Disambiguation: for the Minnesota politician, see Nicholas D. Coleman.
Nicholas J. (Nick) Coleman (born June 26, 1950 in Saint Paul, Minnesota) is a veteran Minnesota journalist and columnist for the Star Tribune, the daily newspaper published in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Coleman is on his second stint at the Star Tribune, having begun his career there in 1973 before becoming a news columnist at the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1986. He returned to the Star Tribune in 2003.
Coleman has published more than 3,000 newspaper columns and 300 television commentaries on subjects such as politics, Native American issues and the Northern Ireland peace process, as well as hosting two radio talk shows.[1] In his 35-year newspaper career, Coleman has reported on Minneapolis city government, business, out-of-state issues, media, editorial and general news.
Coleman has worked almost equally for the St. Paul and Minneapolis newspapers -- 18 years at the Star Tribune in two different stints (1973-86 and 2003-present) and 17 years at the Pioneer Press (1986-2003). He returned to the Star Tribune in November, 2003, as a Metro News columnist.
Thematically, Coleman alternates among a handful of topics. He is fanatical about crime, corporate subsidies (especially as embodied by the new Twins stadium), Indian nicknames, the 35W Bridge collapse, and the defunding of public education and social programs.
He has engaged in rhetorical feuds with other Twin Cities writers and bloggers, and others who publicly critique his work. In 2004 Coleman criticized the role of local Power Line bloggers in the Dan Rather/Killian documents controversy. An exchange ensued for some weeks in local print and on the internet. The spats he initiated with local writer Steve Marsh and New York University Professor Jay Rosen spilled out onto the internet as well.
Coleman has done regular TV commentaries for KTCA-TV and KMSP-TV, and hosted talk radio shows in the Twin Cities, including a weekly show for 10 years at KSTP-AM. In 2005 he was briefly a morning host at Air America Radio’s affiliate in the Twin Cities. His engagement at Air America ended after a feud with management, with Coleman unsatisfied with the centrist positioning of the station by its owner, Janet Roberts.
From 2009 to 2010, Coleman served as a fellow at the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy & Civic Engagement at St. John’s University. However, St. John’s dismissed Coleman after several donors objected to his liberal opinion columns.[2]
Coleman is the eldest child of the late Nicholas D. (Nick) Coleman, who served as majority leader of the Minnesota Senate from 1973 to 1981, and Bridget Finnegan. He is also the oldest brother and godfather of Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul and was the stepson of Deborah Howell, ombudsman for the Washington Post. Howell was editor of the Pioneer Press when Coleman was hired there in 1986.
Coleman was educated in Catholic schools in St. Paul, and at the University of Minnesota, where he was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Minnesota Daily. Coleman is six feet tall and has a concealed handgun carry permit. His second wife is freelance writer and former Pioneer Press columnist Laura Billings (born 1967). The couple have three children.