MinnPost.com, the local start-up that bills itself as "a thoughtful approach to news," got a lot more to think about recently when Minnesota Public Radio rebuffed the website's offer to continue in a sponsorship role.
The website's founder, Joel Kramer, said MPR chief Bill Kling won't return his calls or those of his board chairman, Lee Lynch, a former MPR board member and donor.
MinnPost.com had paid $12,000 for a month's worth of MPR underwriting, a deal that expired Dec. 5, according to Kramer. Such underwriting arrangements include on-air plugs for the sponsors, and help advertising-free public radio pay its bills.
Kramer said the snub was only the latest rebuff from public radio. The website had hoped to share content with MPR, but talks fell through. Kramer, a former Star Tribune publisher, struck a content-sharing agreement with Twin Cities Public Television that places MinnPost reporters on TPT's "Almanac" news program.
Kling did not return a call from the Star Tribune seeking comment, but spokeswoman Jennifer Haugh sent an e-mail saying that "lots of people call Bill Kling, and calls are often delegated to more-relevant managers." She said that a collaboration with MinnPost doesn't align with the organizations' strategy for online news. Minnesota Public Radio had $62.3 million in annual revenue and support from 94,000 members in its most recent fiscal year.
Kramer said his site, begun Nov. 8 with $850,000 in donations, has 697 paying members and 500,000 page views a month. MinnPost freelancers include many well-known Twin Cities journalists, some of whom took early retirement last year from the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Star Tribune as the papers downsized amid an advertising and circulation slump.
Matt McKinney • 612-673-7329
