Leftist opinion editor gets walking papers

The new owners of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune have parted ways with veteran editorial page editor Susan Albright because she did not want to focus on local issues. It also appears the Strib lost the law suit over hiring the former publisher of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The story notes the chairmen of the paper is now acting as publisher because Par Ridder was forced out by a court ruling

Chairman/publisher Harte echoed what I wrote earlier about the St. Paul Pioneer Press being the better read of late because it contained local information, not just a rehash of last night's network news and editorials that could have been from the NY Times.

"I believe the role of a metro newspaper is changing radically and rapidly in a world of instant global access to information," Harte wrote in a memo to staff. "I see the need for our editorial pages, like the rest of the newspaper, to concentrate more heavily than ever on local, state and regional issues."

John Hinderaker at Powerline commented:

.. leftism is freely available on the internet; readers who want goofy commentary from the New York Times editorial board, Frank Rich, et al., can get the real thing on the web. Regional papers like the Strib need to add value, and their best opportunity to do so is in local news, sports and weather coverage:

He goes on to add

Local and regional competitors must either become one of the national players, or find a local niche that the national outlets aren't filling, or go out of business. Economics, not ideology, dictated that the Star Tribune stop pontificating about Iraq and the federal budget. The paper will still take a left-wing line, but for the foreseeable future, it will focus on local and regional issues.

Thomas Lifson adds:

I agree that publishing an anemic imitation of the New York Times is a losing strategy for local papers. A local focus may work, at least for awhile. But I am increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for local dailies. Apart from readers collecting clippings about their families, I suspect local communities will rely on local websites more and more for their community news, owing to the viral distribution property of the web. Some newspaper websites may serve this function and dominate their local markets. But newspapers are locked into a bureaucratic mindset and a work pace keyed to printing presses, so they are vulnerable to leaner and quicker competition.