Joel Kramer

Joel Kramerjournalism

I'm referring, of course, to the launch of MinnPost.com, the online newspaper creation of Joel Kramer, the former Star Tribune editor-turned-publisher-turned journalistic manumitter.

Kramer stepped forward this summer to, I guess, rescue the Twin Cities from the ravages of PiPress owner Dean Singleton and the faceless Avista-owned Star Tribune.
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Both, you see, have condensed news, bought off and spit out reporters at such an alarming rate (well, alarming if you're a reporter), that it seems Kramer decided it was his sacred duty to restore Twin Cities journalism to its illustrious past.

I want to put some emphasis on the word "sacred."It contributes to the fact thatâ€"as much as I'm trying to keep an open mind about MinnPost and as much as I would like to see it succeed as a kick-ass publicationâ€"the whole undertaking makes my teeth hurt.

As Kramer makes clear in his rather dry lectures--um, presentations-- (one of which I recently attended) that there will be nothing frivolous about MinnPost.No sports scores, no stocks, no movie, music or theater reviews.No oddball, newsy feature stories that gave newspapers of old their vibrancy.Instead, Kramer emphasized, his new publication is designed to attract "news-intense," "civically-engaged" readers, the sort of readers "who like to read The Economist," and who value news written by "high quality" "professional" reporters "who care about Minnesota."

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Hence, his new publication's motto: "A Thoughtful Approach to News."
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Kramer has taken pains to distance his Thoughtful Approach to News from Thoughtless, opinionated outfits (well, like ours).
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Moreover, I admire someone who is willing to stick $250k of his own money into the venture and actively work at it, as Kramer has and is.

I attended his open house, too.Remember?
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With Joel, I have no problem following his direction because he's proven he can lead."

The other thing Aschburner mentioned was that as a sports writer he doubts he'll have the difficulty making the transition to the less formal and freer style of the Web.
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I wasn't working at the Strib when Joel was in the building.But my homies say that he was one of the finest editors the paper ever had during his days in the newsroom.A guy you wanted looking over your shoulder as you wrote.The best.

Once he ascended to the publisher's suite, however, opinion shifts.Kramer the publisher, in order to save journalism back in the mid-1990s, implemented procedures at the Strib that remain laughable to this day.

He divided its reporters into "teams," (which totally Balkanized the newsroom), and engaged in a whole bunch of newsroom renaming: Subscribers became "reader-customers," the managing editor became the "news leader," and the newspaper became "perhaps the most ridiculed newspaper in the country," according to a New York Times article about the Strib written in 1995.Kramer, the once-accessible editor dug in his heels and stubbornly defended his rampant jargonism, which was dismantled after he left the paper.

I see Joel the editor in his commitment to an ambitious undertaking like this and in seeking to bring some legitimate news gathering back to the marketplace, even if I think he is severely underpaying the talent.There are some real standouts among the reporters he's signed up and I look forward to seeing their bylines regularly.

However, I see Joel the publisher in his stubborn belief that he knows better than anyone else when it comes to the Internet.If he really believed in the Internet, he wouldn't be messing around with handing out expensive stapled copies of an online paper.If he really understood the Internet, I think MinnPost would be a lot more Daily Mole and a lot less refried mainstream media.
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Will Kramer appeal to an MPR quality audience with a product that goes only a little bit further than the existing daily papers?Or will he find that the stories/posts that earn the largest audience - and hold out the greatest potential for ad revenue - point in him a different direction, possibly more Slate and Salon than StarTribune.com?

I wish him and his crew the best.

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Joel Kramer journalism