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IN A MEDIA MARKET long defined by shrinking newsrooms and obvious declining ambition, something unexpected has happened in Duluth.
The Minnesota Star Tribune has quietly become the best daily news source in the region.
Not the biggest. Not the loudest. The best.
That would have sounded far-fetched a few years ago, when most of the Star Tribune’s energy, staffing and institutional muscle lived two and a half hours south of here. But that has changed.
Today, when something important happens in northern Minnesota — a major business deal, a labor dispute, a government decision, a court case, an environmental fight or a public-safety issue — odds are the most complete, fastest and most accurate reporting comes from the Star Tribune.
And it isn’t close.
What makes this especially striking is that the Star Tribune is not supposed to “own” Duluth. The local papers, television stations and radio outlets have long had home-field advantage. They have offices here, ad bases here and decades of built-in familiarity with the region.
Yet too often they now arrive late, light and thin on the stories that actually matter.
The Star Tribune does not.
Two names deserve special recognition for that shift: Jana Hollingsworth and Christa Lawler.
Their reporting has been relentless, precise and deeply grounded in the region. They don’t parachute in. They don’t rewrite press releases. They don’t treat northern Minnesota as an afterthought or a curiosity. They do the work that good journalism has always required — calling sources, reading documents, knocking on doors, chasing down loose ends and staying on stories long after the easy headline has passed.
It shows.
Whether it is the complex politics of Duluth City Hall, the economic currents reshaping the Northland, or the often messy realities of public institutions, they have been delivering stories that feel informed rather than reactive, contextual rather than shallow.
Meanwhile, too many local outlets have drifted into a kind of soft-focus journalism. Stories get written, but too often without depth. Press conferences get covered, but rarely interrogated. Big issues get acknowledged, but not fully explored. The result is a steady diet of content that checks a box without actually feeding the public’s need to understand what is happening around them.
The Star Tribune, by contrast, has treated northern Minnesota as a serious place worth serious reporting.
That matters more than ever.
Duluth is navigating enormous forces — healthcare consolidation, downtown redevelopment, housing shortages, infrastructure decisions, climate-driven changes to Lake Superior, tourism economics and shifting demographics. These are not small-town stories. They are regional, statewide and sometimes national in scope.
They demand journalists who know how to work at that level.
The Star Tribune now brings that muscle north, and Jana and Christa have been the face of that effort. They ask better questions. They write cleaner stories. They frame issues in ways that make sense not just to insiders, but to readers who want to understand why a decision was made and who benefits from it.
Good journalism is not about hometown logos or nostalgia. It is about who shows up, who stays late, and who tells the truth with clarity and independence.
Right now, in Duluth and across the Northland, the Star Tribune is doing that better than anyone else.
That is not an insult to local media. It is a challenge.
The bar has been raised.
MEDIA NOTES
Forum Communications Co. has agreed to acquire a group of Midwest newspapers from Wick Communications, expanding its presence across the Northern Plains.
The deal includes the Sidney (Mont.) Herald, Williston (N.D.) Herald, Pierre (S.D.) Capital Journal, Madison (S.D.) Daily Leader, Fergus Falls (Minn.) Daily Journal, Wahpeton (N.D.) Daily News and Hankinson (N.D.) News Monitor. The papers serve communities in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
Terms were not disclosed. The transaction is being handled for Wick Communications by Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media mergers and acquisitions firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Wick Communications is a third-generation, family-owned media company based in Sierra Vista, Arizona.
“We’re excited about the future of these community publications and the talented employees who produce local journalism and advertising every day,” Wick Communications CEO Josh O’Connor said. “Forum Communications will be a strong steward of these publications, which fit well into its Upper Midwest footprint.”
Forum Communications, based in Fargo, North Dakota, is a fifth-generation, family-owned media company with more than 30 newspapers, television stations and digital platforms across the Upper Midwest.
“These publications fit well within our local news footprint and allow us to continue expanding our impact in the region,” said Forum Communications President and CEO Bill Marcil Jr. “This acquisition strengthens our position as the largest news-gathering organization in the Upper Midwest.”
The newspapers will continue publishing local news and community coverage following the ownership change.
