By Ellen Clegg
Just a month ago, The Minnesota Star Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for “powerful stories marked by thoroughness and compassion” in its coverage of the Annunciation Church shootings last year. Who wasn’t moved by the photo of a mom running barefoot toward the church — a strappy summer pump in each hand?
This year, the newsroom’s coverage of ICE detentions and the ensuing local protests — a neighborly Minnesota Nice rebellion of sorts — was nothing short of stellar.
But what a difference a month can make in the volatile and unforgiving world of what media analyst Ken Doctor calls “newsonomics.” On Tuesday, Steve Grove, publisher, announced that it will cut its staff by 15% through layoffs and buyouts.
The Star Tribune’s Christopher Vondracek reports that the Strib, as the paper is known locally, has approximately 495 people. The newsroom is expected to drop from 200 journalists to about 175, although, as Vondracek wrote, “The company said the only class of newsroom employees specifically protected from the cuts are reporters, photographers and videographers.”
Perhaps more surprising: The Strib is seeking nonprofit ownership, much like The Philadelphia Inquirer, which is a for-profit media outlet under the umbrella of the nonprofit Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
Jay Boller, writing for Racket, a feisty digital alternative outlet, calls it a “dark day for the hard-working, recent-Pulitzer-winning folks that make the Strib hum.” Boller reports that the Star Tribune Newspaper Guild intends to fight back on layoffs.
Boller also notes that last year, the Strib cut 125 jobs when it vacated its Heritage Center plant in downtown Minneapolis and moved printing operations to Iowa.
Billionaire owner Glen Taylor, a former Republican state senator, is known for careful stewardship of one of the most highly respected regional newspapers in the country. As Dan and I reported in our book, “What Works in Community News,” longtime Star Tribune columnist Lori Sturdevant wrote, “As good Minnesota business leaders have traditionally done, Glen Taylor made way for public service.”
Historically, philanthropy has played a central role in the development of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. As we also reported in our book, researchers Jon Pratt and Edson W. Spencer wrote at the turn of the millennium in Daedalus, “Corporate philanthropy has become a defining feature of Minnesota’s public life.”
According to figures that the Strib reported to the Alliance for Audited Media, paid circulation declined precipitously from March 2025 to March 2026, with Sunday (combined print and digital) sliding from 226,000 to 192,000 and average Monday-through-Friday circulation dropping from 182,000 to 163,000. Increases in digital have failed to offset much larger declines in print.
More reporting about this shift is likely. But in the meantime, here are a few unanswered questions.
▶️ Why now? Taylor is 85. In January of this year, he announced a gift of $100 million to benefit rural families in southern Minnesota, where he grew up. Is he divesting his interest in the Star Tribune? Is he thinking about his legacy in new ways?
▶️ Whither print? Is the printing plant’s move to Iowa the first step to downsizing the frequency and reach of the Star Tribune’s print edition? What does this mean for a previously announced expansion to outlying communities in rural parts of the North Star State?
▶️ As AI kills off engagement from Google search, what’s next for digital?
▶️ What kind of umbrella nonprofit partnership is envisioned? The Star Tribune already has a nonprofit Local News Fund that is managed by fiscal sponsor Report Local, home to Report for America and Report for the World. (Full disclosure: I have contributed a small amount.)
In March, Grove, a former Google executive who returned home, told Tim Franklin at Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative that the Star Tribune saw a spike of digital subscribers (as well as donations) after federal agents killed protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti during the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
“But that spike levels off, of course, over time,” Grove said. “So we’re treating that cohort that came in January and February almost as its own cohort and trying to deliver for them significant news content, regional news content that can keep them around because you want to expand your audience. And when you have a chance to do that, you have to find ways to hold them in. And so that’s been a new project for us in the wake of all this.”
Like The Boston Globe, the Star Tribune has been a regional success story in part because of enlightened billionaire ownership. Readers, media analysts and anyone who cares about an enduring, independent Fourth Estate will be watching closely as this story unfolds.
