Minnesota Newspapers To Get State Money To Retrain Staff For The Internet

DULUTH, Minn. — Two Minnesota newspapers will receive a share of state grants normally given to retrain workers in manufacturing and other industries in transition.

The Duluth News Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press will work with the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication to help staff adapt to an increasingly Internet-based industry.

Minnesota Job Skills Partnership is awarding $238,000 in state funds, while the newspapers and the university will contribute about $469,000 combined, mostly by devoting staff time to training.

Paul Moe, the state program's director, said newspapers around the country are looking closely at the project as a potential model.

Kathleen Hansen, director of the university's Minnesota Journalism Center, said the grant idea came from the Pioneer Press. She said the application was unusual for a state agency more accustomed to businesses that deal in plastics or crop machinery.

"This is a very different kind of workforce group," she said.

Hansen said training will be tailored to the skills of the newsroom and advertising sales staffs at the newspapers. She said a primary goal for both departments will be getting them away from print-based thinking.

Some journalists "don't know how to start thinking about stories without thinking about what's going to be in the print newspaper," she said.

Journalists will likely study new ways of telling stories and new ways of delivering content, and perhaps get some training in using software.

Ad sales people will look at different ways to connect consumers with advertisers, treating the Internet as a one-on-one medium rather than one serving a mass audience, as is the case in print.

Rob Karwath, executive editor of the News Tribune, said he hopes the grant will help his newspaper come up with new products that deliver news and advertising to readers and methods to get more feedback from customers.