street from the headquarters and connected with askyway.[49][50] In 1987, the Star Tribune opened a new, $110 million printing plant, called the Heritage Center, in a historicwarehouse district on the northern edge of downtown Minneapolis. Its five offset presses took over printing allStar Tribune editions. News and business offices remained in the downtown headquarters, whose old presses were removed.[51]
In 2014, the company announced that it would relocate from the 95-year-old headquarters building to the newly christened Star Tribune Building at theCapella Tower complex, making way for development around nearbyU.S. Bank Stadium. Demolition of the buildings began in 2014; the last employees relocated in mid-2015, and the demolition was completed later that year.[52][53] Also in 2014, the Star Tribune's Heritage printing plant began printing theSt. Paul Pioneer Press[54] under a contract with its cross-town rival. The following year,USA Today contracted with the Star Tribune to print regional copies of its daily edition at the Heritage plant.[55] Printing plants owned by those newspaper companies in St. Paul and Maple Grove, Minn., shut down.[54][55]
Twin Cities Arts & Entertainment
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