When the Star Tribune hired Steve Grove to lead the newspaper in 2023, outgoing publisher/CEO Mike Klingensmith said, weirdly, "If you asked an AI to draw up a resume for a Star Tribune publisher job, I don't think they could do any better than Steve Grove."
On Tuesday night Grove channeled AI in another way: the elimination of jobs. Sixty-five jobs, specifically, 25 of which will impact the 200ish person newsroom but not news gathers (reporters, photographers, videographers), Grove announced in an internal memo that has been shared with Racket (see below). Last year, the Upper Midwest's largest media company sliced off 125 jobs when it outsourced printing operations to Iowa.
When news orgs report on themselves, the results often feel like glorified press releases. That's absolutely not the case with the story Stribber Christopher Vondracek just published (gift link) about the department-wide job slashing that'll reduce the 495-person company by about 15%. Vondracek asks his boss, point-blank: Do these layoffs and buyouts represent a failure of leadership? "I certainly wish this [layoff] step in our journey wasn’t needed," Grove responds. "But the shift we’re trying to do is really significant.” The publisher's tenure has been defined, at least in terms of Racket coverage, by: embracing sponcon, flirting with AI, betting on gambling, showing homework to Gov. Tim Walz, questionable rebrands, résumé-padding memoirs, and downright spinelessness.
In addition to the dramatic staff reduction, Grove revealed that, in partnership with beautiful Republican billionaire owner Glen Taylor, leadership will "explore placing the Minnesota Star Tribune under foundation ownership, similar to other for-profit newsrooms owned by foundations, to expand opportunities for philanthropic donations to support the core business." I don't pretend to understand what any of that means.
Anyway! In the interest of transparency and honoring the thankless work of leakers, here's the all-employee memo Grove sent out this evening at 6:32 p.m.
Hi Team,
I'm writing to share a difficult step, and an update to our vision, in our work to transform and sustain the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Tomorrow morning, we will be announcing a restructuring across the organization that will result in the layoffs of approximately 15 percent of our staff. These layoffs will affect teams across the company, including the newsroom. However, journalists who focus on news gathering (including reporters, photographers and videographers) are not among the affected groups.
Independent employees whose jobs will be impacted, as well as Guild members who work in departments that will be affected, will receive an additional email shortly, including a link to attend a virtual meeting tomorrow morning when they will receive further information. For Guild-represented employees, we will first offer buyouts in the affected departments before conducting any layoff, in compliance with the collective bargaining agreement.
As we work through these notifications with people tomorrow, we are encouraging all employees to work remotely on Wednesday so that we can help colleagues move through the details thoughtfully. We’ll hold a virtual company town hall at 12:00 p.m. to answer questions you might have, which should be submitted in advance, here.
This decision is very difficult. The colleagues leaving us have dedicated years, and in some cases decades, to help build this institution. We’re deeply grateful for their contributions to the Minnesota Star Tribune and to journalism in Minnesota. We would not be where we are today without them.
We’re making this decision because it is necessary to position us for growth as a digital media company. For the past three years, we’ve been sprinting towards a new future. Today, we have more digital revenue sources than we’ve ever had before, and they’re growing. We have twice as many digital subscribers as print, and most of our revenue now comes from digital products and services. We’ve grown digital subscriptions by over 25%, after several years of stagnation before that. With urgency and focus, we’ve built a digital growth engine that didn’t exist at the Strib before. We’ve created new advertising products, a philanthropy program, a standalone high school sports platform, and a growing events business.
Most importantly, we’re doing extraordinary journalism during a tumultuous time in Minnesota, journalism that serves our community and has gained national recognition.
All of these developments give us strong reasons for optimism for the future of the Minnesota Star Tribune and all that lies ahead for this company.
Yet the truth remains that changes in the media business are accelerating faster every day, and the business model and organizational footprint that has sustained local news for generations is undergoing its biggest disruption ever. Because we are now a digital media company, our structure and size need to change to reflect that reality, and give us opportunities for more digital growth, which our future depends on.
An update on our vision
Our owner, Glen Taylor, believes deeply in the Minnesota Star Tribune and its importance for our state, which is why he’s only ever invested money in its future and never once taken a profit from it. As we adapt our model for a new age of journalism, we’ve been working with Glen and our board on a long-term plan for the stewardship of this organization.
The intention is to explore placing the Minnesota Star Tribune under foundation ownership, similar to other for-profit newsrooms owned by foundations, to expand opportunities for philanthropic donations to support the core business. In the coming months, we’ll be working closely with Glen and our board on building that model that creates new ways for others to join Glen in his commitments to our future.
We’ll share more about this shift as we begin conversations with community leaders and partners. The purpose of sharing this intention now is to give you a vision for the direction we’re traveling, and to allow us to begin building that model together with the community.
Thank you for everything you are doing for the Minnesota Star Tribune and our state. Though today is a very difficult day, I’m confident it is the right step for the Strib and will strengthen the future of this great news organization.
Best,
Steve
