In today’s rapidly evolving media landscape, many news media companies are experimenting with new audience and revenue strategies to drive growth.
Take The Minnesota Star Tribune for example. It recently underwent a rebrand including a refreshed name, visual identity, website and tagline to better engage with new audiences.
In this edition of AAM Media Matters, Chris Iles, vice president of communications and brand marketing for the Star Tribune, shares why his company decided to rebrand, steps it is taking to connect with new subscribers and the importance of developing an innovative mindset.
“Historically, we’ve been very metro focused,” Iles said. “As we make investments into our greater Minnesota reporting resources, we wanted a name that reflected our goal to be a statewide media provider.”
Since Minnesotans identify more as being from the North than the Midwest, the company chose the “Heart and Voice of the North” as its new tagline. “Identifying with being from the North carries unique challenges and opportunities. That’s what this rebrand is all about.”
The Star Tribune partnered with agency Code and Theory to reboot the company’s digital product and technical backend, which included integrating best practices into the site redesign, and Colle McVoy to work on the rebrand including a new name, wordmark, logos and updated design elements.
“Content discoverability was key, as was ease of use,” Iles said. He added that the company wanted to leverage the strength of its photojournalists and make storytelling more visual.
Another area of focus was personalization.
“As our subscribers and new users return to us, we want to make each visit feel unique and personal.”
The Star Tribune also prioritized finding creative ways to reach new subscribers such as influencer marketing.
“If we’re going to engage younger, more diverse users, we need to reach them on the platforms where they’re congregating.”
Another innovation was Strib Voices — a series from 11 community columnists who comment on a variety of emerging topics such as Minnesota’s cannabis legislation.
The Star Tribune is also making this year’s election coverage free.
“We think it’s an important public service to provide factual election information. It’s crucial not only for our organization, but for democracy.”
The push for innovation originated with Steve Grove, the Star Tribune’s CEO and publisher who previously worked for Google and YouTube. Grove wanted to apply the leadership principles he learned in the tech industry to the Star Tribune including integrating a process of testing, iteration and optimization.
This mindset led to hiring a chief product officer to develop new products including AI integrations, affiliate marketing and experiential activations.
“These are not things you would normally expect to see out of a legacy media institution, but they’re all on the table as we figure out what the next iteration of local media looks like.”
While not every experiment pans out, Iles said the Star Tribune believes cultivating a culture of experimentation is crucial for any media organization.
“One of our biggest challenges is shifting the perception of what journalism is and can be. Younger, more diverse audiences have been telling us for years what types of content resonates with them. We need to be flexible and adaptable.”
The company also recently announced the launch of the its Local News Fund — an effort to generate donations as well as a statewide news partnership developed with funding from a Google News Initiative grant.
Where does Iles think the Star Tribune’s experiment will lead?
“I would love to see us build upon our vision of establishing a new model for local media that can be replicated nationwide. I also hope Minnesota adopts us with open arms as we make significant investments to become the statewide news outlet that we aspire to be.”