The northern lights, or aurora borealis, are visible in the sky north of the Fall Lake Campground Sept. 12 just outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Ely, Minn. (Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of commentary online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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As the Minnesota Star Tribune begins counting down the final days of 2024, we know this year offered much to remember. The stories you’ve seen in our report have chronicled a year of joy, pain, triumph, loss, community and conflict in Minnesota. In the days and weeks to come, you’ll see all manner of year-in-review coverage from the Midwest’s largest newsroom.

From the best burgers to the finest art to the strongest plays to the most iconic stories, our journalists are looking back on the year that was. Nowhere can you read more about what happened in Minnesota this year than in the Strib.

We look back because it helps us look forward. If we’re doing it right, each year teaches us something we didn’t know before and makes the next year stronger.

As I look back at a pivotal year for the Minnesota Star Tribune, I’ve learned so much from our team, our readers and our journalism. In reflecting on it all, my biggest feeling is gratitude.

I’m grateful to work with the best local newsroom in the country. Our journalists fearlessly report the truth every day, often at great personal sacrifice. They do it because they believe the public deserves to know the truth, and because good journalism is at the foundation of good and healthy communities. They fight for all of us in the face of threats and intimidation because they care about their work. I feel lucky to get to work with such talented and committed colleagues.

Of course, the news goes nowhere without a great product team, committed delivery people and a host of production leaders who ensure the “daily miracle” of producing our report hasn’t missed a single day since our founding. The same can be said for our business leaders, who work tirelessly to fund and support great journalism every day.

I’m grateful to our team at the Strib that had the courage this year to reboot a 157-year-old news organization for a new era. You don’t see that very often these days. While we have plenty of change ahead, we’re off to an exciting start under a new banner with a new direction, and I’m thrilled to be on a team that believes in and cares about our future in a state we all love. I’m especially grateful to our departing editor, Suki Dardarian, who’s been a talented leader and leaves a strong team in her retirement.

I’m grateful for local ownership in Glen Taylor, and help from community supporters who know that the future of journalism is not inevitable — it requires a community to demand and support it.

And most of all I’m grateful to you, our audience on every platform, for spending time with us and pushing us to keep going. You deserve the strongest newsroom in the country, and we’re going to keep doing our best to deliver for you.

As we’re all collecting our thoughts on the year that was, the Strib is doing something special this year to bring our year-end reporting to life. For the first time ever, we’re holding a “Year in Review” event, called The Wrap, which will present an immersive experience around the news and events that defined Minnesota in 2024. The event will feature top local entertainment, culinary leaders, newsmakers and will include an awards program that honors those who moved our state forward in a variety of important ways in 2024.

Join us if you can: tix.startribune.com/e/the-wrap.

And thank you, again, for reading. With your support, 2025 will be a stronger year for journalism in Minnesota.