The recent changes at the Strib--now under the stewardship of one Par Ridder--have some folks wishfully thinking that perhaps better days lie ahead for the newspaper, especially its editorial pages. However, according to people familiar with Ridder's stint at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, it seems unlikely if he has the instincts and acumen necessary to turn things around.
One of the areas that the Pioneer Press had long prided itself on was its coverage of the Capitol. They owned the statehouse, which made sense since it was in their backyard. But when Ridder arrived, he decided that St. Paul wasn't really much of a political town. No, readers didn't care about what happened at the Capitol, they were much more interested in the latest "buzz" out of Woodbury.
Accordingly, he reassigned many of the Capitol reporters to suburban beats. Forget about St. Paul, we need to find out what's going on Stillwater seemed to be Ridder's view. He even went so far as to pass on items that his wife had discussed with her bridge group as possible story ideas. No offense to bridge fans out there, but stories that seem interesting at the bridge table don't necessarily appeal to a wider audience.
One of the keys to running a successful businesses is understanding what your core is and making sure that you're the best at it. Ridder clearly didn't understand that the Capitol was core to the Pioneer Press. Instead, he went chasing suburban stories that were probably already being adequately covered by local community papers and had little reach to the broader readership that the paper was after anyway. Not exact;y a display of the sort of news judgment that bodes well for the success of his tenure at the Strib.
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