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The Minnesota Star Tribune’s Digital Transformation

Taking the lead in user engagement across the U.S. in 2024 

Case study

The Minnesota Star Tribune has been a cornerstone of American journalism since its founding, tracing its roots back to 1982 through the merger of the Minneapolis Daily Tribune (established in 1867) and the Minneapolis Daily Star (founded in 1920). It is the seventh-largest daily newspaper in the United States and the largest in Minnesota, with a daily circulation of 242,270 and a Sunday circulation of 351,180 as of 2024.

Yet, despite its strong reputation and substantial readership, the publication faced a critical challenge: adapting to the rapidly evolving digital landscape while maintaining its role as a trusted news source.

Recognizing the rapidly shifting media landscape and the urgent need to modernize, the Star Tribune embarked on a transformation journey. With a comprehensive overhaul of its digital infrastructure, the organization set out to redefine how it engaged its readers and delivered content in real-time.

The following case study delves into this pivotal moment in the Star Tribune’s history, exploring the challenges it faced and the innovative solutions it adopted—including entering new partnerships with Arc XP, Pugpig, and Norkon and the outstanding results of the 2024 US presidential election coverage.

The Minnesota Star Tribune Became The Leader in User Engagement in the U.S. in 2024In an analysis conducted by Mather on 350 digital news media outlets across the U.S., the Minnesota Star Tribune successfully positioned itself as a top-performing brand with strong user engagement and consistently strong content interest.

Let’s dive into their digital success.

The challenge: Implementing Modern Technology For Digital Scalability

The Minnesota Star Tribune acknowledged that it had lagged significantly in digital transformation compared to its peers. As Aron Pilhofer, Chief Product Officer at the Star Tribune, noted, the digital transformation was undertaken with survival at its core. It wasn’t about being “digital-first”—it was about simply becoming digital to stay afloat.

Countering A “build, don’t buy” Mentality

When Aron Pilhofer joined the Star Tribune in 2023, the organization relied on a “build, don’t buy” mentality. The internal tech team, though small, had developed and maintained many components of the technological stack – the organization operated on a custom-built platform where key components like the paywall, login system, and checkout processes had been built internally. While this approach provided autonomy, it left the team overwhelmed with software maintenance rather than innovation, causing the organization to stay behind in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

The outdated technology stack lead to several critical issues:

  • A custom platform that was severely outdated, requiring constant triage.
  • Limited features, such as the paywall, which lacked functionalities like propensity modeling and institutional subscriptions.
  • Innovation stagnated as the team struggled to maintain their existing tools instead of preparing for future needs.

The newspaper realized that a simple redesign wouldn’t suffice to scale, and opted for a complete overhaul to transition from a print-centric to a digitally-focused organization, ensuring it could meet modern reader expectations.

The Solution: Revamping The Tech Stack to Become Future Proof

A Streamlined Process To Break The News Seamlessly

The Star Tribune undertook a comprehensive digital transformation, beginning with a major rebranding effort, a full-scale redesign, and a complete re-platforming of its systems. The organization partnered with several leading technology providers, choosing Arc XP as its main CMS, Pugpig to provide better mobile app experiences, and Norkon for its live-blogging platform, to modernize its digital infrastructure and optimize its workflows.

Opting For A Robust CMS with Arc XP

Beginning with the bases, the Star Tribune swapped out their old PHP-based framework for a new, headless CMS provided by Arc XP. The platform offers publishers unparalleled control over their content management, allowing teams to customize and configure the appearance of their website in line with their new brand identity.

The existing integration between Arc XP and Live Center provided an efficient workflow framework, enabling the newsroom to focus on reporting the latest news at speed, rather than navigating technical hurdles.

Key Benefits of the technical integration include:

  • Intuitive tools for seamless collaboration between journalists and editors.
  • Reduced time spent on troubleshooting, enhancing overall productivity.
  • A harmonized ecosystem ensuring smooth operations across the newsroom.

“The integration of Arc XP and Norkon was a significant piece of our transformation, lowering the barriers and enhancing usability for our newsroom” says Aron Pilhofer.

An overwhelmingly positive feedback from the newsroom

“I felt pretty strongly we could probably do better than any third party live-blogging provider just because of how generic these things have to be to work. When we compared options in the market, many providers fell short in usability and integration—they just didn’t feel native to the site. Honestly, I was skeptical. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. Take our election night live blog, for instance—it seamlessly matched our site’s design and delivered a flawless user experience. The newsroom feedback was overwhelmingly positive, which, coming from journalists who are rarely shy about criticizing tools, is nothing short of a miracle.”
– Aron Pilhofer, Chief Product Officer at The Minnesota Star Tribune

Why Live Blogs Became A Strategic Choice

Previously, live coverage at the Star Tribune relied on makeshift solutions—repurposing standard article templates with timestamps. These methods lacked interactivity, fluidity, and the rich experience readers expect. The newspaper initially doubted whether investing in live-blogging technology was worthwhile, partly because the existing solutions on the market did not offer news publications a native look and feel, appearing rather as a bolt-on third-party product. When the Star Tribune launched its Live Center-powered live blog in the autumn leading up to the 2024 US presidential election, it surpassed all expectations.

Native look & feel

Live Center’s design felt native to the Star Tribune, avoiding the generic look of many third-party solutions. “It’s wonderful that the live blog skin design feels like a part of the STRIB, and not like a 3rd party provider” shared Aron Pilhofer.

User-Friendly Adoption

Integration with Arc XP allowed journalists to use Live Center immediately, without the need for additional training. “It was gold that the newsroom wasn’t asked to learn a new tool, journalists could start using it immediately” recalls Aron Pilhofer.

Dynamic Content Delivery

Live Center supported a reader-centric approach, ensuring real-time updates were both engaging and accessible.

Successfully Pushing Live Results Into The App

“The US election week proved a huge success. The Pugpig app platform’s integration with the Norkon Live Center live blogging functionality played a key role here, surfacing breaking news updates in real time and keeping users returning to the app. Aron Pilhofer, CPO at Star Tribune told us that, for the first time, the Star Tribune was able to push live results into their mobile app and provide app users with an experience that exceeded their desktop experience. We’re extremely proud to have worked with Norkon to play a part in Star Tribune’s success.”
– Dominic Easter, Commercial Director at Pugpig

+174% screen views and +35% in users during the election week

A Premium Mobile App Experience with Pugpig

Having previously faced challenges with an unstable app that included frequent crashes, the Star Tribune entered into collaboration with Pugpig to rebuild and stabilize its mobile platform. The newspaper had a vision for their mobile app, which should feel exclusive and rewarding to their subscribers.

Pugpig’s expertise ensured a smooth and quick launch of the new app, witnessing 45,000 app downloads in the first 48 hours after the launch. Norkon’s collaboration with Pugpig ensures that live updates reach readers in immediately, which enabled the publisher to share US election results as they happened. The result was a notable surge in user engagement with +174% screen views, and a +35% increase in app users during the election week.

Next steps

The Star Tribune plans to refine its data infrastructure and tracking tools throughout 2025. Strategic growth initiatives will focus on exploring product-led opportunities and further enhancing audience engagement. “I am a big believer in engaged journalism and live blogs are one way to provide readers with a very different kind of experience” shares Aron Pilhofer. “One of the goals for this year will be to measure the impact of not just the live blog, but other forms of engaged journalism we do across the site.”

The Minnesota Star Tribune’s digital transformation demonstrates the power of strategic partnerships and a forward-thinking vision. Collaborating with Arc XP, Pugpig, and Norkon, the Star Tribune modernized its infrastructure, delivered a superior user experience, and empowered its newsroom to remain competitive and thrive in today’s environment.

The seamless integration of these technologies not only enhanced operational efficiency but also empowered the newsroom to deliver high-quality journalism with greater ease and effectiveness, while also improving the user experience. As the media landscape continues to evolve, the Star Tribune is well-positioned to lead with its enhanced digital capabilities, ensuring its legacy endures in the digital age.

Case Study: Monetizing engagement with live blogs

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Tech integration for seamless workflow

Our integration with Arc XP enables journalists to seamlessly switch between Arc XP’s CMS and Live Center’s live-blogging platform within a single environment. Newsrooms are then able to share live blogs from one publication easily across the network, facilitating swift coverage of global events without local adaptation. Learn more here.

Tech integration for optimal mobile experience

Combining Live Center’s breaking news live blogs with Pugpig’s apps ensures that your newsroom can deliver unparalleled engagement amongst your most loyal audiences. Reach out to learn more.

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