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The struggle over vision and ambition at the Pioneer Press
by Jeff Horwich, Minnesota Public Radio
May 3, 2004

The Pioneer Press is seeing some strong recent trends in circulation and revenue. But reports of low morale and fading ambition at Minnesota's oldest paper tarnish the good news. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

In the past year, the St. Paul Pioneer Press has suffered a bitter contract battle, defections from the staff, and reports of sinking morale in the newsroom. Angry reporters accuse the paper's corporate owner, Knight Ridder, of pushing profits over quality. The dispute has prodded Minnesota's oldest paper into something of an identity crisis: Is it a major metropolitan daily, or a more modest "hometown newspaper?" Into this challenging mix, add a new, young publisher -- whose dad runs the parent company that owns the paper.

St. Paul, Minn. — You could argue times are pretty good at the Pioneer Press. Circulation is rebounding from the recent recession; ad revenue is rising sharply. And reporters broke some big stories this past year: Among them, Gov. Pawlenty's ties to the telecom industry and the outsourcing of state work to India.

Then again, there's a sense that times are not good at all. A contract dispute and near-strike last summer left behind what one long-time newsroom staffer calls "a deep well of distrust and dissatisfaction." In the past 18 months, newsroom sources say 19 writers, editors and photographers have left. And some say one of the country's classic two-newspaper towns looks more than ever like one-and-a-half.

Long-time investigative reporter Chuck Laszewski believes the atmosphere has driven away talent.

	Pioneer Press Publisher Par Ridder

"Just a flood of people out of here," Laszewski says. "It's been mind-boggling to see how many people have left just since August of last year -- and in a bad economy."

The Pioneer Press has lost half its editorial writers. No one is covering higher education since the reporter left last fall, and the paper has yet to replace a popular music critic who left for a local alternative weekly. One valued photographer went to Minneapolis. A top columnist, Nick Coleman, also left after 17 years to join the Star Tribune in November.

Laszewski and other reporters say the winds shifted in 2001, when a call for higher corporate profits coincided with cutting the staff by 10 percent. Management has made strategic cuts since then, including last year eliminating the political cartoonist, something Laszewski calls "An incredible blunder.

"The guy across the river (at the Star Tribune) is a finalist for the Pulitzer, and we've got nothing," says Laszewski. "That's pretty embarrassing, I think, if you're going to be a major league newspaper."

Laszewski says the stress of doing "more with less" has eroded morale, and last summer's contract dispute made things much worse. Newsroom staff placed black bands across their company badges and prepared to walk out. The union eventually backed down, grudgingly accepting higher health care costs and lower scheduled raises than they'd wanted.

Pioneer Press editor and senior vice president Vicki Gowler says the negotiations have not affected the quality of the paper. Recent staff turnover, she says, is about average for her six years at the paper. And she says corporate owner Knight Ridder is not squeezing the newsroom by demanding an unusually high profit margin.

Would I like to have more (resources)? Yes. Can we put out a great paper with what we have? Most definitely. - Vicki Gowler, Pioneer Press editor and senior V.P.

"I think we have enough resources to do what we need to do," Gowler says. "Would I like to have more? Yes. Can we put out a great paper with what we have? Most definitely."

The conflicting visions inside the newsroom are now in the lap of new publisher Par Ridder -- that's "Ridder" as in "Knight Ridder" -- his father is the CEO of the California media company. Ridder, 35, is fresh from his first publisher's seat -- three years at The (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) Tribune, where he rose from within the advertising office.

"At the last newspaper that I worked for, we went from a 7 percent profit margin to a 23 percent profit margin, and we increased the size of the newsroom by about 25 percent through that process," Ridder says. "I think too often we get into a discussion about 'or' when it should be a discussion about 'and.' In other words, that there doesn't have to be a trade-off between strong profits and growing the newsroom."

Hiring, Ridder says, is an investment -- one he'll make if he sees a return down the line.

Reporters like Chuck Laszewski want Ridder to use his family influence to make that investment soon -- before morale declines more.

"Simply start treating your people better, and you probably have to put a little more money in here so we can remain competitive with our larger opponent across the river," he says.

Staff are divided about how -- and how much -- to compete with that paper across the river, the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The two papers pursue many of the same stories and compete for many of the same readers, since the Star Tribune offers home delivery throughout the metro area.

Yet it's hardly a battle of equals.

	Toe-to-toe

The Star Tribune newsroom has 350 people; the Pioneer Press, about 200. The Star Tribune's daily circulation is 380,000, twice that of the Pioneer Press. In fact, the Pioneer Press doesn't offer home delivery in Minneapolis.

Star Tribune reporters with the same level of experience make an average $200 more per week -- that's about 15 percent more -- according to the union that represents workers at both papers.

Doug Tice was a Pioneer Press editorial writer who left to be the Star Tribune political editor. He says he left one paper "in a very challenged condition" for another that feels quite different.

"This is a much bigger place, it feels in many ways to be a better-resourced place, and on the whole I have to say it seems like a more spirited place," Tice says.

In truth, the competition has been lopsided for decades -- as long as Minneapolis has been the larger city, according to one local historian. But some say recently something has changed: The scrappy paper-that-could from St. Paul has settled into a different role.

Steve Dornfeld first came the paper in the 1960s. He left for the Star Tribune in the '70s, but was lured back by the Pioneer Press's strength a decade later. Most recently he was acting editorial editor, until he left last year to work for the Metropolitan Council. Dornfeld says he's troubled that the paper seems to have shed its ambition.

"It concerns me that they no longer aspire to be a metropolitan newspaper, competing toe-to-toe with the Star Tribune," Dornfeld says. "Instead they seem to want to be much more of a local newspaper, and they're willing to hire less expensive, less-experienced journalists to put out that product."

One current long-time newsroom staffer, who declined to be named, put it this way: "Management doesn't look at the paper as a leader in Minnesota. They look at us as a leader in Woodbury" -- in other words, in the St. Paul suburbs.

Pioneer Press officials dispute the notion that they're skimping on staff. Editor Vicki Gowler says the paper can and does compete with the Star Tribune on many stories.

But her highest concern is serving readers in the east metro. Some reporters might not like it, but she says the Pioneer Press is primarily "a hometown newspaper" for St. Paul and its suburbs.

On this home turf, the Pioneer Press has twice as many readers as the Star Tribune. And the formula appears to be paying off when it comes to advertisers. Ad revenue was up 8 percent for the first quarter of the year -- the biggest gain of the 31 newspapers in the Knight Ridder network.

New publisher Par Ridder says the paper's future lies in the St. Paul suburbs, where the Pioneer Press prints customized editions.

"We can do a better job in covering schools and sports, and things that are important to people's lives," Ridder says. "If you live in Eagan, you get a different newspaper than if you live in White Bear. What we are trying to do is own local coverage -- but also continue to do all the things that have made us successful in the past. The Capitol coverage, sports section, business section are top-notch."

Ridder says as the son of Knight Ridder's CEO he has "plenty of skin in the game" when it comes to the paper's success or failure. He says the family would not have sent one of its own if it didn't plan to grow the Pioneer Press.

The question for some in the newsroom is how it will grow, and whether that will ease the tension. Like any good reporters, they're waiting for the details.

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