Losing Pulse: The Twin Cities is losing another alternative newspaper: the decade-old weekly Pulse, founded in the same year the Twin Cities Reader was shut down, will cease publishing, the Star Tribune reports. Publisher Ed Felein informed staff on Wednesday of his decision, stating that the paper “has never been financially remunerative.” Felein will continue publishing the 17-year old Southside Pride, covering Nokomis, Phillips and Powderhorn neighborhoods in South Minneapolis.

Vita.mn’s EPpy Nod: Finalists have been named for the EPpy Awards, which recognize the best media-related websites. The only area finalist is the Star Tribune’s vita.mn, which is up against Spain’s EP3.es and Newsday’s Explore LI in the “Best Entertainment Web Site with fewer than 1 million unique monthly visitors” category.  Winners of the awards, sponsored by Editor & Publisher and MediaWeek magazines, will be announced May 24.

Brandt: “Rot at the top” of the Strib: Longtime Star Tribune schools reporter Steve Brandt offered frank criticism of his paper on a Minneapolis parents’ Yahoo group April 20, stating that “the drift of this newspaper is harmful to the communities it serves.” He said he chose to publish his story on a League of Women Voters panel only on the Strib’s Buzz.mn blog, “but really it was forced on me.” He said he requested 20 inches of space in the paper — the same allotted for a story on Vikings stadium plans — but was offered only 10 to 12 inches. Citing a letter to the editor by former Strib editor Tim McGuire over the PiPress/Strib lawsuit, he wrote, “he’s right in suggesting that there’s a rot at the top of this institution. He’s thinking of the publisher; I’m thinking of how our print readers are getting short-changed, and increasingly, our best coverage will be on the web.” Read a copy of his Yahoogroups post here.

On the End of Newspapers — and Beyond: Brandt, reached by email, expanded on his thinking about web news gathering, praising online efforts by Stribbers like Eric Black and new models for online news, like the Twin Cities Daily Planet, now overseen by his former Strib colleague, Jeremy Iggers:

As a reporter who sees the end of my career in sight, I’m nevertheless wondering about the economic sustainability of newspapers.  Twin Cities Media Alliance has invented Daily Planet, a wonderful aggregation of information, but the economic model to sustain it at a level that would resemble the kind of paying jobs we have here is still elusive.  I’ve come to wonder whether web-based reporting at the level of sophistication and independence that we strive for, combined with the economic package that unionization has meant here for close to 70 years, is a possible dream.  Perhaps foundation money could allow that, but it requires a commitment greater than that made so far to the Planet.  Otherwise, people will need to work elsewhere to support their journalism habit.  While their dedication is great, the greater the amount of time a reporter can devote to learning a topic, the more helpful and nuanced their work will be for the reader.