Endangered Species

I apologize for the unplanned hiatus. I enjoyed the Christmas holiday, but returned to work on Wednesday and encountered some startling news -- my employer was sold.

McClatchy Co., which owns the Star Tribune, sold the newspaper to a private equity firm to help the bottem line. The Strib is the biggest paper in the McClatchy chain. Or, at least, it was.

Big picture: I wonder how a new private equity firm can handle running a newspaper. And as a journalist who cares about this "business," I wonder what this will mean not only for the Strib but other newspapers. If this provides further context, this is not my first experience working at a newspaper while it's being sold. This kind of stuff is happening more and more. Last fall I was a student/intern at the Pioneer Press, and the company that owned it -- Knight Ridder -- sold the PP to McClatchy.

Smaller picture: I, too, could be on the chopping block. I work in McClatchy's bureau as a regional correspondent/intern, but the Strib pays for the groceries. The sale is supposed to go through by the end of the first quarter. It means my extension through the end of May could be shortened -- I might not get to see the cherry blossoms afterall. There are also advocates pulling for me to stay on through the end of May, but they have no idea how or if that would be feasible. For now, everything is murky. I've grown accustomed to the unknown, but I've rarely liked it. When I get some answers, I'll let you all know.