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RacketCast, Ep. 25: How to Launch a Writer-Owned News/Arts/Culture Publication

Preferably in a way that doesn't directly compete with ours!

8:18 AM CDT on May 30, 2025

Racket’s staff, left to right: Em Cassel, Jay Boller, Keith Harris, Jessica Armbruster

|Pop! Studio

It's a Very Special Episode of RacketCast!

No guests this week. Instead, three of Racket's four co-owner/editors—Jay Boller, Em Cassel, and Keith Harris—will share the origin story of our local news, arts, and culture publication, which'll turn four this summer.

All it takes? Four laid-off schmucks with a combined $4,000, plenty of Covid-era unemployment insurance, a dash of good luck, thousands of supportive readers, and the dream of keeping an alt-weekly-style news org alive in the Twin Cities. We think it'll be an entertaining listen for local news junkies, and, selfishly, we hope it'll help juice sales in the final moments of our prize-packed Spring Member Drive.

But first! Here are the stories we gabbed about during What I Learned In Racket...

Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 1-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on our next episode. Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music!

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