Save The Strib

1867 – Minneapolis is incorporated.

May 25, 1867 – Minneapolis Tribune publishes its first daily issue, despite the loss of most dispatches due to downed telegraph lines. The Tribune was a merging of two existing weeklies: the State Atlas and the Chronicle. Minneapolis population hovers around 7,000.

September 1869 – The University of Minnesota offers its first college courses.

1867-1891 – The Tribune struggles through a period of weak revenue and poor leadership. It shifts ownership six times. Editorially during this time, the paper champions the development of power from St. Anthony Falls, a city water system and a city park system, insisting that “public parks pay their way.”

1876 – The Tribune merges briefly with the Pioneer Press as the Dual City Pioneer Press and Tribune. Twelve prominent citizens, dubbed the Twelve Apostles, restore the Tribune to independence in the form of an evening paper.

Nov. 27, 1878 – A competing newspaper, the Minneapolis Evening Journal, is born.

1880 – The Tribune returns to morning publication.

Nov. 30, 1889 – The Tribunes building at 4th Street and what is now Marquette Avenue burns down, killing seven people and badly burning 30 more.

March 1891 – The Tribune is sold for $450,000 to Gilbert Pierce, former governor of the Dakota Territory, and William J. Murphy, a Notre Dame-educated attorney and former owner of the Grand Forks Plain Dealer. Two years later Murphy becomes sole owner. Murphys era is noted for its partisan advocacy and its sensational stories.

1893 – The Tribune assigns a correspondent to Washington, D.C.

February 1893 – Minneapolis population tops 200,000.

September 1894 – The Tribunes circulation is about 31,000. The paper produces a Sunday issue with 40 pages, 19 of which are advertising. The price of the Tribune is reduced from two cents to a penny.

June 1895 – Circulation is 37,453.

1895 – The first color edition, in red, black and green, is published.

1896 – First line drawings are used.

1897 – First halftone (photo) is printed.

1899 – Another fire burns the Tribunes building. The office moves to 57 S. 4th St.

1903 – Murphy bequeaths $350,000 to the University of Minnesota to establish and maintain a school of journalism. That sum is equal to more than $8 million in 2009 dollars.

1905 – The Tribune purchases the Minneapolis Times, the only other Minneapolis morning paper.

1908 masthead slogan: – “The Minneapolis Tribune is a paper which any father or any mother may welcome into the home circle as they would a friend – an interesting, intensely entertaining, well-intentioned family friend whose presence is cheerful as the sunlight.”

1910 – Sunday circulation is 75,000, daily is 100,000.

1918 – William. J. Murphy dies.

1918 – The paper has a bowling writer and three sportswriters.

1920 – The Minneapolis Star is founded by a group called the Nonpartisan League. In contrast to the Tribune and the Journal, both editorially aligned with the Republican Party, the Star is liberal and focuses on agrarian reform. The Star builds a four-story building at 5th Street and Portland Avenue S., the present location of the Star Tribune.

1921 – William J. Murphys brother Fred becomes Tribune publisher. Fred, a farmer and passionate proponent of agricultural diversification, ramps up coverage of agriculture. In the span of eight years the value of agricultural products in Minnesota, Montana and the Dakotas rises from $926.9 million to $1.588 billion.

1924 – The Star changes ownership and becomes politically independent.

1929 – The Tribune writes an editorial calling for an investigation into the bribery of city council members by license applicants. Hennepin County Attorney Floyd B. Olson teams up with the Tribune to prosecute and publicize the scandal. Four aldermen are convicted. Olson is elected governor of Minnesota the next year.

June 1935 – The Cowles family, owners of the Des Moines Register, buys the Star. The Des Moines Register is known for its hard work and a sensitivity to reader interests.

January 1936 – The Star becomes the largest evening circulation paper in the area, with a circulation of more than 119,000. Star reporters are told to “tell your story; dont write it.” The paper develops a flamboyant layout and storytelling style. One top-of-Page-One six-column headline reads Mrs. Robin Has Twins and is accompanied by bird photographs.

1939 – The Star buys the 60-year-old Journal. The evening paper is named the Star-Journal.

1939 – The Tribune creates an evening paper called the Times-Tribune, recruiting many former Journal staffers.

February 1940 – Tribune publisher Fred Murphy dies. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and others eulogize him for his contributions to northwest agriculture and journalism.

1941 – The Tribune, publisher of morning, evening and Sunday newspapers, merges with the Star-Journal after wartime operating costs at the Tribune prove to be too high. The new company is named the Minneapolis Star and Tribune Co. and publishes the Sunday Minneapolis Tribune, the morning Minneapolis Tribune, the evening Minneapolis Star-Journal and the evening Minneapolis Times.

The merged papers masthead outlines the principles of the papers:

• 1. We believe in presenting ALL of the news impartially in the news columns.
• 2. We believe in expressing our own opinions as persuasively and forcefully as possible, but in confining those expressions to the editorial columns on the editorial page.
• 3. We believe in giving our readers also the opinions of other competent writers, representing ALL sides of important controversial issues, so our readers can form their judgments wisely.

1945 – The Minneapolis Times, a competing newspaper, publishes its first sports column by Sid Hartman.

1946 – The Minneapolis Star-Journal name is shortened to the Minneapolis Star, although “and Star Journal” in smaller type still appears. That would end in 1947.

1947 – Renovation on the building on 5th and Portland begins. The building is expanded and the present facade is built.

1948 – The Minneapolis Times, a six-day evening newspaper, ceases publication. The Times had been published by the Tribune and had been kept in publication in a separate plant by the Minneapolis Star and Tribune Co.

May 18, 1948 – Sids first byline appears in the Minneapolis Tribune sports section.

1954 – The Minneapolis Star and Tribune Co. purchases Columbia Broadcast Systems 47 percent minority share interest in Minnesotas leading television station, WCCO-TV.

1959 – Minneapolis Star photographer William Seaman wins a Pulitzer Prize for his dramatic photograph of the sudden traffic death of a child, whose body lay next to his wagon on a Minneapolis street.

1962 – Publication of the Tribune and Star is suspended from April 13 to Aug. 6 because of a labor strike.

1964 – Time magazine names the Tribune one of the 10 best newspapers in the country.

1968 – John Cowles Jr. is elected president.

1973 – John Cowles Sr. retires as chairman of the board after 38 years as president or chairman.

1976 – The Star Tribune Co. sells its stake in WCCO-TV.

1977 – The ATEX electronic news writing and editing system is installed, replacing typewriters and copy paper.

1980 – The Newspaper Guild and Mailers unions go on a 27-day strike before reaching bargaining agreements.

1982 – The evening Minneapolis Star merges with the morning Minneapolis Tribune, creating the morning Star Tribune. The Star, the countrys 12^th-largest evening paper, ended a 62-year-run. Some 55 newsroom employees and 35 others accept buyouts or are laid off. The Star Tribune Co. becomes Cowles Media Co.

1983 – John Cowles Jr. resigns as president; his father, John Sr., dies at 84.

1987 – A new $110 million printing plant, the Heritage Center, opens on West River Parkway at Plymouth Avenue. It introduces robots that move newspaper rolls to the presses.

1987 – Because of public demand for Star Tribunes coverage of the Minnesota Twins in the World Series, the papers presses run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. the day after the Twins won, cranking out 176,000 additional copies. The playoffs and the Series also produced the Homer Hanky, one of the most successful newspaper promotions ever. Two million of the Star Tribune-branded handkerchiefs were sold.

1990 – Star Tribune reporters Lou Kilzer and Chris Ison win a Pulitzer Prize for reporting that exposed a network of Twin Cities residents with links to members of the St. Paul Fire Department, including its chief, and who profited from fires. Cowles Media Co. sells newspapers it owns in Rapid City, S.D., and Great Falls, Mont.

1991 – Star Tribune publishes extra newspapers as the Twins win the World Series again.

1992 – The Mall of America opens in Bloomington, with principal advertising going to the Star Tribune.

1993 – Cowles Media Co. sells its newspaper in Scottsdale, Ariz.

1995 – The Star Tribune starts its first online news service. Newsroom completes extensive reorganization, building new coverage around readers rather than functions. Cowles Media adopts a new image as an “information company” and begins to diversify by launching new consumer publications.

1997 – Cowles Media announces record revenue and earnings. McClatchy Newspapers Inc. buys Cowles Media for $1.4 billion, sells off the other publications while keeping the Star Tribune, valued at about $1.1 billion.

1998 – Sale to McClatchy is completed. McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt pledges to continue the companys philanthropic giving program for 10 years or more through the Star Tribune Foundation.

2006 – McClatchy sells the Star Tribune to Avista Capital Partners, a New York investment firm, for $530 million. McClatchy departs with the assets of the newspapers foundation, which had given millions of dollars to charity since 1945.

2007 – Par Ridder, publisher of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, leaves that job to become publisher of the Star Tribune. The Pioneer Press sues Ridder, claiming he violated non-compete clauses and stole sensitive financial information. A wave of buyouts begins in the newsroom as 24 staffers depart; a few months later more than 50 additional newsroom employees take buyouts. Ridder departs in December.

2008 – The Star Tribune Co. hires Blackstone Group of New York to analyze newspapers finances. New owners ask the papers unions for millions of dollars in cost savings. The Star Tribune Co. defaults on some loans. Employee buyouts continue.

2009 – Saddled with high debt and sagging advertising revenue, the Star Tribune Co. declares bankruptcy. When a buyout offer doesnt draw enough takers, the first involuntary newsroom layoffs occur. The Star Tribunes future remains in the hands of a bankruptcy judge in New York City.