This position is in partnership with CatchLight. The corps member will be a CatchLight Local Fellow and along with the host newsroom, be supported by the CatchLight Local Visual Desk. Learn more at this Inside MinnPost link. 

Salary and Benefits:
$53,000 for under 3 years of experience, $63,000 for 3+ years of experience

• Health insurance (80% for employees / 50% for partners or dependents)
• Dental insurance with employer paying 80% of premiums for employees
• 401(k) dollar-for-dollar employer match up to 3% for all 401(k) contributions or eligible student loan payments
• Monthly phone stipend
• Generous time off: 15 days vacation per year to start, 8 paid holidays, 4 floating holidays, 12 days sick time
• Paid birthing person health leave (100% up to 6 weeks) and paid family leave (100% up to 8 weeks)
• Short-term disability insurance
• Life insurance
• Options for employee-paid, vision, long-term disability, and supplemental life insurance

We’re committed to maintaining a healthy work-life balance and providing a place for staff to feel supported in their professional growth and achieve ambitious goals.

This position will be hybrid (some days in the office per week).

Moving Stipend: MinnPost will negotiate a moving stipend with new hires when applicable.

The fellowship application is open now until Monday, Feb. 3. Interested visual journalists are encouraged to read the FAQs and must apply online.

The post MinnPost hiring CatchLight/Report for America Visual Journalist appeared first on MinnPost.

MinnPost has been selected as one of 12 newsrooms across the nation to host a fellow starting on July 7, 2025, as part of the CatchLight Local Fellowship program in partnership with Report for America. Through photos and videos, the visual journalist will help illuminate MinnPost stories on our site, social media and newsletters. The program is two years with the potential to renew for a third year.

The fellowship application is open now until Monday, Feb. 3. Interested visual journalists are encouraged to read the FAQs and must apply online. There is an info session specifically for the CatchLight/Report for America program on Jan. 15 at 2:30 p.m. CT. You can register for the info session here.

The salary for this position is $53,000 for under 3 years of experience or $63,000 for 3+ years of experience. This is union position that comes with full benefits, including subsidized health insurance, generous paid time off and a 401(k) or student loan payment match. This is a hybrid position based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The fellow must live in or relocate to the Twin Cities. To read the full position description and a full list of benefits, click here.

We’re excited to partner with CatchLight and Report for America to bring on our first full-time visual journalist through this program. The fellow will report on how state and local policies affect everyday Minnesotans, seeking out visual cues and the people experiencing the impact of these policies. The visual journalist will often collaborate with other reporters but will also pursue solo projects.

Elizabeth Dunbar

Elizabeth Dunbar is the editor of MinnPost. She can be reached at edunbar@minnpost.com or on Twitter @edunbarMN.

The post MinnPost selected to host a CatchLight Local Fellowship/Report for America visual journalist appeared first on MinnPost.

There’s a lot to look forward to in 2025. On the news front, MinnPost will be producing in-depth coverage of the Legislature and the companies and organizations looking to influence laws and budgets. In Washington, we’ll get to see just how far President-elect Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress are willing to go to reverse some of the policies enacted by President Biden and Democrats.

And here in the Twin Cities, we’re gearing up to cover another round of consequential city elections: Both Minneapolis and St. Paul will have mayoral and city council elections.

While we already know we’ll cover all of these things, it might look a little different than it has in the past. We’re planning to try new strategies and ideas to reach more Minnesotans.

In an ever-changing media landscape, MinnPost is ready to adapt and adjust to meet changing needs while staying true to our mission to be your trusted guide on the essential issues affecting Minnesota and its people. As 2024 draws to a close, I hope you’ll consider a gift to MinnPost.

Will you support our independent nonprofit newsroom with a donation right now?

P.S. The Membership team told me we’re behind on our fundraising goal of $130,000. Make a donation right now to help us get back on track.

The post We’re ready to dive deep (and cover LOCAL elections) with your help appeared first on MinnPost.

Pizza and Halloween candy will keep the MinnPost newsroom fueled on election night as we report on the results of the 2024 election. Won’t you join us from your couch?

On Tuesday evening, you can expect the MinnPost homepage to look a little different. Instead of a list of various top stories, you’ll see our latest election coverage highlighted along with live results in the presidential, congressional and top legislative races in Minnesota. We’ll also have links to a more comprehensive results page and a page that tracks the legislative races to watch.

This will be the first major election in which we’re pulling in vote tallies from The Associated Press through a partnership with the Institute for Nonprofit News. AP’s graphics and maps will track results as they come in.

Meanwhile, our journalists will keep tabs on reaction from politicians, party activists and political observers while also checking in on the voting and tabulation process. Once races are called, we’ll post stories that will report what happened and also explain what it means for Minnesota.

If you’ve been following our coverage, you know there’s a lot at stake this election for Minnesota. We appreciate our readers for following along and sharing out our work!

Elizabeth Dunbar

Elizabeth Dunbar is the editor of MinnPost. She can be reached at edunbar@minnpost.com or on Twitter @edunbarMN.

The post Bookmark MinnPost for election night results, analysis appeared first on MinnPost.

This is it. Election week is here.

We know readers’ time and attention is limited, and we also know many of you have had your fill of political news. Maybe you’re looking forward to the end of election season.

While national coverage of rallies, polls and celebrity endorsements will be over soon, the in-depth policy coverage and political analysis MinnPost has been offering readers will continue well after Tuesday’s election.

I’m here to encourage you to get up to speed on what’s at stake in this election for Minnesota. Why? Because it means you’ll be equipped to participate in discussions with friends, neighbors and coworkers about what the results of this election mean for your state. A new president, changes in which party controls Congress and, of course, changes in Minnesota’s state government could all have profound effects on people’s lives.

Our newsroom appreciates readers taking the time to become informed on these issues. As the hours tick down until the vote tallying begins, here are some highlights of MinnPost’s election coverage you shouldn’t miss. If you’re looking for more, you can find a comprehensive, chronological list of links to our election coverage here.

Overview

A new governor? A dismantled trifecta? Here’s what’s at stake in Minnesota this election (This story covers presidential, congressional, legislative and Minnesota Supreme Court races along with the environment statewide ballot question and key ballot initiatives in Minneapolis and St. Paul.)

Election process

• Election 2024 voting timeline and key dates in Minnesota explained
• A White House winner on Election Day? Don’t count on it
• How Itasca County caught vote allegedly cast by a Minnesota woman for her dead mother
• Minnesota law on voting misinformation survives legal challenge

Presidential race

• As Walz stumps for votes in rural America, his old congressional district holds him at arm’s length
• Walz on front lines in effort to win over ‘persuadable men’
• Minnesota farmers weigh Harris and Trump on ag policy as candidates compete for rural votes
• ‘Outside agitator’ narrative by Walz, community leaders was wrong but helped quell 2020 George Floyd protests
• Dispatch from Michigan: Parallels from a Midwestern neighbor as Minnesota readies for Nov. 5
• Gwen Walz, cool headed and active political spouse, campaigns to the wire
• ‘Garbage’ dispute overshadows final pitches by Harris, Trump campaigns
• Star Tribune’s non-endorsement in presidential race opens paper to scrutiny
• As Nov. 5 nears, Minnesota polling indicates ‘ideologically consistent’ electorate
• How therapists are helping marginalized communities cope when identity politics flood the airwaves
• Poll: Harris, Trump remain in tight race in Minnesota as finish line nears
• A debate-fueled spike in September fundraising as Harris outraised Trump in Minnesota
• Hello Walz: An A to Z assessment of the congressman, governor and VP candidate from Minnesota

State government and Legislature

• These 16 Races to Watch could determine Minnesota House control
• Will abortion rights supporters propel Minnesota DFL candidates to victory?
• Campaign spending not even close between DFL, GOP in race to control Minnesota House
• Why two state House races in central Minnesota are being closely watched
• Despite potential to disrupt DFL’s trifecta, lone Minnesota Senate race has flown under the radar
• Analysis shows DFL legislative candidates suffer more from ‘ballot roll-off’ in presidential years
• Inside the decades-long political shift of the Iron Range
• The Minnesota DFL’s massive, behind-the-scenes political fundraising network explained
• Stepping out of Tim Walz’s shadow, Peggy Flanagan is poised to make history

Congress

• 2024 campaign finance dashboard for Minnesota congressional races
• Crypto industry spending big on Craig’s reelection campaign
• A ‘double flip’ on election night would upend the political clout of Minnesota lawmakers
• Craig, Teirab trade debate jabs in Minnesota’s hottest congressional race
• Minnesota GOP steps up attacks on state voting law
• A quiet ‘Minnesota nice’ contest for a coveted open congressional seat in a year of ‘bare-knuckled’ politics
• Stauber-Schultz rematch in Minnesota’s 8th has tightened, but is it in play?

The post Catch up on MinnPost’s election coverage appeared first on MinnPost.

We hope you learned something from MinnPost’s poll coverage this week (and if you missed it, I added links to each of our stories below).

If you’re interested in exploring the data prepared by Embold Research, you can find the crosstabs here. We’ve also added links to those in each of our stories this week. The poll’s methodology is here.

As always, there’s more data than our small newsroom has capacity to explore, so if you find anything interesting, we’d love to hear from you! You can email us at feedback@minnpost.com.

We previously published the crosstabs to our September 2024 poll with Embold. We published several stories after that first poll, and you can find links to those stories in this summary from our freelance data journalist Michael Nolan.

October poll stories:

• Dispatch from Michigan: Parallels from a Midwestern neighbor as Minnesota readies for Nov. 5 (Includes polling on how the situation in the Middle East affects how Minnesotans vote)
• As Nov. 5 nears, Minnesota polling indicates ‘ideologically consistent’ electorate (Explores why movement on some issues have been consistent since 2022)
• Poll: Klobuchar leads White by 12 percentage points in U.S. Senate race
• Poll: Harris, Trump remain in tight race in Minnesota as finish line nears

The post MinnPost publishes crosstabs for October 2024 poll appeared first on MinnPost.

A lot has happened since we polled Minnesotans last December: A New York jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts, Vice President Kamala Harris took over as the Democratic presidential nominee and Gov. Tim Walz was named her running mate.

National polls show half of Americans think the U.S. economy is getting worse, and while 6 in 10 Americans would oppose a federal abortion ban, abortion isn’t as top of mind as it was for many voters in 2022 right after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

But what do Minnesotans think? MinnPost has again partnered with Embold Research, the nonpartisan arm of Change Research, to find out. Embold put our poll in the field right after Labor Day and worked through Sunday to recruit a representative sample of 1,616 likely Minnesota voters via Facebook and Instagram ads and text messages to fill out an online survey. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points. (You can see the poll’s full methodology here.)

We started sharing poll results Friday, and we’ll conduct a second poll in October. You’ll find our stories on the website and also in newsletters (sign up now if you aren’t already getting them!):

• Friday: A look at the 2024 presidential race
• Monday: How Minnesotans are thinking about public safety in their communities, in the state and in the Twin Cities
• Tuesday: A look at the 2024 U.S. Senate race in Minnesota
• Wednesday: Minnesotans’ attitudes about state government and state leaders
• Thursday: A look at Greater Minnesota and how respondents there are thinking differently than respondents in the Twin Cities
• Friday 9/20: A second look at Minnesotans’ attitudes about state government

MinnPost’s reporters and editors are continuing to pore over the data we received from Embold Research and might have additional insights to share over the coming weeks.

As you read the coverage, feel free to send along any feedback (feedback@minnpost.com), and if the data sparks an idea for an opinion piece, please consider submitting one (submission guidelines here).

The post MinnPost releases first of two polls ahead of 2024 election appeared first on MinnPost.

The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism training, announced Thursday that MinnPost audience editor Jazzmine Jackson is among 30 journalists selected for the Leadership Academy for Women in Media cohort.

The weeklong seminar takes place later this month in St. Petersburg, Florida, and will feature sessions on a range of topics. Poynter faculty and coaches include Maria Carrillo, Dalia Colón, Kate Cox, Sherri Day and Kristen Hare.

Others selected for the program hail from a range of national and local media outlets across the country. You can read more about the program here.

Since joining MinnPost in May 2023, Jazzmine has made significant contributions to expanding MinnPost’s newsletter portfolio and subscriber base. She leads a cross-functional audience team and has led projects including MinnPost’s recent site migration to Newspack and a MinnPost reader survey. Jazzmine previously was a digital reporter at KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

It’s the second year in a row that a MinnPost editor has been selected for a prestigious leadership program at Poynter. In 2023, managing editor Harry Colbert, Jr., was accepted to and attended the Leadership Academy for Diversity in Media.

The post MinnPost audience editor Jazzmine Jackson selected for Poynter leadership academy appeared first on MinnPost.

First, there was skepticism.

“Really?” I asked MinnPost’s state government reporter Peter Callaghan when he told me the Monday after the July 4th holiday weekend that Walz’s name was being floated as one of many possible VP contenders should President Biden drop out and Vice President Kamala Harris get the nomination. 

So what if Walz’s name was out there? He was one of five Democratic governors mentioned in a CNN report about quiet discussions taking place within the Democratic Party. The possibility, especially because Biden was refusing to go anywhere at that point, seemed quite remote. MinnPost Washington, D.C., reporter Ana Radelat had briefly mentioned it the week before in a story about Walz leading a governors’ meeting with Biden.

Still, we decided all the “ifs,” all the dominoes involved, were worth explaining to our readers. As the Democratic Governors Association and chair of the Democratic National Committee’s rules committee, Walz might somehow find himself in the middle of a big story. 

On July 10, Peter wrote, “Minnesota’s Walz as VP? The odds aren’t zero as Biden struggles to prove his electability.” We thought there was a good chance we wouldn’t write again about Walz as a VP contender. Lists around that time in The New York Times, Newsweek and Forbes passed him over completely. But then we looked at the clicks. While Peter’s story didn’t get quite as many eyeballs on our site that day as a headline about MyPillow facing eviction in Shakopee, the attention kept growing. 

Related | Hello Walz: An A to Z assessment of the congressman, governor and VP candidate from Minnesota

A week later, Walz was taking Trump’s new running mate Sen. JD Vance to task over his views of rural America. After Biden dropped out July 21, Walz was doing cable TV and podcast interviews left and right. He clearly wanted the job of Harris’ running mate.

At MinnPost, we pivoted our coverage. Peter did the logical next story, explaining that “the odds aren’t zero” that Minnesota could see its first female governor and first Black lieutenant governor in Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Sen. Bobby Joe Champion. Not only that, Flanagan could become the first female Native American governor of any state. 

In Washington, Ana — who initially was skeptical of Walz’s chances — was now telling me over the phone, “Your governor’s star is rising.” She wrote “A” and “B” copy to prepare for Harris’ announcement as we constantly checked for any timing updates we could find.

I was relieved the news didn’t leak out during my trip last Saturday to Valley Fair. Imagine getting the news that Walz was picked while on a roller coaster with your kids (although that sure would have fit the whole narrative here).

On Monday afternoon, as rain hammered on the roof at MinnPost, I mulled whether to send one of our reporters to a Democratic fundraiser where Walz was to briefly appear. What if Harris’ decision leaked during that? Conscious of what could be very busy days ahead, we decided to save our energy. 

I was in my kitchen preparing breakfast Tuesday morning when I saw CNN anchor Jim Acosta’s tweet citing multiple sources saying it was Walz. This was actually happening.

We posted Ana’s initial story and gathered some reaction. Peter drove over to Eastcliff, the temporary governor’s residence, to check out the scene. Walz didn’t appear, but his son Gus came out to greet a neighbor and said, “It’s going to be an exciting time!” Peter also snapped a picture of corn growing on the grounds and posted it on X, attracting 52,000 views and 150 retweets. 

Neighbors were already filled with optimism for a Harris-Walz victory in November. 

“It’s been really fun having him down here. It’s added some excitement, especially now about this great new news,” Flannery Delaney told Peter as she was passing by on her bike commute to work. “I love Walz. I’ll miss him as governor but Peggy Flanagan will be great too.”

Peter wrote his final installment, “Odds definitely weren’t zero for Walz,” the day of the announcement, and the requests for Peter and Ana to speak on national and international radio, podcast and TV news shows started pouring in. BBC and Monocle listeners in the U.K. heard Ana, while hosts on The Bulwark, Here and Now and NewsNation asked Peter to weigh in on just about everything: free school lunch, Walz’s handling of divided government, the trifecta, even tampons.

Walz’s ascension to the VP slot has certainly been an interesting story to cover these last few weeks, but just as interesting is that earlier ascension MinnPost has covered from his transition from social studies teacher to congressional candidate in a red district. 

Boston Globe political reporter Sam Brodey, who used to be MinnPost’s Washington reporter, noted on X that when he started covering the Minnesota congressional delegation in 2015, “Amy Klobuchar was on all the VP/2020 lists, Al Franken was on the rise, Keith Ellison was a national leader of the left, and Tim Walz was just the nice guy who beat them at the annual Hotdish Competition.”

What a ride. I guess when the odds aren’t zero, be ready for it.

Elizabeth Dunbar

Elizabeth Dunbar is the editor of MinnPost. She can be reached at edunbar@minnpost.com or on Twitter @edunbarMN.

The post Walz whirlwind: Behind the scenes at MinnPost when ‘the odds aren’t zero’ for making history appeared first on MinnPost.

It’s clear summer has arrived at my house: wet beach towels on the deck, Duplos and Barbies strewn about the living room, freezie pop wrappers on the porch and kids up ’til 10.

But at work, our newsroom is busy digging in on serious issues to keep Minnesotans equipped and informed. We’ve been reporting on the results of this year’s legislative session and how new laws and programs will affect you. And we’re looking ahead to a consequential general election in November, bringing you the essential analysis and context underlying the loud political headlines you’re seeing elsewhere.

We know there are many things competing for your attention this time of year, but I hope you’ll carve out some time to engage and connect with the high-quality news and information MinnPost’s journalists are delivering every day via our website and newsletters.

If you’ve found yourself tuning out when it comes to political news, now’s a great time to create a daily or weekly routine around staying apprised of the most important issues facing our state. The health of our democracy depends on an informed electorate.

And we depend on you. We need your financial support to ensure our newsroom has the resources to deliver distinctive and engaging stories about the election and serve as a trusted guide for Minnesotans.

Will you join us with a monthly gift today?

P.S. Over half of MinnPost’s members contribute sustaining gifts, giving us a dependable source of revenue to rely on and budget for the future. Will you start a monthly sustaining gift today?

The post Digging in on the issues appeared first on MinnPost.