Most of the new journalism websites serving local communities define those communities narrowly, ranging from neighborhoods and small towns to cities and metro areas. Most metro newspapers, for economic reasons, have pulled back dramatically from the days when their trucks rumbled daily to every corner of the state and beyond.

MinnPost is unusual in its commitment to serving a whole state. Our office is in Minneapolis, but the Minn stands for Minnesota.

We’ve been able to make this commitment in large part because of the generous support of the Blandin Foundation, which gave MinnPost a three-year grant totaling $225,000, and the Otto Bremer Foundation, which recently gave $40,000.

We’ve already published many dozens of stories from around the state. Today, we amp up our coverage, by starting a three-part series on how the state’s economy, which is really six different economies, is faring in the current recession. You can read part one here. On Wednesday, we’ll focus on Southern and Central Minnesota, and on Thursday, Northern Minnesota.

The articles were reported and written by Sharon Schmickle, and edited by co-managing editor Susan Albright. Throughout the rest of the year, we'll publish occasional articles following up on this series.

If you live in Greater Minnesota, we hope you’re one of the more than 2,400 people who receive our free weekly Tuesday email highlighting recent stories of interest to the whole state. If not, sign up here.