St. Paul North End / Local Paper’s Future in Doubt: North End News Stops Publishing, Cites Decline in Ads

By Jason Hoppin, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Feb. 15–The North End News, a Rice Street mainstay for more than 30 years, has suspended publication, and its future is in doubt.

Officials with the St. Paul neighborhood newspaper said advertising has declined as the North End business landscape has changed.

“It’s going to be missed,” said Bruce Larson, a prominent North End businessman and board member at the paper. “We were trying to put a positive image of the North End in the paper.”

Larson said the paper would need a 50 percent increase in ad sales to survive and is exploring a possible merger with another community newspaper. Larson declined to name potential suitors, but one possibility is the Midway Como Monitor.

“It was a valuable source both for the businesses to advertise and for the neighborhood to learn about what’s happening in the community,” said City Council Member Lee Helgen, who represents the North End.

Once a go-to source for stories about what’s happening around the block and a valuable resource for listings about the next church social or local yard sale, community papers seem to have fallen on hard times.

In the past several years, both the West Side’s Riverview Times and the Frogtown Times have stopped publishing, and several other papers have scaled back their operations. The once-monthly Merriam Park Post, for example, now operates as a quarterly newsletter.

Newspapers across the industry are feeling the pinch. The Pioneer Press recently saw 21 newsroom employees leave under a buyout program offered after a decline in advertising revenue.

Capital Bank of St. Paul President Mike Remmers, who heads the North End Business Association, said he hopes the North End News finds a way to survive, giving local business owners a chance to advertise within the neighborhood.

“I think there are a couple people trying to resurrect it,” Remmers said. “We’d like a neighborhood paper.”

Larson said some longtime local advertisers have closed up shop or passed away, and many new businesses cater to Asian customers, who might spend their advertising dollars with the city’s Asian-American newspapers.

“Many of the advertisers that we’ve had over the years are no longer on Rice Street,” Larson said.

Jane McClure, a longtime community reporter and former president of the now-defunct Neighborhood Press Association, said times are hard for community newspapers. When people ask about starting one, she said, she discourages them.

“I tell them it’s just not something you can do,” said McClure, who once worked at the North End News.

The city used to foster community papers, partially funding them through grants issued through the city’s district council planning groups. Those days are largely over, she said.

“I think you lose a source of information. I think, if it’s a good enough paper, you lose a sense of pride,” McClure said. “I think you lose that ability to communicate on a local level.”

Jason Hoppin can be reached at jhoppin@pioneerpress.com or 651-292-1892.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

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