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Over the years, the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Minnesota Poll has been a reliable indicator of...virtually nothing. Every two years it confidently predicts sweeping victories for the Democrats. Every now and then, as in 2006, that turns out to be right. Over the years, Scott has repeatedly dissected the Minnesota Poll's methods and findings and has had notable exchanges with the individual who runs (or ran--I'm not sure whether he has survived the paper's layoffs) the poll. In 2006 we couldn't tell whether the poll's methods improved or whether its biennial prediction was coincidentally right. Today, though, we may get a...

The Star Tribune newspaper has stopped making payments to its senior creditors, the chairman of the company said Tuesday. The decision to skip a $9 million quarterly payment on its $432 million debt allows the newspaper to conserve cash while attempting to restructure, said company Chairman Christopher Harte. All options, including a bankruptcy filing, are on the table as the newspaper and its advisers negotiate with the paper’s lenders. “We are looking at an incredibly wide range of options, but nothing’s imminent,” said Harte. The newspaper still makes money, Harte added, and he doesn’t expect the missed payment to affect...

Palin considers herself a born-again conservative Christian. She supports teaching creationism in public schools, outlawing nearly all abortions (even in cases of rape or incest) and prohibiting same-sex marriage. But she has yet to advance legislation that insists that creationism, or "intelligent design," be taught in public school science classes whenever biological evolution is taught -- as urged by a plank in the official Alaska Republican Party platform. Nor has she tried so far to eliminate standard sex-education classes in public schools in favor of the abstinence-only programs she prefers. That Palin hasn't yet pushed a religious conservative agenda isn't...

The lenders who financed Avista Capital Partners’ 2007 acquisition of the Star Tribune now want out of the deal, and are seeking a buyer for their debt package, originally worth more than $400 million. Credit Suisse and Royal Bank of Scotland have hired Lazard Ltd., a Wall Street financial adviser, to put the debt package on the market. Two local executives, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said local business leaders have been approached with offers to purchase the debt. Neither the banks nor their representatives would confirm that there is an effort to sell the debt. But...

Bids on the Star Tribune's five-block plot of land in downtown Minneapolis are due today, according to an offering memo obtained by the Pioneer Press. The marketing of the 12.4 acres — billed as the largest private land holding in the central business district — marks a rare opportunity for developers. It also comes at a time when the Star Tribune and its owners, Avista Capital Holdings, are dealing with declining revenue and profit, and the extra cash could come in handy. Last year, the Minnesota Vikings offered to pay $45 million for four of the five blocks in the...

The owner of the Star Tribune has informed investors that it has written down the value of its $100 million investment in the newspaper by 75 percent to reflect deteriorating conditions since the purchase in March 2007. "In the past year, the newspaper industry has suffered greater than expected declines in circulation and advertising revenue, particularly in print classified advertising," the memo from New York's Avista Capital Partners said. "The outlook in the near to medium term remains uncertain." The write-down, taken at the end of 2007, reflects the estimated loss of value and is consistent with the falling stock...

The Star Tribune's hiring of private equity powerhouse Blackstone Group could result in a fundamental restructuring of the paper's debt, a process that may include anything from new loan terms to additional equity investors in the paper... Such a restructuring, coming only 15 months after Avista Capital Partners took possession of the Star Tribune, reflects just how rapidly the newspaper business -- and the credit markets -- have deteriorated in the past year. Across the country, in big cities and small, newspapers are struggling with declining readership and steep declines in advertising, especially lucrative real estate and automobile classifieds. McClatchy...

An article in the New York Post Sunday reported the Star Tribune is on the ‘brink of bankruptcy.’ The newspaper recently hired a company to restructure its balance sheet after failing to meet debt obligations, the article reports. In a statement from the Star Tribune in response to the New York Post article, Chris Harte, the newspaper’s publisher said, "The facts are that the Star Tribune currently has sufficient liquidity and is current on all its debt payment obligations." Hart said while it is true that the newspaper faces declining ad revenue, they have been working aggressively to get their...

The Minneapolis Star Tribune, reeling under a heavy debt load and plummeting advertising sales, is on the brink of bankruptcy, The Post has learned. One of the nation's top dailies, "The Strib," as it is known to readers in the Twin Cities, recently hired the Wall Street powerhouse Blackstone Group to restructure its balance sheet after failing to meet its debt obligations, according to people familiar with the company. The broadsheet is unlikely to shutter its doors, but its creditors, including the banking giant Credit Suisse Group, figure to eventually end up controlling the paper. Down the road, the creditor...

It was soon after the tragedy of 9-11 and I was working as an ORSA at beautiful Ft. Hood, Texas. The world was shocked at the brutality and savagery of the attack, but we at the mighty US Army Operational Test Command did not lose our sense of humor. The lady who cleaned the latrines in our building dutifully brought in a urinal cake holder with Osama’s smiling mug right in the center. You would have had to have been drunk to have missed. After a tough, hard day of nerd-wrestling test data, I could always imagine myself hosing the...

For sale: a pair of office buildings. Served as home to skeptical cranks, loudmouth jokers and coffee-stained carpet. The Star Tribune's real estate is on the market once again, publisher Chris Harte told his staff in a memo sent Friday. The company hired a real estate broker but no deal is imminent, or even guaranteed, he wrote. A $45 million deal that would have sold off the newspaper's three parking lots and its lesser used Freeman office building to the Minnesota Vikings collapsed five months ago amid tightening credit markets. Harte said the deal this time may include everything, including...

In 1984 at Immanuel Baptist, he preached about leading a revival where worshippers rejoiced as prominent members of the community _ an attorney, a businessman _ accepted Jesus. He said he was heartbroken that people overlooked a young mentally retarded woman who also came forward. "She always came alone and left alone. And to all outward appearances, nobody really cared," he said. "But God made a very big announcement that night. Although she may sit in that pew by herself, he loved her." --- But his big-tent approach has left him vulnerable to detractors _ in Southern Baptist and GOP...

A judge ruled today that Star Tribune publisher Par Ridder must step down from his job after he was accused of wrongdoing by his former employer, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which had sought to have him removed.

Topic: Miscellaneous items Date/Time: 8/17/2007 11:15:25 AM Title: More cuts at Star Tribune Posted By: Jim Romenesko Star Tribune newsroom union's report to members THE CUTS CONTINUE: Reports from other unions at the Strib You see them often -- eight savvy techs who help solve computer and other technical problems in the newsroom and elsewhere. Those eight IT workers are members of our CWA local (but not our Star Tribune Guild unit). (Erik Crane may be the IT we see most often in the newsroom.) Our union learned this week that the publisher is eliminating five of the techs' jobs....

Par Ridder, the publisher at the center of a legal fight between Minnesota's metro dailies, acknowledged in court testimony Monday that he took confidential computer files and a folder of noncompete agreements - including his own - when he left the St. Paul Pioneer Press for the Star Tribune. In videotaped testimony, Ridder admitted copying documents from his Pioneer Press computer and transferring them to his new computer at the Star Tribune, then sharing some of the documents with key Star Tribune executives. "I had profit numbers, revenue numbers, expense numbers," and sensitive information on advertisers and personnel, he said....

[UPDATE 05/06/07: Dedicated to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.] *************************Dear Subscriber: According to our records, your 1957 subscription to The Claxon is scheduled to expire soon. Please don't let this happen! $2 per month will buy you the Quint-State area's leading newspaper, delivered each morning by one of our cheerful Junior Claxoneer news lads -- like 12-year old Claxon Carrier of the Year Skip Olbermaier! Each issue is packed with items of interest around our community - like: Goings-on at City Hall, including the controversial $0.0032 sales tax plan! Publisher Felton Beswick Jr. keeps you up-to-date on the Red Menace! The...

The Pioneer Press will get access to several computers and servers from the rival Star Tribune newspaper of Minneapolis, a judge ruled today. The Pioneer Press has been trying to recover computer data that it says its former publisher, Par Ridder, took with him when he left the Pioneer Press in March and crossed the river to take the same job at the Star Tribune. The 13-page decision by Ramsey County District Court Judge David Higgs said that the Star Tribune needs to hand over Ridder's three work computers and his home computer, Star Tribune computer servers and computers used...

Instant poll: Should the U of M give Al Gore an honorary doctorate? University President Robert Bruininks said recently that two of the colleges were working to award a degree to the former vice president. Yes. He's done important work to save the environment No. He's a master of junk science Don't know

The Star Tribune is looking for a new publisher. Keith Moyer announced Friday that he was stepping down from that position which he had held for six years. Moyer said that it was a "tough" decision to leave the Star Tribune and that his departure is in no way related to the newspaper's sale to Avista Capital Partners. "I say this unequivocally: I haven't been fired. Nor have I been asked to leave," Moyer said as he spoke to employees Friday morning. "I am not leaving because of the change of ownership. I have decided this is a perfect time...

When the McClatchy Co. got the keys to the Star Tribune in 1998, McClatchy's patriarch hailed the merger. James McClatchy called it a wedding of two newspaper traditions that shared "a deep-rooted commitment to building a just society." You now are permitted to laugh derisively. Eight years later, hardly anyone in the newspaper business talks about anything other than building profit margins that would choke a robber baron. Mercifully, Mr. McClatchy passed away in May and did not live to see the Sacramento-based company that bore his name disgrace his legacy by dumping its largest newspaper -- the most important...

Based on a multiple of cash flow, the price paid for the Star Tribune was much less than those paid for other papers this year, analysts say. Big-city newspapers, once held in high regard on Wall Street for their dependable earnings and advertising clout, have never looked so affordable. On Tuesday, the McClatchy Co. agreed to sell the Star Tribune for $530 million -- less than half the $1.2 billion it paid for the newspaper eight years ago. A tax break of $160 million resulting from the sale makes the deal worth $690 million to McClatchy. But as a multiple...

See for example this thread first. This News from the land of the Loon McClatchy sells the Star-Tribune For sadness or mirth It lost half of its worth (Don't look for a turnaround soon!)

Gay pride group sues Star Tribune over ads The organizer of the annual Twin Cities Pride Celebration has sued the Star Tribune, accusing the newspaper of discrimination and breach of contract for refusing to publish ads for the festival. The advertisements showed two men kissing. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Hennepin County District Court, said the newspaper applied different standards to GLBT/Pride Twin Cities because the newspaper had published ads depicting a heterosexual couple kissing. The lawsuit also contends the newspaper breached its advertising contract, and retaliated by failing to publish any of its advertisements, including one that did not...

On one level, CIA Director Porter Goss' decision to fire Mary O. McCarthy for leaking classified information to reporters may simply reflect necessary agency discipline. But it also perfectly fits the pattern of this administration: Hide unflattering information that Congress and the public should know, while selectively leaking classified information that fits the White House political agenda. McCarthy was fired for leaking information to Washington Post reporter Dana Priest about the CIA's system of secret prisons around the world where terrorist suspects are held. For her reporting, Priest won a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize.

The Marines may be the most celebrated of the American armed forces, but it's the Army that does most of the heavy lifting, as it is doing in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the process, the Army is being battered and shattered in the same way that it was in Vietnam. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says that isn't the case; everything's fine. But a recent authoritative study says he is wrong.

Speaking out of both sides of one's mouth is an occupational hazard, if not an occupational necessity, for politicians seeking elective office in competitive races. It's not a pretty sight, and it supports a cynicism about democratic politics that is unbecoming. Catering to such cynicism, the leftist writer Garry Wills used to advise college audiences, "Vote for your enemy--he has no one to sell out to but you." The political debate over the use of the Senate's filibuster rule to torpedo President Bush's judicial nominees has triggered a series of reversals and pratfalls that support the low-comedy version of democratic...

When the White House says Democrats are trumping up accusations against John Bolton, nominated to be U.N. ambassador, it's kind of like the White House saying Martin Luther King Jr. trumped up accusations of racial bias: sad, laughable and demonstrably untrue on its face. But that's the line the Bush administration is taking on Bolton, despite an almost certainly fatal wound his nomination suffered Tuesday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. After an impassioned plea by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said what he had heard troubled him enough that he didn't feel comfortable voting for Bolton....

Stop us if you're heard this one before: A conservative talk-show host believes the media is guilty of liberal bias. That's pretty much the operating philosophy behind all right-wing radio. But California-based talk-show host and blog evangelist Hugh Hewitt has become obsessed with one specific mainstream-media outlet: the Star Tribune. "The worst major newspaper in terms of bias and chronic inaccuracy and axe-grinding is of course the Los Angeles Times," Hewitt wrote on his blog last week. "But among the second tier papers, the Minneapolis Star Tribune is as rotten a combination of no-talent tenured editorialists, biased reporters, and make-it-up-pollsters...

Habitual watchers of "Seinfeld" reruns know that tomorrow is Festivus, the holiday for the "rest of us" created by George Costanza's father for "the airing of grievances." It's in that comic spirit that we offer a holiday grievance of our own: the perception that Christians are victims of religious persecution in America and, more specifically, their warnings of a secular conspiracy to stamp out Christmas. These complaints strike us as melodramatic. For a rising tide of evangelical believers to raise these laments is a bit like the wealthy complaining about high taxes or the Yankees about not winning the World...

The group that organizes the annual Pride Celebration in Minneapolis has filed a civil rights complaint against the Minneapolis Star Tribune because the newspaper refused to run advertisements that included a photograph of two men kissing. The complaint filed with the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission was announced Monday by GLBT Pride/Twin Cities, a volunteer group that has sponsored the June festivals since 1972. This year an estimated 400,000 people attended six events, making it the third-largest festival of its kind in the United States for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons. The complaint claims representatives of the newspaper said the...

Jon Reinan recently published an article entitled "The outlook in Northfield: partly cloudy". It''s your typical hit piece on the economy... right before the election. He interviews a bunch of flakes that are complaining how bad the economy is and how they can't find work (even though our state unemployment is under 5%). I sent him my thoughts, along with a powerline article. Here is the e-mail he I sent: Thought you might want to read this for your next article (from powerlineblog.com). But don't let the facts get in your way (or your polls): Employment Growth Accelerating A Bloomberg...

MANKATO, MINN. -- Richard Clarke, who served as the national coordinator for counterterrorism in the White House, argues in his new book, "Against All Enemies," that the Bush administration ignored the threat from Al-Qaida and instead chose to fight "the wrong war" by attacking Iraq. The troops who could have been used in Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida were instead held back for the planned invasion of Iraq. In contrast to the 150,000 men sent to Iraq, only about 11,500 troops were sent to Afghanistan, a force smaller than the New York City police. The result is...

Even as Richard Clarke was offering a moving apology to the families of 9/11 victims for failing to protect their loved ones, the first Bush administration official to do so, he was being publicly savaged by Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House spokesman Scott McClellan. Rice's attacks were particularly galling. From the safety of the White House -- she refuses to testify under oath before the commission, something Clarke has done for more than 15 hours -- Rice used classified and confidential material to throw bombs at Clarke. The White House attacks have been...

Circulation of the Nation's 20 Biggest Newspapers The Associated Press Published: Nov 3, 2003 Average weekday circulation of the nation's 20 biggest newspapers for the six months ended Sept. 30, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period. 1. USA Today, 2,246,996, up 0.7 percent 2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,091,062, up 16.1 percent (a) 3. The New York Times, 1,118,565, up 0.5 percent 4. Los Angeles Times, 955,211, down 1.1 percent (b) 5. The Washington Post, 732,872, down 1.9 percent 6. New York Daily News, 729,124, up 2.1 percent...

Two Journalists Escape Death in Iraq .c The Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Star Tribune reporter and photographer escaped an attempt by two Iraqi fighters to kill them near the northern oil city of Kirkuk. In a dispatch from Kirkuk published Friday, reporter Paul McEnroe said he and photographer Richard Sennott managed to flee a grenade-toting fighter Thursday and later watched as the other fighter died of a gunshot wound. The two had gone to the oil refinery a few miles from Kirkuk after the city fell to Kurdish fighters Thursday. The Kurds are fighting on the side of...

The Minneapolis Star Tribune dominates the newspaper market in the upper Midwest. As the region's leading newspaper, it vows to exercise the power it wields in covering the news with a sense of responsibility regardless of the paper's editorial views. In the election just concluded, however, the Star Tribune's Minnesota Poll failed the paper's most basic responsibility to its readers. The Minnesota Poll has a long and inglorious history in Minnesota. Most famously, in 1978 the Minneapolis Tribune (as it then was) called all three major statewide races wrong by a wide margin on the basis of its Minnesota Poll....

MINNEAPOLIS - A group formed by Jewish leaders is protesting the Star Tribune's policy on the word "terrorist," saying the newspaper's reluctance to apply the term to suicide bombings in Israel distorts public perception of the fighting in the Mideast. Minnesotans Against Terrorism took out a full-page ad Tuesday in the newspaper, the state's largest, imploring the Star Tribune to "refer to those who intentionally kill Israeli civilians as terrorists." The group enlisted support in the ad from the state's top political leaders, including Gov. Jesse Ventura, both U.S. senators and four of the state's eight House members. The ad...