Whats black and white and read all over?
Written: Dec 11 '99 (Updated Jun 09 '00)
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Pros: Overall, not a great paper, but decent for a town this size.
Cons: When it was locally owned, they published my cogent and witty (in my not so humble opinion) letters to the editor 5 or 6 times a year. Now that it's owned by a bigger company, they rarely do. The search algorithm at the online www.startribune.com leaves m
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| erik_kosberg's Full Review: Minneapolis Star Tribune |
Like many mid-sized cities in the U.S. that used to have several newspapers, Minneapolis is down to one, The Minneapolis StarTribune. That’s true literally, but we’re not called the Twin Cities for nothing. The Saint Paul Pioneer Press is also available here so there is at least some competition. These long blended names tell a bit of the history, both are amalgams of what used to be at least nominally separate morning and evening papers. The Minneapolis Tribune and the Minneapolis Star melded into the StarTribune about 15 years ago as did the two Saint Paul papers. The Strib used to be locally owned but a year or two ago it was acquired by McClatchy (The Pioneer Press is owned by Knight-Ridder.
Instead of using the official long name, almost everyone here calls it The Strib. The Strib is available in two versions with slightly different content, a metro-area edition and an “out-state” edition that’s available throughout Minnesota, western Wisconsin, northern Iowa and the eastern Dakotas. There used to be a third edition targeted to St. Paul residents (The Pioneer Press also experimented with a Minneapolis edition) but both papers abandoned their third versions.
Okay, enough with the history, what has The Strib done for me lately? It’s got decent but not great coverage of world affairs (probably 80% of which is picked up from other newspapers and wire services). The Strib does have a staff member (Eric Black) who often goes way beyond the 12 to 16 paragraph limit that seems to infect many paper’s coverage of world affairs to write lengthy and usually quite insightful background stories.
The editorial positions are fairly consistently vaguely to the left of center (yes, they are vaguely consistent) unless the topic is related to something in their direct financial interest, then they switch over to a fairly consistent vaguely to the right of center position. In other words, their editorials are fairly consistently vaguely marginally useful.
The Strib has a few really good writers like Eric Black who does world affairs and James Lileks who does the “Back Fence” column in the metro section (Lileks also has an hysterically funny personal web site). I’m not much of a sports fan (except for baseball; if you’re ever in the twin cities, be sure to go to a Saints minor league game) but were it not for the laws of slander and libel I’d have some very nasty things to say about one of their very nasty senior sports writers. But since I didn’t say anything, he can’t sue me for the defamation of character that he so richly deserves.
Recommended:
Yes
Describe the newspaper's political views: It is moderate
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Epinions.com ID:
erik_kosberg
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Location: Minneapolis, MN
Reviews written: 118
Trusted by: 262 members
About Me:
A science experiment with inconclusive results
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