The Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the Minneapolis Tribune in 1867 and the competing Minneapolis Daily Star in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, the two newspapers were consolidated, with the Tribune published in the morning and the Star in the evening. They merged in 1982, creating the Star and Tribune, which was renamed the Star Tribune in 1987. After a tumultuous period in which the newspaper was sold and re-sold and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, it was purchased by local businessman Glen Taylor in 2014.
The Star Tribune is the sixth largest newspaper in the United States by circulation. It serves Minneapolis and is distributed throughout the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the state of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. It typically contains a mixture of national, international and local news, sports, business and lifestyle stories. Journalists from the Star Tribune and its predecessor newspapers have won seven Pulitzer Prizes.
History
Minneapolis Tribune
The Star Tribune roots date to the creation of the Minneapolis Daily Tribune by Colonel William S. King, William D. Washburn, and Dorilus Morrison. The two men previously operated different Minneapolis newspapers, the State Atlas and the Minneapolis Daily Chronicle. The newspaper was designed to unify the local republican party under one newspaper. The Tribune first issue was published on May 25, 1867. The newspaper went through several different editors and publishers during its first two decades, including John T. Gilman, George K. Shaw, Albert Shaw, and Alden J. Blethen. In 1878, the Minneapolis Evening Journal began publication, giving the Tribune its first competition. On November 30, 1889, the Tribune headquarters in downtown Minneapolis caught fire. Seven people were killed and 30 injured, and the building and presses were a total loss.
In 1891, the Tribune was purchased by Gilbert A. Pierce and William J. Murphy for $450,000 (equivalent to $ in ). Pierce quickly sold his share to Thomas Lowry and Lowry sold it to Murphy, making Murphy the newspaper's sole owner. His business and legal background helped him structure the Tribune debt and modernize its printing equipment. The newspaper experimented with partial-color printing and the use of halftone for photographs and portraits. In 1893, Murphy sent the Tribune first correspondent to Washington, D.C. As Minneapolis grew, the newspaper's circulation expanded; the Tribune and the Evening Journal were closely competitive, with the smaller Minneapolis Times in third place. In 1905, Murphy bought out the Times and merged it with the Tribune.
He died in 1918, endowing a school of journalism at the University of Minnesota. After a brief transitional period, Murphy's younger brother Frederick became the Tribune publisher in 1921.
Minneapolis Daily Star
The other half of the newspaper's history begins with the Minnesota Daily Star, which was founded on August 19, 1920, by elements of the agrarian Nonpartisan League and backed by Thomas Van Lear and Herbert Gaston. The Daily Star had difficulty attracting advertisers with its overt political agenda, and went bankrupt in 1924. After its purchase by A. B. Frizzell and former New York Times executive John Thompson, the newspaper became the politically independent Minneapolis Daily Star.
Cowles era
In 1935, the Cowles family of Des Moines, Iowa, purchased the Star. The family patriarch, Gardner Cowles Sr., had purchased The Des Moines Register and the Des Moines Tribune during the first decade of the century and managed them successfully. Gardner's son, John Cowles Sr. (1898–1983), moved to Minneapolis to manage the Star. Under him it had the city's highest circulation, pressuring Minneapolis's other newspapers. In 1939 the Cowles family purchased the Minneapolis Evening Journal, merging the two newspapers into the Star-Journal. Tribune publisher Fred Murphy died in 1940; the following year the Cowles family bought the Tribune and merged it with their company, giving it ownership of the city's major newspapers. The Tribune became the city's morning newspaper, the Star-Journal (renamed the Star in 1947) was the evening newspaper, and they published a joint Sunday edition. A separate evening newspaper (the Times) was spun off, and continued to be published separately until 1948.