Minneapolis–St. Paul

Michael Dorsher

Minneapolis and St. Paul have always been disparate sibling rivals—as have their media. St. Paul and its newspapers came first, capturing the state capitol and early lead in communications, but Minneapolis and its newer media soon surpassed its sister city in size and prestige. By the early twenty-first century, the Twin Cities metropolitan area had 3 million people, making it the sixteenth largest U.S. media market, and it was resurgent St. Paul that could claim safer streets, more recent Pulitzer Prizes, and many of the nation's leading public broadcast personalities. Minnesota's mass media history began in St. Paul on April 28, 1849, when James Madison Goodhue published the first issue of the Minnesota Pioneer weekly. He had taken the first steamer up the Mississippi as soon as word came from Washington that Congress had established the Minnesota Territory. Statehood was still nine years away. In January 1851, Goodhue got into ...

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