My friend Lani Willis, communications director for the Minnesota Opera, has an op-ed piece in today’s Star Tribune lamenting the paper’s decision to do away with its regular classical music column. These are uncertain days for the Strib, which was recently purchased by a private equity group convinced that the best way to improve the paper’s circulation numbers is to get rid of many of its longtime reporters and focus more intently on local/human interest stories. That may attract readers, but I’m not sure it serves the community in the long run. Newspapers play an important role in holding leaders and institutions accountable to the public and I worry that the Strib’s new owners might not be as interested in the civic aspect of the news business. And as Lani points out, the paper’s alleged commitment to covering the local arts rings hollow. The same market forces that have made local television news a frothy mix of sensationalism and inanity are threatening to diminish a respectable news source.
