Minneapolis-based Tiger Oak, which publishes Metro and Minnesota Bride among other suburban and national magazines, has lost a deal to sell off its meetings-and-events titles for badly needed cash.

The company had previously announced the deal to sell the nine titles to Tiger Oak president Jim Bergeson would close Oct. 30. At the time, Tiger Oak publisher R. Craig Bednar said, "The sale provides Tiger Oak the resources and capital to focus on our current titles and expanding their market share."

Associate publisher Dena Alspach says Bergeson will remain with the company and be group publisher of the meetings and events books. So what does this do to Tiger Oak's cash cushion and business plans, and why did the deal fall through? Alspach and I were still exchanging messages as MinnPost's morning deadline loomed, so I'll update this item when I hear back.

As regular readers know, I'm powerless in the face of a spreadsheet. So to follow up on last night's post about October radio ratings, I thought I'd gin up a chart on how the corporate overlords are doing.

While the numbers below only cover total listenership, not the ad-coveted 25-to-54-year-old demo. But this gives you a window into another way these guys compete, at the ownership level.

There are five corporations that control 85 percent of the radio market:

♦ Clear Channel (K102, KDWB, KFAN, Cities97, KOOL108, KTLK and KXFN)
♦ Citadel (KQ, 93X, LOVE105)
♦ CBS (WCCO, Jack-FM, WLTE)
♦ Hubbard Broadcasting (KS95, AM1500, FM107)
♦ Minnesota Public Radio (KNOW, The Current, Classical)

As you can see from the chart below, Clear Channel is the big dog, with middle three comprising a second tier, and MPR a very healthy fifth.

There's not a ton of variation in market share over the past five months, but Clear Channel and Hubbard ticked up this month on the strength of their sports properties: in CC's case, the Vikes, and for Hubbard, the Twins.

So the folks at the hipster lit journal McSweeney's are producing a celebration of newsprint, a reimagined newspaper sort of like what your Strib or PiPress would look like if designers designed one paper a month and publishers could afford Michael Chabon and Stephen King and charge $16 an issue.

Going by the just-released media kit, it looks pretty beautiful, and could be quite a meaty read as well. Check out the full, mouthwatering tease here. The 380-page San Francisco Panorama will be out in early December.

[Hat tip: M.M.]

Well, it turns out all talk radio needs is our two biggest sports teams to play great. Though anger at Barack Obama doesn't hurt.

The big winners in the October Arbitrons were KSTP-AM and KFAN, which rocketed into the top 10 on the backs of the Twins and Vikings. A couple of months ago, the stations ranked 15th and 16th among all listeners. (See chart below.)

Although the rating period is labeled October, it really covers Sept. 17-Oct. 14 because Arbitron has started carving out a "13th month" — a holiday reporting period teases out stations goosing their numbers with Christmas carols. The November period will cover Oct. 15-Nov. 11, and December Nov. 12-Dec. 9. I know, kooky.

I don't yet have the numbers for the prime advertiser demographic (25-54-year-olds), or for drive-time. But the numbers show listeners turning away, however briefly, from country station K102, JACK-FM's robo DJs, and hip hoppers B96. The Twins will be out of the next book, so we'll see if rights-holder AM1500 comes back to earth; KFAN can hopefully enjoy a longer run.

Other numbers of note: Conservative yakker KTLK is on a four-month growth streak, though tea time is not boosting their cousins at the Patroit. Spanish-language AM station La Invasora came out of nowhere to nearly crack the Top 20. KQ reversed a five-month slide; did sports lift the Morning Show? While MPR news station KNOW is holding steady in the top six, both the Current and Classical had their worst books of the Personal People Meter era.

One component of the numbers is "cume" — how many different people listen during the period. Here, KS95 ruled with 968,000, followed by KQ (870,000), KDWB (860,000) and KOOL108 (719,000). Among talkers, KSTP-AM had 699,000, WCCO 602,000, KFAN 519,000 and KNOW 386,000. MPR folks just listen longer.

Anyway, here are the numbers for the entire PPM period. They measure share of the Twin Cities listening audience. Blue is for talk station, green is for MPR. Rankings-wise, I chose August as the comparison period for no particular reason.

A few months after Star Tribune workers agreed to givebacks in bankruptcy, Pioneer Press Newspaper Guild members voted Wednesday to open discussions with management seeking similar cuts.

According to the Guild memo (below), after a "spirited" meeting, union members "narrowly approved" talk to the company. You'd expect such, ahem, spirit after management's opening offer of a 7 percent pay cut, then a freeze, plus no merit pay or extra night wages.

[Update: A-scale workers, which includes reporters, photographers, copy editors and artists, currently make $683 a week for one year of experience, $898 in their third year, and max out at $1,290 a week in their sixth year. Workers often get service credit for work at other papers, so only rookies make first-year scale.]

The contract, which includes newsroom, advertising and circulation workers, expires July 31, 2011. In return, employees want to see the paper's financials. Pioneer Press owner Media News is not in bankruptcy, but is very highly leveraged. One national union leader says Media News CEO Dean Singleton told him the company wants "parity" with the cost-cutting Strib.

Earlier this year, management sought concessions, but the Guild never voted to open negotiations; bosses went ahead and whacked 10 bodies. Hopefully, the new talks will forestall similar bloodletting, though there's clearly pain dead ahead.

Here's the memo:

Guild members vote ‘yes’ to talking to the company

After a spirited meeting tonight, Guild members voted and narrowly approved the company’s request to talk to them about concessions.

The next step will be appointing a negotiating committee and talking to the membership about your ideas. Expect to be hearing from your small group contact leaders soon.

We plan to honor the concern we heard at tonight’s meeting among the membership to request that the company share its financial records with the negotiating committee.

Remember, tonight’s vote was only about talking to the company. If and when we come to an agreement, you’ll have an opportunity to vote on it.

As promised Wednesday, a little spreadsheet crunching on Minnesota Public Radio executive pay. Again, this is based on the nonprofit network's IRS Form 990, which you can access here. Again, this covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, the most recent available.

Topping the list, of course, is Bill Kling, the president and CEO of the entity officially known as Minnesota Public RadioAmerican Public Media. He made $373,254 in compensation and benefits from MPR/APM, which for the year grossed $82.2 million. Kling's total take swelled to $606,753, including approximately $180,000 from American Public Media Group (APMG), which controls MPR, and $48,000 from Greenspring, MPR's for-profit arm.

Other key executives had nice paydays. Executive Vice President Thomas Kigin received $359,000 overall, including $218,000 in his role as Chief Administrative Officer and corporate counsel. Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Jon McTaggart grossed $376,000 overall, with $338,000 from MPR/APM.

Senior VP for Development Jon Gossett made $300,906 all but $245 of it from MPR/APM. Chief Financial Officer Mark Alfuth made $276,614, most of it from APMG. You can find other bigwigs scrolling through the form.

Is such pay excessive? I'm sure some donors and workers (especially those recently shown the door) will flinch, while others will use this as further evidence that MPR shouldn't get taxpayer cash. Still, we do have one other media-world data point: the recently bankrupt Star Tribune.

In court filings, the Strib — which in 2008 grossed $246 million, three times more than MPR/APM — disclosed that it paid its CFO $529,000, more than double Alfuth's pay. The Strib's top ad guy made $404,000, about $100,000 more than Gossett. In general, the next tier of MPR management makes as much or more than the Strib's.

I can't make a publisher-to-Kling comparison because outgoing Strib boss/part-owner Chris Harte worked for no salary after steering his ship into the financial weeds. And it's worth remembering that MPR — which sits on $110 million in assets and has a growing newsroom — had a far better year than the Strib.

[Update: As noted in my first piece, this information is 19 months old thanks to filing deadlines. Gossett, for example, is no longer with the company, and his national development position was eliminated in June. MPR also cut a vice president for corporate communications.]

This is prurient, I admit, but if you've ever wanted to know how much Krista Tippett, Lynne Rossetto Kasper and other Minnesota Public Radio national show hosts make, I've got the data.

It comes from Form 990, filed annually by nonprofits such as MinnPost and MPR (technically, Minnesota Public RadioAmerican Public Media, according to the form. APM is the national programming arm, but it's all one organization). Public disclosure is the price of nonprofit privilege.

The 990 compels organizations to list the highest-paid employees who aren't officers, directors or trustees. MPR/APM's 2007 form — the most recent available, covering the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008 — lists four hosts well known to local listeners. The first figure is compensation; the total with deferred comp and employee benefit pay is in parentheses:

2. Kai Ryssdal, Marketplace: $167,590 ($183,118)
3. Lynne Kasper, The Splendid Table: $154,633 ($173,487)
4. Chris Farrell, Marketplace Money: $152,612 ($172,222)
5. Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith: $146,992 ($160,722)

Who's number one? Marketplace China bureau chief Scott Tong pulled in a total of $266,803, but that included $160,717 in expenses the other four didn't have. If you want to view the full 990, the link's at the end of this post.

One thing I don't know: Where is Garrison Keillor? Is he missing because he produces his own show? I checked other MPR-affiliated 990s, but the Bard of Wobegon is not to be found.

MPR, as you might expect, passed on an opportunity to clarify. "We don’t discuss staff salaries or other aspects of their employment beyond what we're required to by law," spokeswoman Christina Schmitt e-mailed. "So I have to decline to expand on the information in the 990 ... beyond saying our general approach to compensation is to pay competitive rates for every position we hire, including our national hosts."

So is such talent pay excessive? Consider that one Twin Cities TV anchor, Don Shelby, pulls in a reported $900,000. A seasoned Star Tribune columnist could top $100,000, at least before recent pay cuts. On the nonprofit side, another national host, NPR "Weekend Edition's" Scott Simon, took in $300,648.

(Reporter types obviously make less. Your humble correspondent, working four-fifths time reporting for a nonprofit startup, makes about one-quarter of Ryssdal's paycheck, and isn't outraged by that.)

Obviously, MPR's national shows all bring in sponsor dough, and personalities are often key to such sales efforts. According to the 990, MPR/APM grossed $82.2 million that year, including $55 million in direct public support and $16 million in "program service revenue."

It's possible that 2008's economic meltdown, which began after MPR's fiscal year ended, nudged pay downward. We won't know until next year. MPR filed this 990 in May.

I know some folks will want to know what the 990 says about executive pay; I'll cover that in an upcoming post. Also, MinnPost's 990 will be public any day now; we operate on a different fiscal year. I expect bossman Joel Kramer will give you a complete report at Inside MinnPost, but if he doesn't, I will.

Secrets of the City, which has waxed and waned since its pioneering MnSpeak days, is beefing up, according to co-publisher Matt Bartel.

The site, which became the go-to blabfest under Rex Sorgatz, was eventually bought by the Bartel family, who eventually folded in their Rake magazine content, renamed the site, then ejected much of the original content after The Rake folded. Now, SOTC hopes to become a bit of a blogger mall, if I'm boiling this all down accurately. The site, which still features culture picks, will also add back the "7 Quick Questions" feature Sorgatz began.

Overseeing it all will be Cristina Cordova, an ex-Rake and SOTC editor who replaces Daily Glean's own Max Sparber. Bartel says in addition to posting and discussion-monitoring duties, Cordova will wrangle "guest posters" on topics such as sports and music. 

This caught me by surprise, since SOTC stopped paying top-notch sportsbloggers such as Britt Robson this spring. (Robson, by the way, currently covers the Timberwolves for Canis Hoopus.) Bartel says the new guests won't be paid; the lure is that their participation will bring more attention to their site, and perhaps some advertiser trade.

"We hope there are more contributors than the editor and me," he says.

As I've written before, SOTC lost some of its cultural relevance when discussion tools like Twitter moved to the fore. Bartel says the site remains profitable — "though it's not a big cash cow" — racking up 60,000 unique visitors and about 200,000 page views in the past 30 days. Traffic spiked after an early October redesign, he adds.

"Traffic, if you compared it to what it was when RakeMag and MnSpeak were separate, is down slightly, but not as much as you'd expect, having lost all of the magazine content," Bartel says. "Twitter definitely has drawn people away from the discussion exclusively at MnSpeak, as has Facebook and you guys [MinnPost]. But I still think there's value in a place where people knowledgeable about the local Internet-media scene come, and picking out most interesting links. Not everyone wants to use Google Reader or a giant blogroll."

Fans want to know if Sparber jumped or was pushed, and after talking to him and Bartel, I'll go with nudged. Sparber says Wednesday's announcement was "a little bit unexpected."

Says Bartel, "It wasn't so much that Max was replaced by Cristina as it was that we changed the job description of the editor and decided that Cristina was a better fit for the new job. We want it to be less about submitting a bunch of posts, which Max did well, and more about encouraging outside contributors to submit more diverse content."

For his part, Sparber says he was apprised of the direction switch well in advance, if not its timing. "They’ve been wanting to change up site for quite awhile, add a lot more voices, which requires a lot of editorial oversight," he notes. "I’m not really looking for more work, and I'm not sure they had more money for more work."

Some of Sparber's freed-up time will be devoted to a new band, Courtney McClean and the Dirty Curls, for whom he plays "washboard, jug, Jew's Harp and a bass made out of a cardboard box." If you know Max, it fits, as does his note that the band is "decidedly X-rated."

Yeah, it's not local, and it's not as cool as the Obama gigapan photo I blogged about in January, but David Bergman's insanely clickable image of a packed Yankee Stadium for Game 1 of the World Series is still worth sending you toward.

MLB.com was smart to make this assignment. By the way, go Phillies!

OK, I'll just say up front this is unfair, because newspaper endorsements are statements of principle, not prognostication. Still, it's fun to see how closely the will of the journalists matched the will of the voters.

In the handy-dandy chart below, green means the newspaper's view matched the voters; red marks a disconnect. Caveat: Minneapolis races marked "likely" are not decided, pending IRV tallying. However, most will go the way indicated, I think. I'll update the chart if the counting produces changes:

Quickie analysis: Electorally, a lot of the endorsements were gimmes (Rybak and Coleman weren't going to lose). By my count, the Strib endorsed favorites in all but three Minneapolis races, and "lost" those (Hanna in Ward 1, Stone in Park District 5 and Martens on the Board of Estimate).

And Minneapolis voters decisively spurned one of the Strib's big pushes: to get rid of the Board of Estimate and Taxation. Voters give 53 percent of its first-choice votes to an anti-abolition candidate the editorial board pointedly rejected (Carol Becker). The Strib also called for massive change on the Park Board, but two rejected incumbents (Carol Kummer and Bob Fine) have better-than-even chances of winning, barring IRV bank shots.

Meanwhile, St. Paul voters didn't listen to the Pioneer Press editorialists (or Joe Soucheray) on Instant Runoff Voting. However, it should be said that the editorial page's anti-IRV stand was very, very attenuated, which sort of matched that vote's closeness (52 percent for, 48 percent against).

The PiPress wimped out on the school board, only picking two of four possibilities while seeming to bless four for the remaining two seats. I can appreciate not choosing when you like all the possibilities, but they only get credit for the two races they took a stand on.

So in the end, does this prove newspaper endorsements matter? I'll wimp out and say, "Maybe." In a low turnout year, the question is whether the hardy few voters who actually pay attention take anointments seriously. I sensed a real hunger for information this year among likely voters, and gosh knows candidates care. But especially in Minneapolis, when a newspaper took up a cause, those voters didn't follow.

Still, I want to give three shout-outs to the Strib.

First, I appreciated the staff-challenged editorial board stretching and making endorsements in Minneapolis Ward 5 and Park District 6. Second, I want to applaud political reporter Steve Brandt's tireless efforts to compile candidate questionnaires; this voter found them very useful, even if the web-side implementation could've been much more timely. Third, thanks to the Strib's programming staff for listing Minneapolis first, second and third choices on their Election Night results page; I think they were the only media outlet to do so.

As I've written previously, there wasn't enough coverage of city elections this year. Still, a handful of journalists, including those outside the two dailies, worked damned hard to educate a handful of voters.