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(Red)) Star Tribune's real estate for sale (Dinosaur Media DeathWatchâ„¢)
(Red) Star Tribune ^ | February 1, 2008 | Matt McKinney

Posted on 02/01/2008 2:16:32 PM PST by abb

For sale: a pair of office buildings. Served as home to skeptical cranks, loudmouth jokers and coffee-stained carpet.

The Star Tribune's real estate is on the market once again, publisher Chris Harte told his staff in a memo sent Friday. The company hired a real estate broker but no deal is imminent, or even guaranteed, he wrote.

A $45 million deal that would have sold off the newspaper's three parking lots and its lesser used Freeman office building to the Minnesota Vikings collapsed five months ago amid tightening credit markets.

Harte said the deal this time may include everything, including the main office building at 425 Portland Ave., which houses the advertising staff, newsroom and publisher's office.

The newspaper was already consolidating all of its employees and operations in its main Portland Avenue building, moving its online staff and some administrative functions out of a building across the street.

News of the sale comes as the paper lives out a now well-known story for the newspaper business: a decline in circulation and revenue as both readers and advertisers turn to the web. Annual revenue at the Star Tribune is down $75 million in the last two years, according to Harte. Sales of classified ads in 2007 were half what they were at the start of the decade.

"2007 was far and away the worst year this industry has seen in anyone's memory, and it was also the worst for the Star Tribune. We were not the hardest hit large metropolitan paper in the country, but our overall revenue performance was well below the median for the industry," he had told the staff earlier last month in a previous memo.

snip

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dbm; minneapolis; newspapers; startribune
More Good News!
1 posted on 02/01/2008 2:16:36 PM PST by abb
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To: 04-Bravo; aimhigh; andyandval; Arizona Carolyn; backhoe; Bahbah; bert; bilhosty; Caipirabob; ...

ping


2 posted on 02/01/2008 2:17:07 PM PST by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: abb

Lots of luck. This is the worst real estate market seen in decades.


3 posted on 02/01/2008 2:22:36 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: abb

Time to lay off Nick Coleman.... thank God!


4 posted on 02/01/2008 2:24:34 PM PST by From The Deer Stand
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To: Cicero

This is the worst real estate market seen in decades.

On top of that, the buildings have a strong lean to the left.


5 posted on 02/01/2008 2:30:53 PM PST by proudpapa (May God Bless Our Troops.)
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To: NorthWoody; Manic_Episode; mikethevike; coder2; AmericanChef; Reaganesque; ER Doc; lesser_satan; ...

WELCOME TO FREE REPUBLIC’S MINNESOTA PING LIST!

89 MEMBERS & GROWING...!

FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT ON OR OFF THIS LIST!


6 posted on 02/01/2008 2:34:26 PM PST by MplsSteve
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To: From The Deer Stand

I’d love to see Nick Coleman leave ASAP...with Lori Sturdivant following close behind!

I do have to admit that the StarTribune’s op/ed pages are no longer locked into the sanctimonious in-your-face attitude ever since Jim Boyd and Susan Albright took their buy-outs.

I expect a newspaper to criticize the GOP when they’re wrong but the whole editorial staff really seemed to go out of their collective way to stick a finger in the eye of the GOP at every chance they could get.


7 posted on 02/01/2008 2:41:35 PM PST by MplsSteve
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To: abb; MplsSteve
As Stribune readership hemorrhages, watch for a move to this building :


8 posted on 02/01/2008 4:30:19 PM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: abb

I’m waiting for the Washington Post to sell its building to the Russian embassy.


9 posted on 02/01/2008 4:37:05 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
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To: abb; From The Deer Stand
Time to lay off Nick Coleman.... thank God!

Oh you're not going to get rid of him that easy! I saw him pop up on the news and give his big whiny opinion. Can't remember which station.

10 posted on 02/01/2008 5:01:14 PM PST by Lijahsbubbe
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To: abb
2007 was far and away the worst year this industry has seen in anyone's memory, and it was also the worst for the Star Tribune.

Aw, cheer up...it won't be as bad as 2008.

11 posted on 02/01/2008 8:28:40 PM PST by Uncledave
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To: abb

Great! When that building gets torn down, I want something off of it for a trophy. Maybe the some of the black granite stone work ... what could be cooler for landscaping the place to put your trash cans on the street?


12 posted on 02/02/2008 6:26:41 AM PST by WorkingClassFilth ('Yellow is mellow, but brown goes down.' -- The Clinton campaign slogan for 2008)
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To: abb; All

Same, or different? You decide:

1) http://www.mcclatchy.com/static/images/profiles/star_tribune/star_tribune.jpg

2) http://titanic.marconigraph.com/wireless_titanic.jpg


13 posted on 02/02/2008 6:34:23 AM PST by WorkingClassFilth ('Yellow is mellow, but brown goes down.' -- The Clinton campaign slogan for 2008)
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To: abb

The sooner they go under, the better. I won’t even accept a free newspaper from them when they’re offered.
I wish a conservative investor group would buy the Strib and return it to an actual newspaper that reports FACTS instead of a liberal brainwashing delivery-system.
A pox on the Strib’s house, says I!


14 posted on 02/04/2008 2:50:11 PM PST by 95 Bravo ("Freedom is not free.")
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