Media in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota

Minneapolis-Saint Paul, also known as the "Twin Cities" of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, in the state of Minnesota, United States of America, has two major general-interest newspapers: the "Star Tribune" in Minneapolis and the "Saint Paul Pioneer Press". Additionally, the "Minnesota Daily" serves the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus and surrounding neighborhoods. The "Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder" and the "Finance and Commerce" business daily are published in Minneapolis as is the Web-based "MinnPost.com" expected in 2007. The region is currently ranked as the 13th or 14th largest television market, depending on the source. The market officially includes 59 counties of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and extends far to the north and west. The radio market in the Twin Cities is considered to be somewhat smaller than for TV, ranked 16th.

Print

A number of other weekly and monthly publications (most of which are fully supported by advertising) are also available. The most prominent of these is Village Voice Media's "City Pages", the alternative weekly, with 2002 newcomer The Rake offering some competition in the form of a free monthly. "Pulse of the Twin Cities" is another weekly which has less advertising and more coverage of local music and activism.

There are also numerous weekly student newspapers at area colleges including Macalester College's The Mac Weekly and St. Thomas' The Aquin.

Minneapolis community newspapers include the sister publications "Downtown Journal", formerly "Skyway News", and "Southwest Journal", which cover downtown and southwest Minneapolis, respectively, as well as numerous neighborhood papers such as the "North News", "Seward Profile", "Southside Pride", "Whittier Globe". But there is only one weekly newspaper devoted to neighborhood news in either city. It is in St. Paul, and called the "East Side Review." Saint Paul also has a monthly "Highland Villager".

Instead of neighborhood or general-interest news, some periodicals focus on a particular topic, such as the ones covering the Minnesota music scene. Others are audience-specific, such as "Lavender Magazine" for the state's gay community. "The Minnesota Women's Press", one of the few feminist newspapers in the country, serves the local feminist community. Other such periodicals of note include the Asian American Press [http://www.aapress.com/] and Catholic Spirit [http://www.thecatholicspirit.com/] .

Television

Twin Cities Public Television operates both KTCA and KTCI. Hubbard Broadcasting Corporation owns KSTP and has a second TV station, KSTC, which is not affiliated with any network. KMSP and WFTC have now merged as well, and KARE currently has a marketing agreement with KPXM. The only station with its main studios in Minneapolis is WCCO, while St. Paul is host to KSTP/KSTC, KTCA/KTCI, and WUCW. Other stations are located in the suburbs. For much of the last two decades, KARE has had the most popular evening newscasts of the area channels (though WCCO still dominates in the morning slots, and has had more viewership on its programs for around the same duration). On the other end, KSTP has struggled to maintain ratings on its news programs. KMSP has had a 9 o'clock newscast since at least the early 1990s when it was a UPN affiliate.

KSTP claims to have been the first station in the country to run a regular nightly newscast. It is the oldest station in the state to still be operating, having first gone on the air in 1948. TV broadcasts first occurred more than a decade earlier during the 1930s when engineers for radio station WDGY (now KFAN) experimented with a mechanical television system. Mechanical TV quickly lost favor, and the station's owner decided to let the license expire in 1938.

Communities in the region have their own public/educational/government-access cable television channels. One channel, the Metro Cable Network, is available on channel 6 on cable systems across the seven-county region. Minneapolis Telecommunications Network (MTN) [http://www.mtn.org/] has three public access channels and Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) [http://www.spnn.org/] has two.

Area residents of the right age look back fondly on many of the locally-produced shows that were on the air for about two decades, from the early days of TV in Minnesota up until the 1970s. WCCO, KSTP, KMSP, and WTCN (now KARE) all had children's shows, though there were a few other notable shows meant for an older audience.

Several television programs originating in the Twin Cities have been aired nationally on terrestrial and cable TV networks. KTCA created the science program "Newton's Apple" and distributes a children's program today. A few unusual comedic shows also originated in the area. In the 1980s, KTMA (predecessor to WUCW) created a number of low-budget shows, including the cult classic "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (since airing in reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel quite often). The shortlived "Let's Bowl" (which aired on Comedy Central) started on KARE, and the PBS series "Mental Engineering" originated on the St. Paul cable access network.

Radio

For decades, WCCO radio was the most well-known and most popular broadcaster in the region, with an all-day talk format. WCCO was eventually pushed out of the top spot by KQRS, a classic rock station with a popular morning show. Non-commercial KTIS 98.5 has leaped onto the morning show scene with its clean (no raunch) Christian format. Recent ratings have put the KTIS morning show at number 2 with over 250,000 listeners, and the station is number 5 overall in the Twin Cities market. KSTP also has some fairly popular radio stations, with pop music format on FM and a talk format on AM. Both operate on clear channel frequencies, allowing their signals to be heard across much of North America. K102 is the major area country music outlet, and often appears at third place in local ratings. WLTE and KDWB are also among the area's top performers in the ratings books.

Radio K, on the other hand, is still largely an "AM daytimer" and must shut down at night to make way for two other stations situated in New York and New Mexico. However, the station is believed to be the oldest in the state. It first received a license for the call sign WLB in January 1922.

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) is also a major force in the state and across the country, best known across the U.S. for the variety show "A Prairie Home Companion". Based in St. Paul, MPR is reportedly the nation's second-most powerful public radio organization behind National Public Radio (of which MPR is an affiliate).

Cities 97 is notable for its yearly compilation of live recordings, the "Cities Sampler", which is now so popular that people camp out at local Target stores overnight when it is to be released. The last few volumes of the CD have sold out within a few hours.

Many area residents feel that the overall quality of radio in the region is poor, particularly considering the area's appetite for the arts. Radio K and community station KFAI are often said to be the best area stations by media and music critics—especially because they focus on local music (Minnesota has a major local music scene, see music of Minnesota). However, many listeners find their formats to be disjointed and uncomfortable. Both are hampered by relatively weak or low-fidelity signals, but attempt to compensate with Internet radio streaming. Music aficionados in the northwestern suburbs sometimes tune in to the St. Cloud station KVSC, which is also well-regarded.

A few pirate radio stations have been found on the local dial from time to time. The most famous of these is Beat Radio 97.7 from 1996, which was co-created by area programmer and DJ Alan Freed. Freed went on to broadcast the Beat Radio dance music format from a number of different area stations (and nationally), and now works at three electronic music channels of XM Satellite Radio. Frustration with the offerings of local radio may have reached a tipping point in 2004. That year, the Walker Art Center sponsored a "Radio Re-Volt" and helped aspiring local artists to create miniature radio transmitters that could reach nearby FM receivers under Part 15 regulations. On October 28, all of the transmitters were operating, and people driving around town could hear signals fade in and out (particularly on major thoroughfares) on the frequency of 97.7 MHz.

MPR's KCMP, which broadcasts under the moniker "89.3 The Current," is a new addition as of 2005 and competes somewhat with KFAI and Radio K because of its eclectic format. Regardless, it quickly became a welcome addition to the region's radio dial as it has a high-power FM transmitter and highly-respected disc jockeys that play a large amount of local music. It is also notable that KCMP had previously been known as WCAL and was one of two major classical music stations in the area—a unique condition for the early 21st century, where most markets find it difficult to support even one classical outlet.

Most of the major TV and radio transmitters are located in Shoreview, Minnesota, and backup facilities are maintained atop the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis (though a few low-power broadcasters use the setup continuously).

List of newspapers and magazines

The following is a list of print publications in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area:

Daily

*"Finance and Commerce" (Minneapolis)
*"MinnPost.com" (Minneapolis)
*"St. Paul Pioneer Press" (St. Paul)
*"Star Tribune" (Minneapolis)

Weekly

*"Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal" (Minneapolis)
*"Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder" (Minneapolis)

College

*"The Minnesota Daily" (University of Minnesota student newspaper)

Other

*"City Pages"
*"Minnesota Monthly"
*"Mpls.St.Paul"
*"The Rake"
* [http://www.dunation.com "DUNation"]
* "Utne"

Neighborhood press

In Minneapolis:
*"CamdeNews" published monthly
* [http://www.northeastbeat.com Northeast Beat] online only
*"Northeaster" published bimonthly
*"North News" published monthly
*"Downtown Journal" published bimonthly
*"Southwest Journal" published bimonthly
*"Seward Profile" published monthly
*"Southside Pride" published monthly
*"Whittier Globe" published monthly

In St. Paul:
*"East Side Review" published weekly
*"Villager" published twice-monthly
*"Midway-Como-North End Monitor" published monthly
*"Park Bugle" published monthly
*"West Seventh Community Reporter" published monthly
*"Avenues" published monthly

pecial Interest

*"Lavender Magazine" (Minnesota's LGBT community)
*"The Minnesota Women's Press" (feminist newspaper)
*"Asian American Press"
*"Catholic Spirit"
*"Profane Existence", the world's largest circulating anarcho-punk magazine

List of television stations

Broadcast

External links

* [http://northpine.com/broadcast/index.html NorthPine.com: Upper Midwest Broadcasting]
* [http://nenorthnews.com Northeaster Newspaper, Northeast Minneapolis, St. Anthony Village, Columbia Heights and Hilltop]
* [http://nenorthnews.com NorthNews Newspaper, North Minneapolis]