The Star Tribune and the New York Times made Adweek's newspaper "Hot List" Monday as regional and national dailies that "shine brightly."
"Who says regional newspapers can't be saved," writes Adweek media reporter Lucia Moses, about the Star Tribune.
Moses noted that after bankruptcy and deep staff cuts, publisher Michael Klingensmith turned to more local reporting, features and color pages resulting in year-over-year Sunday circulation growth of 2.7 percent and daily growth of two-tenths of 1 percent. Adweek also noted that the Star Tribune sold 34,000 digital subscriptions, including 6,400 digital-only subscriptions, in the first 28 days after a new paywall was announced on Nov. 1.
Moses said the New York Times has proved skeptics wrong that its demise was imminent. The newspaper repaid debt to investor Carlos Slim Helu three years early, stabilized circulation declines and launched an apparently successful digital paywall strategy. After six months, the newspaper had 324,000 paying digital subscribers, an increase in Sunday circulation for the first time in five years and a strong online reporting presence.
DAVID PHELPS
