by Peter Weinberger

When I heard the publisher of the Minneapolis Star Tribune was speaking this week at Claremont McKenna College, I jumped at the chance to attend.

I spent eight years in the Twin Cities working at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, competing directly with the Star Tribune — often referred to locally as the Strib — one of the largest and most influential newspapers in the Midwest.

Steve Grove has been the Strib’s publisher since 2023 and is a 2000 graduate of CMC. His talk focused on lessons from a career that has crossed several major sectors — technology at Google and YouTube, government as Minnesota’s commissioner of employment and economic development under Gov. Tim Walz, and now journalism.

The title of the talk was “Leading through crisis: The power of going local to make change,” part of CMC’s long-running Athenaeum speaker series.

Grove spoke candidly about the challenges facing journalism today. The newspaper industry has been under pressure for more than two decades as advertising revenues collapsed and readers migrated online. Even large metropolitan newspapers are feeling the impact.

The Star Tribune currently loses roughly 10 percent of its print subscribers each year — a trend that mirrors what newspapers across the country are experiencing. When I worked at the Pioneer Press in the 1990s, the Strib had more than 600,000 print subscribers in one of the strongest newspaper markets in the country.

Today, weekday print circulation is roughly 67,000. Digital subscriptions have helped offset some of those losses, with more than 100,000 digital-only subscribers.

With numbers like that, one might assume a paper like the Strib is on the verge of going digital-only — or worse.

Yet the Star Tribune still employs one of the largest local newsrooms in the country, with some 250 journalists covering Minnesota news, politics, sports and culture.

How is that possible?

In 2024, Minnesota businessman and billionaire Glen Taylor — who also owns the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA — helped ensure the paper remained locally owned, stepping in to keep the organization financially stable and focused on its mission.

But Grove emphasized that ownership alone is not the solution. The real strategy is doubling down on what newspapers do best: deep, consistent coverage of local news that readers simply cannot find anywhere else.

That message resonated with me.

Regardless of whether a newsroom has 250 journalists or just a handful, the fundamental challenges facing local media are remarkably similar. Advertising revenue continues to decline. Digital habits change constantly. And convincing people to pay for journalism remains one of the industry’s biggest hurdles.

Yet one thing remains clear: communities that support strong local journalism are far better informed about the decisions that shape their daily lives, from local government and schools to development, public safety, and community events.

What this means for the Courier

Grove’s perspective reinforced several things I believe are essential for the Courier’s future.

Here are a few realities readers should understand.

• The Courier must continue strengthening its local reporting. High-quality journalism builds trust and loyalty, but it requires resources and trained reporters.
• Advertising revenue will likely never return to the levels newspapers saw before the pandemic, or before the internet disrupted the industry entirely.
• Newspapers today can no longer survive on advertising and subscriptions alone. Across the country, nonprofit models, memberships, and community support are becoming essential parts of sustaining local journalism.

Here’s what we are doing.

• Building a stronger subscription and membership model while making it easier for readers to donate.
• Creating advertising packages that combine print, digital and video opportunities.
• Expanding coverage of community issues, events, people and places that make Claremont unique.
• Building long-term relationships with donors who believe in the value of independent local journalism.
• Partnerships. Need I say more?
• Streamlining production of the print edition to operate more efficiently.
• Continuing to innovate — trying new ideas, learning what works, and adapting when something doesn’t.

Local journalism has always been about service.

At the Courier, that means covering our schools, our city government, our neighborhoods and our community events with fairness, accuracy and independence.

It also means documenting the life of our community — through reporting, photography and storytelling — so that Claremont’s history is preserved for future generations.

My hope is that in 2026 we will see even greater support from the community as we continue the essential work of keeping fact-based local journalism alive and well.

And for the support you have already shown, I sincerely thank you.