Mnspeak

When I interviewed MNspeak founder Rex Sorgatz in spring 2007, he commented on his 2006 sale of his placeblogging site MNspeak to the Bartel family, owners of The Rake (and, formerly, City Pages): “My lingering concern with the site now is actually that they haven’t changed anything (except adding more ads)… I hoped someone would invest in it, push it in new directions, invent new stuff.” Last night, those long-awaited changes have occurred — and MNspeak is no more.

Ed at The Deets has all the details on how to get MNSpeak to pay attention to you.

Want to know how to get linked on Minnesota Monitor?  We like boxes of chocolates and bottles of fine wine.

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Tough questions for Kramer: Leonard Witt, former editor of Minnesota Monthly and the Strib’s Sunday magazine, conducted an IM interview with MinnPost’s Joel Kramer and asked a question on many minds these days: “When I think of the Internet, disruptive technology, I think young, vibrant, innovative, but when I look at the editorial names on [...]

When he resigned from his job at City Pages in January, editor Steve Perry cited “philosophical and practical differences” with the paper’s new owner, Village Voice Media. Since then, City Pages has taken one path, very different from the one he set there for 13 years, and Perry has taken another. For the past six [...]

Growling about Al: Al Franken in gym shorts: That’s the image City Pages treats us to today. In a story by Brooklyn-based writer Ben Westhoff, we hear from neighbors at Franken’s downtown Minneapolis condo about his antics in the building’s gym. Among the stunning revelations: Franken has been spotted shouting at the TV during a [...]

Bridgesourcing: My sincerest kudos to all the local media, citizen and mainstream, who covered the 35W collapse with such veracity. I was unable to see everything, and I don’t have space to sing every outlet’s praise, but what I did see impressed: MPR’s coverage was relentless. All the TV stations had some form of online [...]

Ridder “meant no harm”: Testifying in person at yesterday’s injunction hearing in Ramsey District Court, Star Tribune publisher Par Ridder said he “didn’t plan on using the Pioneer Press financials” because to do so would give the Star Tribune an “unfair advantage.” I wonder how this admission — that the pilfered information is critical to [...]

The semantics of border crossing: Despite years of debate about the use of the term “illegals” to describe people the National Association of Hispanic Journalists prefers to call “undocumented immigrants,” the Star Tribune ran a story on Wednesday using the term. The Associated Press story, “Green Bay, Wis., passes ordinance against hiring illegals,” shouldn’t have [...]

Your loss, our gain: With so many writers leaving the Star Tribune, recent buyouts at the Pioneer Press and some of City Pages’ best writers without jobs, online news could end up reaping the benefit. Minnesota Public Radio’s coverage of the Strib buyouts revealed that former Star Tribune publisher Joel Kramer is considering launching an [...]