Web access to news can be limited in greater Minnesota

Those of us who live in outstate Minnesota (or "greater Minnesota", as some would say) often feel left out by the mainstream media (MSM). For one thing, we don't have the major newspapers like the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press, and statewide TV and radio coverage all is centered in the Twin Cities. It's only logical that stories closer to home get the most attention.

This is compounded by the closed internet access to stories in at least two of the four major outstate newspapers.

The best of the bunch is the Duluth News Tribune, which offers internet access to most of its major stories. The St. Cloud Times comes in second, with many of its articles available to the public online, though archival access is limited.

Third is the Mankato Free Press, which at one time was very open, but a corporate-dictated decision obliterated its HTML archives and sent most of its stories into a PDF never-never land available to subscribers only. It's gradually improving, allowing many of the more important articles to be viewed by the public in HTML, but universal access is not what it once was.

By far and away the worst of the bunch is the Rochester Post-Bulletin, which allows no more than a handful of its stories to be viewed by the internet public each day, then in short order hides them, along with the remaining 99% of its content, behind a subscriber-only firewall.

While corporate bosses may think this makes good business sense, the problem is that the rest of the world knows little of a community if its major news sources are hidden from public view. If you're trying to attract people and businesses to your community, this is hardly a good policy.

We'll discuss more on outstate news sources in the future. Meanwhile, strictly online news sources are filling some of the gap. For example, anyone interested in politics in the southernmost part of the state should bookmark the blog A Bluestem Prairie.

LP