Young & Younger, Strib & Stripper

Youthful exodus: A former Pioneer Press staffer writes in to underscore a key difference between many of the buyout takers this time around and those from the last round — their ages. “What’s significant about this list is that most of these people are in their 40s, a few are in their 50s (Tomson, Rossi and Rysgaard, for sure), and just one is in his 60s and ready for retirement (Borck),” said the commenter. “This is pretty sad.” The paper reports today that four employees outside the newroom have also taken buyouts.

New media blog at MSP: With the admirable mission “to discuss life in the Twin Cities beyond the realm of consumer culture that define most mspmag.com blogs,” Adam Platt, senior editor of Mpls.St.Paul magazine, launched his new blog this week. And he’s off to a good start. In his second post, the former Twin Cities Reader media critic tackles a Strib story by Mike Kaszuba that he says never asks tough questions about whether it’s appropriate for the former owner of a downtown strip club to  donate a million dollars for a new Gophers stadium.

Kids and consumer culture: The nation’s largest indoor amusement park, formerly known as Camp Snoopy, has a new name, and thanks to the efforts of a panel of prepubescent focus groupies, it’ll get a new look. According to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, the Mall of America’s  seven-acre park will be called Nickelodeon Universe and will be branded with a logo featuring the kids’ cable network’s characters Spongebob Squarepants and Dora the Explorer. The Viacom-owned station and MOA corralled 32 kids ages 8 to 12 to get their thoughts on the new park design, which will be unveiled in March 2008.

“Stribulations”: In an overview of the recent Twin Cities media mayhem, American Journalism Review covers everything from buyouts at the dailies to the Par Ridder fiasco, Eric Black’s departure to Minnesota Monitor to Joel Kramer’s planned online daily news magazine. Not much new here, except news that the Cowles family, former owners of the Star Tribune, are helping bankroll Kramer’s endeavor, which according to another source close to Kramer has raised a million dollars in startup funds already. It also quotes former Washington Post reporter Rene Sanchez, the deputy managing editor charged with overseeing the Strib’s newsroom organization, who says Buzz.mn has quadrupled traffic since James Lileks took over. As I’ve reported before, the paper’s overall web traffic — for Buzz.mn, Vita.mn and StarTribune.com — has slipped slightly. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the paper’s online traffic hasn’t been among the top 30 most-visited newspaper sites since April, when it ranked 26th.

No respect… Bill Wareham takes issue that AJR named former Stribber Joel Kramer’s online news project a “serious journalism” threat to the Strib and PiPress without mentioning Minnesota Public Radio. “I mean, we’re serious to a fault,” he writes. “Feelin’ a little like Rodney Dangerfield right now.”

Got a tip for Media Monitor? Email us your media news.