St. Paul Pioneer Press

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Pioneer Press
The July 27, 2005 front page of the Pioneer Press
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet

Owner	MediaNews Group
Editor	Thom Fladung
Founded	1849
Headquarters	345 Cedar Street St. Paul, MN 55101 United States
Circulation	191,136 Daily 251,565 Sunday^[1]

Website: www.twincities.com

This article is about the Minnesota newspaper. For the chain of Illinois weeklies, see Pioneer Press.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press is a newspaper based in St. Paul, Minnesota, primarily serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the eastern metro region, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington counties, along with western Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota and Anoka County, Minnesota. Circulation for the Pioneer Press reaches 191,136 daily, and 251,565 Sundays.^[1] It primarily competes with the Star Tribune, based in neighboring Minneapolis.

The Pioneer Press is owned by MediaNews Group, which bought it from The McClatchy Company in August 2006. McClatchy had acquired the paper in June 2006 when it bought Knight Ridder, the Pioneer Press’ corporate owner. As owner of the Star Tribune, McClatchy had to sell the Pioneer Press because of antitrust concerns. [1] The Star Tribune was subsequently sold by McClatchy in December 2006.

The Pioneer Press has a somewhat conservative orientation and publishes a substantial amount of human-interest stories, while the Star Tribune is more liberal and favors harder-hitting news. The paper has won three Pulitzer Prizes in 1986, 1988, and 2000.

The Pioneer Press traces its history back to both the Minnesota Pioneer, Minnesota's first daily newspaper (which was founded in 1849 by James M. Goodhue), and the St. Paul Dispatch (which was launched in 1868). Ridder Publications acquired the Minnesota Pioneer and the Dispatch in 1927. The two papers were operated for many years as separate morning and evening papers, but were merged into an all-day publication in 1985 as the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch and made the transition to morning-only newspaper in 1990, when they dropped the word "Dispatch". It is sometimes referred to as the "Pi Press", by reference to the nickname of "Strib" used for the Star Tribune.

From 1947 to 1949, the newspaper printed the comic strip Li'l Folks, by St. Paul native Charles M. Schulz. This comic introduced a number of characters who would later return in 1950 in the syndicated comic strip Peanuts, including Charlie Brown and a dog strongly resembling Snoopy.

In 1952, the Dispatch began sponsoring a treasure hunt as part of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival. Clues to finding a medallion are printed in the paper, and the first person to find it wins a sum of money. The prize started off at $1,000, but has risen to $10,000 as of 2004.

The 1990 Fox sitcom Get a Life portrayed the lead character, played by Chris Elliot as a 30 year-old paperman who delivered the Pioneer Press.

Reporters and some editors are members of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union. The union's current contract with the Pioneer Press runs through July 31, 2007.

1 Notable reporters
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Notable reporters

Mark Kellogg (reporter), the first Associated Press correspondent to die in the line of duty when he was killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
John Camp/John Sanford, author of the "Prey" series of crime novels.