The Blanding Of A Newspaper

The Minneapolis Star Tribune, jettisoning as much ballast as they could before crash-landing in bankruptcy, is about to make its product a little less attractive to readers and potential buyers by dropping two metro columnists.

If you believe the other media blogs, columnists Nick Coleman and Katherine Kersten were apparently given a choice: take the buyout money being offered, or start covering city council meetings in Andover. (There's been no official announcement, so that's why we're not being definite here.)

Coleman has spent decades with both Twin Cities dailies, whether as a columnist or as a reporter. He's railed against the sins of politicians both left and (mostly) right, championed the people who don't make the news but are affected by it (which sometimes makes for sappy reading), and usually takes pains to distinguish himself from the mayor of St. Paul, who happens to be his brother Chris.

Kersten is there because the Strib thought it needed a conservative voice to win back subscribers who quit the paper, alleging liberal bias. She has no previous background in journalism, but did work for the local right-wing think tank. Kersten's pieces on Muslim charter schools, abstinence education, and general longing for 'the way things were' have won the hearts of conservative readers and the enmity of others.

Coleman's and Kersten's apparent departures raise the question of what will happen to the Strib's other resident thought-provokers, C.J. and James Lileks. The blogs I've seen (David Brauer in MinnPost and Brian Lambert in Mpls. St. Paul Magazine) tell me they're staying.

C.J. is a gossip columnist in a city where TV news anchors and professional athletes are considered celebrities. Apparently, the Strib thinks we need to know the scoop on a local man who is dating a former American Idol contestant, or what C.J. thought of the locker room video accidentally showing a certain Viking's, uh, package.

James Lileks' column takes the Jerry Seinfeld approach of observing the minutiae of daily life, but elsewhere he's been known to spout a conservative view or two. Maybe he's afraid of offending his vast readership if he voiced a real opinion?

If the Star Tribune does indeed send Coleman and Kersten packing, they're sending the message that they want to limit social and political commentary to the editorial pages. People don't read the newspaper for details of stories they've seen and heard elsewhere. They read it for the columnists who have a point of view, and are willing to share it. If this keeps up, the most insightful columnists the Strib has left (unless they're in the next round of layoffs) reside on the sports pages.