By Ellen Clegg
The Minnesota Star Tribune’s new opinion editor, Phillip Morris, only started his job in July. But what a difference a month can make.
The award-winning journalist from Cleveland hasn’t wasted any time shaking things up. On Aug. 15, Morris announced sweeping changes for the paper’s editorial and op-ed pages: the Strib, as the paper is known locally, will no longer write endorsements for candidates or ballot questions, and it’s launching Strib Voices, a new platform featuring bylined commentary from across Minnesota.
Morris is bringing on 11 columnists with a wide range of views. Community engagement editor Kavita Kumar, a former reporter on the Strib’s business desk, vows to scour the state to bring in new writers to keep the conversation flowing.
Even Keith Harris of The Racket, a zippy reader-funded alternative news outlet started by Northeastern University alum Em Cassel, writes that “The Strib May Have Just Done Something Right,” and notes, “The picks are diverse, with a Native American, Hmong-American, and Somali-American in the mix. There’s also a Lutheran pastor, a weed guy, and a civics wonk. I may happily read what at least some of these people will have to say.” (You can find our previous What Works podcast discussion with Cassel here.)
Until recently, the paper, based in Minneapolis, was known simply as the Star Tribune. Now it’s been rebranded as The Minnesota Star Tribune to reflect the statewide mission that it has embraced. The profitable, growing Strib is among the projects that we write about in our book, “What Works in Community News.”
From first appearances, the Strib’s decision to drop candidate endorsements does not seem to signal the timid retreat that many chain-owned dailies have made over the last few years. Gannett and other news outlets have axed editorial endorsements in part because owners do not want to alienate readers and in part because endorsements are deceptively staff-intensive, often requiring group interviews, in-depth reporting and fact-checking, and internal discussions by an editorial board and a publisher. Notoriously, even The New York Times announced recently that it was giving up local and statewide endorsements, although it will continue to weigh in on presidential elections.
Instead, the Star Tribune’s editorial board will remain firmly in place, offering signed opinion as well as unsigned editorials on “important moments for the state,” according to Morris. Much like the Times, the editorial board will not weigh in every day with an unsigned editorial but will presumably pick its shots. Analysis of issues will replace candidate endorsements, and candidates in major races will be invited to write commentaries explaining their positions.
“At a time when many media platforms are cutting back or shying away from opinion journalism, the Star Tribune is going in a very different direction,” Morris, who is also a vice president, wrote in a column outlining the changes. “We believe that now more than ever, amplifying the voices that reflect our state, in all its complexities, will increase understanding and create the most dynamic conversation that’s ever existed about this place we all call home.”
