Mole survey, part IV: Deborah Rybak picks the top local stories of ‘07

Before Deborah Rybak–late of the Star Tribune and the Rake’s media blog–submitted her list of the year’s top local stories, she offered the caveat that she spent a substantial part of the year outside Minnesota. So her list focuses mainly on the upheavals on her longtime local media beat, which touched most of the print and web publications in town. Tomorrow we’ll wrap up the local journalists’ picks, and a summary list from the Mole will follow.

Hey, talk to us: Even if there’s not much question what the top story of 2007 was, there’s plenty of room to argue about what else belongs on the list. Please drop a comment to tell us which stories you found most important or meaningful this year, or to add your thoughts on the ones listed here.

The bridge collapse: It pulled back the curtain at the monolithic Minnesota Department of Transportation, revealing an entirely inadequate Carol Molnau grasping at the controls. Nationally, it inspired stories across the country about substandard funding and maintenance of the nation’s infrastructure.

Media: Where does one start to catalog the dramatic shift in media personnel and priorities over the past year?

Within a matter of months, the Star Tribune turned from a respectable paper owned and helmed by seasoned media professionals to a leaky, listing sloop piloted by a bunch of greedy private equity stooges and publisher Par Ridder, who apparently never met a proprietary piece of information that he didn’t feel entitled to steal. He successfully turned the Strib from a go-to media source to a staff-starved purveyor of high school prep scores, local crime stories, and wire copy. It took a judge to topple Ridder. It’s hard to say whether the paper will ever recover from his brief, brutal regime.

City Pages flipped from a smart alt weekly to frat boy snark sheet and lost most of its staff in the process. Two of the three biggest TV news operations in town lost their news directors and Clear Channel’s local radio station cartel lost Mick Anselmo, who had brought some local humanity to the faceless conglomerate. In the process, local media’s institutional memory took a hit of Alzheimers-esque proportions.

The media upheaval sent dozens of journalists online, where the future of Twin Cities media may now lie. Tune in next year to find out who’s still standing at the OK Corral once the marketplace determines whether readers want their news delivered smart and stylish (think Daily Mole) or stultified, like MinnPost.

Deborah Rybak News Top local stories of 2007 Year end lists