Will MPR save journalism?

I assure you I’m neither the first nor the last keyboard jockey to ask this post’s titular question, but this article from Ken Doctor has me thinking again about it. (In fact, last time I was on this kick, I was writing about NPR and, a quick check reveals, I used an awfully similar headline.)
Public [...]

Media Misses Health Trend Story Behind Rating

We’re number six! We’re number six!
It’s not exactly the cheer proud Minnesotans are accustomed to when it comes to health. After all, for four years in a row we were the number one healthiest state in the nation, according to the United Health Foundation. Health has always been one of [...]

PiPress gives the Strib a big, wet kiss

Bob Collins at MPR’s NewsCut blog has an interesting story from this weekend. Apparently, the folks at the St. Paul Pioneer Press felt compelled to give their across-the-river competitors at the Minneapolis Star Tribune a nice big hug after the Strib clawed its way out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Click on the image to see a [...]

Rocket Man

Here’s to the Star Tribune’s incomparable editorial cartoon genius Steve Sack.
And i think it’s gonna be a long long time,
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not the man they think i am at home.
Oh no no no, I’m a rocket man!
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone.
And i think it’s [...]

The Seven Words You Now CAN Say On New Media

The shape of the media is obviously changing. Old media is adapting and sometimes expiring. New media is experimenting, evolving, dying and sometimes flourishing. Where it all will land is anyone’s guess.
But one interesting implication of all these changes is that much of the content is now outside the control of the [...]

Will NPR save the news?

This Fast Company article about NPR — and its ability to kick journalistic ass and take donor names during the thought-to-be unversial media-business downturn — is a great read for anyone who’s intrigued by these “future of journalism” discussions or, more simply, who like a little Kerri Miller in the middle of their mornings.
According to [...]

StarTribune Outlook 2009

Nov. 17, 2008, memo from StarTribune publisher Chris Harte:
“A Preview of 2009
Over the past few weeks, many of us have working intensely on the 2009 Star Tribune budget. Even in normal times, budgeting is often hard and unpleasant. In times like these, it is agonizing.
Against the backdrop of the sudden and unexpected worldwide economic meltdown, [...]

Fixing the Newspaper Business or “Do I Have to Do Everything Around Here?”

This has been on my to-do list for a while but it keeps getting pushed downstream by other, more pressing issues.   The volume of whining – along with the complaints about the whining – has gotten so loud, though, I figured I’d better take an hour or two and get it done:
“#23: Fix newspaper business.”
Pay [...]

You Be the Judge…

Kudos to the Star Tribune for giving us regular folks a peek at what a ballot challenge looks like. They have scanned all 2,633 challenged ballots and presented them in an easy-to-use, “You Make the Call” format. I reviewed 42 ballots and gave 18 to each Franken and Coleman and put six others [...]

Franken Sense and Blur

The outlook of the Minnesota U.S. Senate election recount is obviously blurry. The source of much of the confusion is related to how challenged ballots should be characterized during the period before the State Canvassing Board rules on them.
FRANKEN VIEWPOINT. The Franken campaign says their count now shows them 22 votes ahead of [...]