Thursday, August 30, 2007
New Online Organization to Compete With Metropolitan Newspapers
byThe Minneapolis-St. Paul (Minn.) metropolitan area has two struggling newspapers. One paper’s publisher jumped to the competitor, and he’s now caught up in a legal dispute over his departure. Both papers feel the widespread industry challenges: lagging circulation, declining revenue and deep newsroom cuts.
In this environment, is there a niche for a start-up, Internet-based news organization staffed with former editors and reporters from the two dailies? The founders of MinnPost think so.
The MinnPost venture was unveiled this week by Joel Kramer, former publisher of the Star Tribune. The non-profit has raised $1.1 million, mostly from four local families with deep newspaper roots. Kramer has assembled an all-star lineup of 25 journalists, including many familiar staffers who left the two dailies during recent newsroom cuts. MinnPost will publish new content five days a week.
MinnPost promises original reporting through posts, a “new format in which professional journalists engage in an informal conversation with readers about what they’re learning and what to make of it. Posts will be a bit like blogs, but unlike many blogs, they will be built around original reporting – not just opinions or links to other people’s work.”
Kramer believes there’s a local online news audience for in-depth reporting, commentary and discussion. He described the ideal reader to PJNet:
All ages, generally well educated, engaged in their communities. They rely on multiple sources of news, and they care about quality and depth. Perhaps more likely to live in cities and first-ring suburbs, but news-intense people can live anywhere.
It’s clear that MinnPost wants to put serious journalism first – and that’s certainly a noble philosophy. But as Content Bridges and others point out, can a group of ink-stained print journalists adapt their coverage to an online medium? Can the site evolve with social media and Web 2.0 technologies while staying true to its journalism core? When it launches later this year, we’ll learn whether MinnPost will be a new, engaging online news experience or simply another online newspaper.
