St. Paul Pioneer Press
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- This article is about the Minnesota paper owned by Knight Ridder, often simply referred to as "Pioneer Press." For the chain of Illinois weeklies, see Pioneer Press.
The paper is owned by The McClatchy Company, which acquired the Pioneer Press when it purchased Knight Ridder in June 2006. Due to antitrust concerns (McClatchy owns the Star Tribune), the Pioneer Press will be sold to MediaNews Group (with backing from the Hearst Corporation), along with three California papers. [link]
The Pioneer Press has a somewhat conservative orientation and publishes a substantial amount of human-interest stories, while the Star Tribune is more liberal and favors harder-hitting news. The paper has won three Pulitzer Prizes in 1986, 1988, and 2000.
The Pioneer Press traces its history back to both the Minnesota Pioneer, Minnesota's first daily newspaper (which was founded in 1849 by James M. Goodhue), and the St. Paul Dispatch (which was launched in 1868). Ridder Publications acquired the Minnesota Pioneer and the Dispatch in 1927. The two papers were operated for many years as separate morning and evening papers, but were merged into an all-day publication in 1985 as the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch and made the transition to morning-only newspaper in 1990, when they dropped the word "Dispatch". It is sometimes referred to as the "Pi Press", by reference to the nickname of "Strib" used for its primary rival, the Star Tribune.
From 1947 to 1949, the newspaper printed the comic strip Li'l Folks, by St. Paul native Charles M. Schulz. This comic introduced a number of characters who would later return in 1950 in the syndicated comic strip Peanuts, including Charlie Brown and a dog strongly resembling Snoopy.
In 1952, the Dispatch began sponsoring a treasure hunt as part of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival. Clues to finding a medallion are printed in the paper, and the first person to find it wins a sum of money. The prize started off at $1,000, but has risen to $10,000 as of 2004.
The 1990 Fox sitcom Get a Life portrayed the lead character, played by Chris Elliot as a 30 year-old paperman who delivered the Pioneer Press.
Reporters and some editors are members of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union. The union's current contract with the Pioneer Press runs through July 31, 2007.
See also
As of March 2006, Knight Ridder sold a number of its newspapers, including the St. Paul Pioneer Press to McClatchy, the owner of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. McClatchy is currently in negotiations with a number of parties to sell the Pioneer Press, as retaining it would violate antitrust laws.External link
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