‘Star Tribune’ sent no reporters to Paris to cover Minnesota’s Olympians

By circulation, the Star Tribune is easily the biggest newspaper in the state of Minnesota.

Despite that, the Star Tribune sent no reporter to Paris to cover Minnesota’s best athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

On Saturday, Steve Marsh of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his frustration that no Star Tribune reporter was in Paris. He specifically lamented the absence of Rachel Blount.

“Such a bummer that the Star Tribune didn’t send one reporter to Paris to cover Minnesota’s athletes,” Marsh said . “@BlountStrib should be there.”

Patrick Borzi of MinnPost agreed.

“. First time in more than 50 years #StarTribune doesn’t have a reporter at the #OlympicGames,” Borzi replied .

That inspired some notable responses. One came from Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times , who noted that while his paper sent three reporters to Paris, “We no longer send reporters to Angels home games.”

But the more notable reply, for the sake of this discussion, anyway, came from Blount, who not only disagreed with the decision but was given no explanation for it.

“For the record: I am heartbroken @StarTribune decided not to send anyone to cover the Paris Olympics. As @BorzMN said, we proudly covered our Minnesota athletes at the Games for more than 50 years. Senior management pulled the plug; I never got an explanation,” Blount replied .

Later, responding to a question from Marsh , Blount noted that she had covered 13 Olympics for the Star Tribune. “Every Summer and Winter Games from 1998-2022,” Blount said .

This goes well beyond Blount’s immense reach covering the Olympics for the Star Tribune readers. In fact, this goes beyond the Star Tribune being the easily biggest paper by circulation in Minnesota.

In March 2023, Press Gazette listed the Star Tribune was listed as the No. 7 paper in the United States in terms “by their latest average print circulation.”

By circulation, the Star Tribune is the No. 8 paper in the United States. To give you an idea about what that means for the paper’s readership, the Twin Cities is the 15th most populated metropolitan area in the country. So, we can say that the Star Tribune punches well above its weight.

Also, Minnesota is well-represented in Paris. In total, eight Olympians hail from the Land of 10,000 Lakes — and it doesn’t stop there. Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards is on the USA’s men’s basketball team while Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier is on the USA’s women’s team. Another Lynx player, Alanna Smith, is on Australia’s women’s team while Edwards’ Timberwolves teammates representing other countries include Nickeil Alexander-Walker (Canada), Rudy Gobert (France) and Joe Ingles (Australia).

It seems likely that some of the Star Tribune readers might have enjoyed reading about some of those stars — not to mention the other greatest athletes in the world — from people who were there to cover them.

Sources:

• Press Gazette
• WCNC (U.S. Olympians by state)
• Steve Marsh , Patrick Borzi , Rachel Blount on X

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