The Minnesota Star Tribune announced Monday that it will close its printing facility in Minneapolis later this year, and outsource that work to a facility in Des Moines, Iowa.
The change will take effect Dec. 27. About 125 workers at the Heritage printing facility will lose their jobs, and the property will be sold.
The Star Tribune said delivery of its print edition “will continue without interruption.”
“This is a difficult but necessary decision to position the Minnesota Star Tribune for future growth,” Steve Grove, CEO and publisher, said in a news release. “Our industry continues to evolve rapidly, and this change will help us preserve resources, invest in our digital transformation, and continue delivering the high-quality journalism Minnesotans count on. We are deeply grateful to the Heritage team for their decades of dedication and commitment to serving Minnesota readers.”
The news outlet said in its announcement that closing the Heritage plant “will save the Strib several million dollars in expenses annually and allow the company to preserve resources to continue building the digital capabilities that will define its future.”
The Star Tribune has been printed at its Heritage plant — located near the Mississippi River in the city’s North Loop, at North First Street and North Eighth Avenue — for nearly 40 years.
Once it closes, the paper will be printed at the Gannett print facility in Des Moines each day and trucked back north to Minnesota. That will mean earlier print deadlines — 5:15 p.m. for weekday papers, and 4 p.m. for Sunday. Stories and scores not available by those deadlines may appear online first.
In its announcement Monday, the Star Tribune said it “remains committed to providing a high-quality daily printed newspaper to customers who deeply value this medium.” But is also noted that “declining print circulation and inefficiencies resulting from operating an underutilized print facility have made in-house production increasingly unsustainable.”
The Star Tribune also prints the St. Paul Pioneer Press at its Heritage facility — an arrangement dating back to 2014. The two news outlets had announced a deal in 2024 to extend the printing contract to 2027.
Pioneer Press officials said Monday that with the Star Tribune plant closing, they will also move their printing to Gannett’s Des Moines facility.
Other major papers in Minnesota have also shifted their production in recent years. In 2021, the Duluth News Tribune — owned by Forum Communications — announced it would close its printing facility and move those operations to the Forum printing facility in Brainerd.
In 2024, the Brainerd printing facility closed, with operations moved to the Forum printing plant in Detroit Lakes.
