Star Tribune
Some good news on Minnesota’s news scene
The news about the news business has been so bleak for so long, I hesitate to amplify something good for fear of jinxing it. Maybe it’s the Vikings fan in me.
But I’ll just say it. Two weekly newspapers launched in the central Minnesota towns of Hutchinson and Litchfield this summer and the subscriber numbers look really good.
The papers, The Hutchinson Station and The Litchfield Rail, were started by CherryRoad Media, a New Jersey-based company that says it is committed to building up local news operations rather than stripping them down for cash. Since 2020, CherryRoad has purchased or launched a dozen newspapers in Minnesota communities. The papers in Hutchinson and Litchfield take the place of longtime publications that closed in April.
“In Hutchinson, we have over 1,700 paid [print] subscribers. In Litchfield, we have over 1,000, which we’re very happy with relative to a lot of small weekly newspapers. Those are great numbers in this day and age,” Jeremy Gulban, CEO of CherryRoad, told me last week. “On the advertising side, we’ve gotten a lot of advertisers back.”
With both papers, the company started by distributing them free to every house in their respective counties for a few weeks, then asked people to subscribe. “We’ve continued to do a shopper, which is a free distribution product that goes to every house,” Gulban said, adding that he doesn’t think the shopper model is effective. “We’ve got to move away from that as time goes on,” he said.
The front page of a recent edition of the Hutchinson Station, a new weekly newspaper in Hutchinson, Minn. started by CherryRoad Media.
I heard about CherryRoad from Benjamin Toff, a journalism professor at the University of Minnesota who, along with colleagues, is breathing new life into its Minnesota Journalism Center. Late last month, they produced a report called Minnesota’s Local News Ecosystem that found the state has lost 12% of its local news outlets since 2018, or 76 out of 602.
Most of those were small town newspapers, though some were radio and TV stations that gave up news broadcasting. For every two outlets that closed, however, a new one opened. That means there have been 38 newspapers and digital sites created in Minnesota since 2018. One example is the Root River Current, which formed as a nonprofit news organization two years ago to serve residents of Fillmore County in the state’s southeast corner.
“As we’ve been relaunching the journalism center, we’ve been hearing from more and more people who are, in some cases, non-journalists or people who are just frustrated by there no longer being a source of information in their community. They want to start something,” Toff said.
A man died Friday after police say a suspect stabbed him during a fight in St. Paul’s West Seventh neighborhood.
St. Paul Police Sgt. Mike Ernster said the fight happened sometime before 5:23 p.m. Friday when officers were called to the 200 block of East 7th Street. They arrived and found a man bleeding in a gas station parking lot from “apparent stab related injuries.”
Fire department medics responded and brought him to Region’s Hospital, but the man died from his injuries. His death marks the 22nd homicide in St. Paull this year, according a Star Tribune database. There were 27 by this time last year.
The suspect in Friday’s stabbing stayed at the scene where authorities brought them into custody. Investigators are still piecing together what happened, but Enster said early reports suggest the suspect and victim fought in a nearby store when the stabbing happened.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner is expected to release the victim’s name and exact cause of death by next week.
Minnesota’s recent slate of progressive policies have become fodder for the presidential campaign, as Gov. Tim Walz touts what he terms family-friendly programs, and Republicans and the state’s largest business groups call for another look.
Since Vice President Kamala Harris named Walz her running mate, the Democratic campaign has called for national implementation of some of the policies passed in Minnesota’s 2023 legislative session, including an expanded child tax credit, paid leave and free meals at school.
“I’m really grateful Governor Walz has been able to elevate this issue on a national stage,” said Rep. Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis, who carried the school meals bill in the House. “I hear regularly from colleagues across the country in other statehouses about how they can do that in their state.”
Walz also campaigns on paid family and medical leave and the state’s expanded child tax credit, bringing them up in the vice presidential debate and in subsequent television appearances.
During the pandemic, federal relief funds temporarily expanded the child tax credit and gave all public school students free meals at school through the end of the 2021-22 school year.
Minnesota is one of the states where legislatures voted to continue both programs by using state funding after the pandemic funds lapsed. Minnesota expanded the state child tax credit for lower-income families to partly cover the extra money that had come through the federal credit, and extended the free school meals program with state funding. Minnesota also became one of 22 states with a form of paid family and medical leave, though the program will not take effect until 2026.
The cost of living has been central to both presidential campaigns, with both Harris and former President Donald Trump saying they want to lower costs, especially for families. During the vice presidential debate, both Walz and Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, said they supported expanding the child tax credit.
Throughout the campaign, Walz has pointed to universal free school meals and Minnesota’s expanded child tax credit as policies that have made it more affordable to raise children, as well as touting the paid leave program.
“It’s right on the river, it’s got a bunch of bars, it’s small and quaint and old. … People have been flocking to Stillwater for the summertime since I’ve been alive,” said Haumschild, a 1999 graduate of Stillwater High School who lives in Maple Grove. On return trips to visit his mother, he always finds something new, he said.
Julie Gordon said she loves her life in Stillwater, even though she lives close enough to downtown to sometimes hear the rumble of motorcycles or — once in a while — the live music. She likes that the city is within walking distance from her home, yet it’s easy to get to nature nearby.
She once worked on a TV series that roamed the country looking at dying small towns. Stillwater would be the envy of many of those places, she said.
“If you want to go to a restaurant when it’s not busy, you go Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, or Sunday night,” Gordon said. “There’s still options to live in this community and have access to the downtown.”
