Howie is Minnesota’s Columnist, writing about statewide power, business, sports and civic life. His daily column is powered by Lyric Kitchen Bar of Downtown Duluth.
For most of my 50-plus years around newspapers, the rules were simple: Own the presses, own the trucks, own Sunday morning. That was the business model. You built circulation town by town, advertiser by advertiser, classified page by classified page. Local furniture stores paid the bills. Grocery inserts kept the lights on. Sports connected emotionally. Politics stirred arguments. Free obituaries quietly reminded communities who they were.
And if you were lucky enough to run the dominant paper in a major American market, you possessed something almost impossible to replicate: Daily habit. That habit created enormous civic power.
Which is why Glen Taylor’s purchase of the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2014 was never merely a business acquisition, despite what some analysts wanted to believe at the time. Newspapers nationally were collapsing into hedge-fund carcasses then, stripped for parts by financial firms that viewed journalism the same way private equity views aging shopping malls.
Taylor viewed the paper differently. That distinction still matters. As somebody who has spent a lifetime in print journalism — now independently, outside corporate walls, writing daily as Minnesota’s Columnist — I’ve come to believe the Star Tribune story is actually one of the most important business and civic stories unfolding in Minnesota right now.
Because the question is no longer whether newspapers are dying. That argument is already old. The real question now is which institutions survive the transition from industrial-age newspapers into modern digital civic platforms. And whether Minnesota’s largest news organization fully understands what it must become next.
Taylor almost certainly understood something many East Coast media analysts did not when he bought the paper. Institutional authority still carries enormous value in the Midwest. Especially in Minnesota.
Taylor came from printing, manufacturing, operations and old-school regional business culture. He built Taylor Corporation through relentless scale, acquisitions and operational discipline, not through Silicon Valley disruption mythology. He understood circulation economics, commercial printing, advertising structures and subscriber behavior at a ground-floor level most modern media investors never experienced personally.
More importantly, he understood civic influence. That matters because newspapers historically were never merely media companies. They were regional organizing forces.
And despite everything that has changed digitally, the Minnesota Star Tribune still retains enormous residual institutional power. Probably more than many Minnesotans fully realize.
Even people who dislike the paper react emotionally to it because it still helps shape the statewide conversation. That alone separates it from hundreds of regional newspapers around America that have already drifted into irrelevance.
But here’s where the story becomes more complicated. The Star Tribune today sits between two identities. One foot remains planted in the legacy Minneapolis metro newspaper model. The other is clearly reaching toward something much larger: a statewide digital institution.
The recent branding shift toward Minnesota Star Tribune was not cosmetic. That was strategy. And a smart strategy.
Because the future likely belongs not to city newspapers, but to statewide super-regional media brands capable of building digital subscription relationships across entire states. Especially in educated, civically engaged states like Minnesota.
The opportunity ahead for the Star Tribune is enormous if leadership recognizes it fully. The paper could realistically become the dominant statewide politics platform, the central Minnesota business publication, the definitive statewide sports authority, and perhaps most importantly, the daily civic habit connecting Minnesota culturally across geography.
That last part matters enormously. Because Minnesota increasingly suffers from geographic fragmentation. Twin Cities. Greater Minnesota. Iron Range. Rochester. Mankato. Duluth. St. Cloud. Brainerd Lakes. Southern farm country.
These regions increasingly consume different media, carry different assumptions and often feel culturally disconnected from one another. A truly statewide publication could help bridge some of that divide.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: The Star Tribune still feels too Twin Cities-centric emotionally. Not just geographically. Emotionally. There’s a difference.
Too often, Greater Minnesota coverage still carries the subtle feeling of being observed from the metro rather than spoken with organically by voices rooted in those communities themselves. Readers sense that immediately. And digital audiences are brutally honest now.
They no longer subscribe automatically because a paper historically dominated the market. They subscribe because they feel seen, understood and emotionally connected to the product. That is where the Star Tribune still has work to do.
The paper’s newsroom remains strong institutionally:
excellent investigative reporting, deep sports resources, strong political reporting, serious business journalism, and one of the last remaining large reporting infrastructures in the Midwest.
Those are enormous advantages. But institutional strength alone no longer guarantees audience growth digitally. Personality matters now. Voice matters now. Connection matters now.
The New York Times figured this out earlier than most legacy organizations. What made the Times successful digitally was not simply putting newspaper stories online. It transformed itself into a subscription habit ecosystem: newsletters, audio, mobile-first engagement, lifestyle verticals, columnist brands, podcasts, games, food, explainers, and personality-driven journalism.
The modern media war is not circulation anymore. It is habit formation. And habit formation increasingly revolves around trusted human voices as much as institutional credibility.
That is precisely where independent journalism has exploded nationally. Readers today increasingly follow people, not buildings. They want perspective. Authority. Authenticity. Texture. Lived experience. They want voices that feel rooted somewhere real.
This is where I believe the Star Tribune opportunity becomes fascinating. The paper does not need less statewide expansion. It needs more.
But not through a traditional metro-newsroom mindset trying to “cover” Greater Minnesota from afar. It needs trusted regional voices embedded authentically throughout the state. Northern Minnesota voices. Southern Minnesota voices. Rural healthcare voices. Agriculture voices. Regional business voices. Civic columnist voices. Local sports voices.
Not caricatures. Not parachute journalism. Not occasional feature tourism.
Real recurring personalities readers develop relationships with over time. Because that is how digital loyalty actually works now. As an independent publisher myself, I see this daily. Readers do not merely consume information anymore. They choose companionship.
That may sound strange to old newspaper veterans, but it’s true. The most successful digital journalism today increasingly resembles relationship-building more than industrial publishing. And frankly, Minnesota is perfectly positioned for this evolution.
This remains one of the most literate, civically engaged and subscription-friendly states in America. People here still care deeply about schools, healthcare, business, government, sports and community identity. That creates fertile ground for a strong statewide digital-first journalism model.
But “digital first” must mean more than reducing print frequency someday. It means organizationally understanding how people behave digitally. Mobile-first storytelling. Newsletter ecosystems. Distinct columnist brands. Audio products. Regional verticals. Audience communities. Direct engagement. Statewide identity-building.
That transition is difficult for any legacy newspaper because it requires simultaneously protecting older subscribers while reinventing itself for younger audiences who consume media completely differently.
And younger readers absolutely do consume journalism differently. They expect voice, speed, visual storytelling, intimacy, podcasts, social-native presentation, and stronger perspective. Traditional newspaper tone increasingly feels sterile online.
The irony is that newspapers once depended heavily on personality-driven voices. Legendary metro columnists built enormous loyalty for decades because readers felt they knew them personally. Somewhere along the way, many corporate newsrooms over-sanitized their own humanity. The institutions became polished. The personalities disappeared.
Digitally, that’s dangerous. Because authenticity now beats polish constantly.
Still, compared to most regional newspapers in America, the Minnesota Star Tribune is actually positioned remarkably well. It has stable ownership. A strong market. A respected brand. Large newsroom resources. And leadership under publisher Steve Grove that clearly understands digital platform behavior far better than traditional newspaper executives historically did.
Grove’s Google background matters here. He understands audience funnels, engagement loops and digital ecosystems in ways legacy newspaper leadership often struggled to grasp.
The mission ahead now becomes clearer. The Star Tribune cannot simply become a bigger Minneapolis paper. It must become Minnesota’s daily civic meeting place. That requires ambition. Regional humility. And a willingness to embrace strong human voices throughout the state. Not merely institutional authority.
Because in the end, newspapers no longer win simply by printing information first. They win by becoming indispensable daily companions in people’s lives. That is the future battle.
And whether the Minnesota Star Tribune fully captures that opportunity may help determine not only its own future, but whether Minnesota remains one of the last states in America still capable of sustaining a truly influential statewide journalism institution.
