For the first time in Minnesota -- and perhaps in the nation -- a journalism school has received a grant to help two daily newspapers adapt their products to an increasingly Internet-based industry.
The Minnesota Job Skills Partnership program has given the Duluth News Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication a total of $238,000 to help retrain the newspaper staffs.
As part of the grant, the two newspapers and journalism school will collectively contribute $469,330, mostly through in-kind contributions of staff time for training.
Those involved think it's the first time a government agency has provided a job training grant to help the newspaper industry reinvigorate itself with the aid of a journalism school.
"All over the nation, newspaper staff members, advertising and everyone else have heard about this, and are looking closely at this as a potential model [for training]," said Paul Moe, director of the Minnesota Jobs Skills Partnership Program.
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The board wanted to make sure the money would be going toward creating transformational changes, not just helping stem the current financial bleeding, said Kathleen Hansen, director of the Minnesota Journalism Center at the University of Minnesota.
Now the two newspapers and journalism department will begin working on what ought to be studied. Those involved say it's likely to be a mix of learning new computer programs to help sell advertising and tell news stories, and fundamentally rethinking how to deliver news and advertising.
"There are all kinds of ways we can use it," said Peter Passi, a business reporter and president of the Lake Superior Newspaper Guild at the News Tribune. The idea of applying grew out of negotiations between the paper's owner, Forum Communi-cations, and the union last year, Passi said.
Rob Karwath, executive editor of the News Tribune, said he envisions money going toward rethinking how to sell new products that deliver news and advertising to readers, and setting up methods to increasingly receive feedback from customers.
"I think it's primarily rethinking what we're doing, where we put our people, and where we put our efforts," he said.
Aaron Becher, advertising director at the News Tribune, said he hopes the money can help create more of a lab-type experience where advertising staff can train to sell new kinds of advertising products in an in-house practice system before taking it to actual customers.
