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BrauBlog

Not dead yet: Star Tribune, Pioneer Press demise prediction unfulfilled

By David Brauer | Published Wed, Mar 17 2010 11:15 am

On Monday, a Stribber who shall not be named sent me this snippet of a prognostication from March 2009:

Assuming no dramatic reinvigoration of credit markets, I'll make another, new prediction. No daily papers at all in the Twin Cities by the Ides of March '10.

Well, March 15, 2010 has come and gone with the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune still here, and still daily. The author? Daily Glean's own Brian Lambert, in his Mpls.St.Paul magazine "Lambert to the Slaughter" blog.

Of course, I had to email Brian and ask if he wanted to grab onto his "dramatic reinvigoration of the credit markets" escape hatch. But no, he ate his crow. "What's sad is that this might be the most accurate prediction I've ever made," he replied.

Still, the man has an image to uphold, so he couldn't resist adding tons of salt: "My All-Snark response is: 'By what standard do you call those two rags newspapers?'"

Luxuriate in the win, ink-stained survivors.

Media | Wed, Mar 17 2010 11:15 am | 11 Comments

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11 Comments: Hide/Show Comments

(#1) On March 17, 2010, dan buechler says:

Low and unfair, but interesting.

(#2) On March 17, 2010, karl anderson says:

When was Lambert (or Joe Soucheray) right about anything? Couple of blowhards.

(#3) On March 17, 2010, John Reinan says:

Lambert's "all-snark response" is a pitiful exercise in witless cynicism that bears no relationship to reality.

I read one or both of those papers every day. And while they'd probably suffer by comparison to the comparable products of 10 years ago, they in no way merit that kind of shallow, glib dismissal.

(#4) On March 17, 2010, Hal Sanders says:

Who would place any stock in what Lambert says?

(#5) On March 18, 2010, Dick Novack says:

Tell me again, Who is Lambert?

Do I have to be a reader of one of those newspapers to find out?

(#6) On March 18, 2010, Brian Lambert says:

Oh, good lord. Here's a humor diagram for the hopelessly literal-minded. A: I make lousy prediction. B: Some newspaper employee calls me on it. C: Old buddy Brauer e-mails to good-naturedly dog me about it. D: I cop to this lousy prediction being maybe the best prediction I've ever made. E: I offer disclaimer that what comes next is "All-Snark", as in haplessly grasping for some semblance of credibility. And then finally, F: The papers aren't really papers at all anymore, inferring I actually was right.

Brother ...

But since we're at it. Here's another one. One paper by Ides of March 2012.

Call me, Brau.

(#7) On March 18, 2010, Steve Aschburner says:

Let's move the story forward: What's the over/under on the next three years, two-paper market?

(#8) On March 18, 2010, John Edwards says:

Brian Lambert’s mis-prognostication (thanks, Dubya) is insignificant compared to that of Star Tribune’s liberal columnist Jon Tevlin. Tevlin crowingly projected in his Jan. 5 column that Minneapolis had become a safe place to live because only 19 people had been murdered in 2009, not the usual four dozen. Tevlin even dug out a quote from Chris Georgacas to embarrass the former Republican chairman for blaming the past carnage on liberals. In the intervening 11 weeks since the column, the city has, of course, resumed its deadly march to the usual 50 murders. It will be interesting to see if Tevlin hypocritically avoids revisiting this obvious issue.

(#9) On March 19, 2010, Paul Gustafson says:

I guess this is the season - what with the NCAA basketball tournaments - to talk about predictions gone wrong.

Lambert may have missed the mark on his 2010 prediction of one newspaper here. But the trends are all bad for newspapers, local TV stations and TV Networks. Even the New Media Guys are not exactly florishing.

I recommend Media Watchers read the State of the Media 2010 report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Read and Weep.

Here's the link:

http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2010/

(#10) On March 19, 2010, Paul Gustafson says:

A correction. I guess Lambert said NO local major papers here by March, 2010. Geez, Brian, hope you didn't bet the family fortune on that one. But, still, the long trend sez no more than one newspaper here sometime in the near future.

(#11) On March 19, 2010, John Reinan says:

I'll confess that after hearing 25 years of relentless media-bashing from every point on the political compass, I am indeed a bit humor-impaired on the topic.

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minnpost.com/braublog

David Brauer authors Braublog and is MinnPost's local media reporter. He's covered media and politics as a writer and editor since 1983 for City Pages, the Southwest/Downtown Journal, KFAN and KSTP-AM, Mpls.St.Paul, Minnesota Monthly, Law & Politics, the Business Journal, KARE11 and national outlets. Follow him on Twitter. Email: dbrauer [at] minnpost [dot] com.

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