If you’re a newspaper publisher today, leadership is about tough choices. Minnesota Star Tribune publisher Steve Grove made one such choice this week, choosing to close the company’s Heritage printing facility in the North Loop at year’s end, eliminating roughly 125 jobs, a capitulation to the decline of print newspaper readership.

Unlike the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which recently announced it is abandoning print altogether, the Minnesota Star Tribune will move printing operations to a Gannett newspaper plant in Des Moines operated by the Des Moines Register newspaper. The Strib simply has too many print readers to abandon the niche.

The Strib will then be trucked from Iowa to the Twin Cities, 253 miles plant to plant, typically just under a four-hour drive. There, Star Tribune drivers will start the distribution process. To accomplish this without disrupting delivery timelines, the newspaper is moving print deadlines earlier, to 5:15 p.m. weekdays and 4 p.m. for the Sunday paper.

The Strib had recently moved deadlines—that at one time were as late as midnight for the weekday paper—to 9:30 p.m. (8 p.m. Saturday), meaning many sports section game stories no longer contain the final score. The Dec. 27 changes will result in the print newspaper containing only daytime news and sports, nothing that breaks outside the core business day. (All Star Tribune print subscribers receive a complimentary digital subscription. The digital paper is updated on a rolling basis.)

Grove, in a statement, said the move was due to declining print circulation and that the facility, opened in the 1980s, is deeply underutilized, operating at 18% of capacity. At one time the newspaper also printed the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times, though that business currently is down to just USA Today and the St. Paul Pioneer Press (which is also shifting its printing to Des Moines). The statement said the closure would save the Star Tribune several million dollars in expenses, which include likely $10-$20 million in annual wages and benefits to pressmen. The statement did not say what it will be paying Gannett to print the newspaper, nor the cost of trucking 100,000 newspapers 250 miles each day.

Grove declined interviews but the Star Tribune did report the facility will be sold. It operates on the northern fringe of the North Loop (at Eighth Avenue North and Second Street North), now the hottest residential and commercial area in the city but at the time of its construction just an industrial backwater. The current tax valuation of the 13-acre site is just over $20 million, and the company currently pays $668,000 in annual taxes. (Newspapers around the country have been selling off downtown printing plants. The Chicago Tribune sold its site for $200 million in late 2022; it is becoming a casino and entertainment complex. The Chicago newspaper is now printed by a suburban competitor.)

It’s highly unlikely the site will remain a printing facility. “It’s got a lot of redevelopment potential,” explains Jon Lanners, partner in Onward Investors, which recently purchased the Wells Fargo tower. “It will probably go to one of the bigger players in town who do a lot of redevelopment.” He thought residential was the likeliest use.

“It’s a huge site,” says Brent Robertson, managing director and market lead for broker JLL. “It’s the biggest opportunity the North Loop has seen or will see.” He believes residential is the most congruent outcome, but there’s a caveat.

The Timberwolves’ new owners have stated their desire for a new arena—one on a larger site with room for more fan and revenue-generating amenities than Target Center, which sits on 3.5 acres.

Robertson believes the site has worse road and transit access than the Farmers Market area, which some have proposed for an arena, but notes that land is controlled by numerous owners. He deemed it “not ridiculous” that the Wolves might be eyeing the Strib site—or the soon-to-be-emptied Graco site immediately across the river.

In terms of how many newspapers are going to be trucked from Des Moines to Minneapolis each day, in March the company reported audited print circulation of 71,000 weekday and 123,000 Sunday. (In September 2023, it was 87,000 weekday and 156,000 Sunday.) 2025 digital circulation was 102,000 weekday 91,000 Sunday. (2023 Digital circulation was approximately 114,000 weekday and 101,000 Sunday). Star Tribune VP of communication Chris Iles notes that the digital subscriber base surpassed print in January, and year-over-year digital subscriptions are on a 20% growth pace.