Address: 900 6th Avenue S.E., Suite 220
Location: Minneapolis, MN, 55414
Email: info@minnpost.com
Website: www.minnpost.com
Phone: 612-455-6950
Yes, Joel Kramer says, they have an office. Here he starts to look around. You get the sense that he''s in the center and is turning his head and scanning the room as he describes it. There are eight desks for editors. A bunch of seats along the wall where writers can bring in laptops and access the high speed line. Some carrels for privacy. A big conference room, a little conference room, and a business office.
It''s the command center for MinnPost, a web-based local paper for Minnesotans that was launched in late 2007.
One imagines this is not where he thought he''d be ten years ago, when he was retiring as publisher of the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune, but while away from the industry, he was watching the newspapers struggle.
"To some degree journalists have the feeling of being a little like autoworkers, you know, a business that only keep having bad news," he says. Starting MinnPost is his attempt at finding a positive future for it.
The site was launched with 1.1 million in startup money drawn from Kramer and his wife, three other families, and the Knight Foundation. Kramer has been interviewed countless times (he says people figure if MinnPost can make it others can, too), but he slowly and easily goes over each question. He comes to life, though, when the critical question is asked: well, how is it going?
Really well, he says with a laugh under his voice. "It''s quite an exciting business. If you know anyone who''s ever been involved in a startup, they know how hard it is, and how you never have enough resources to do all the things you want to do."
It''s one of many attempts at local news going to the web, and it has its own answer for what something like this could look like (traditional, meant to be familiar to people who are used to a print edition) and how it will be funded (non-profit, relying on donors and sponsorships). He says other sites are making different editorial choices, and considers that a good thing. He calls it a tasting phase.
"It''s good if a lot of different ideas get tried," he says.