Glen Taylor: Now more than ever, this newspaper is essential to Minnesota

After buying the Star Tribune in 2014, I wrote that this newspaper remains Minnesota's best, most trusted source of news and information. That role is even more critical today.

Over the past few months, many readers have told me that they are relying on the Star Tribune to make sense of the coronavirus pandemic. Many have thanked me for the excellent news and opinion coverage the newspaper's staff has produced in uniquely demanding circumstances.

Some have remarked that even as so much has changed in their lives, the Star Tribune remains a constant — arriving on their doorsteps every morning and on their cellphones and laptops around the clock.

It was no surprise to me that the Walz administration deemed the Star Tribune one of Minnesota's "essential" businesses, allowing the newspaper to keep serving readers in print and online during the state shutdown.

The Star Tribune and its predecessor papers have been essential to life in Minnesota for 153 years, helping generations of readers navigate in good times and bad.

In the 1940s and '50s, the Minneapolis Tribune was my window to the world while growing up on our family farm near Comfrey in southern Minnesota. I couldn't wait for the paper, and especially the sports pages, to arrive in our mailbox each day.

Newspapers are called "daily miracles" for good reason. It takes hundreds of dedicated professionals to produce and deliver a high-quality regional newspaper and website every day.

Most of the Star Tribune's staff has been working from home since mid-March, although dozens of reporters and photographers have been in the field covering stories as safely and responsibly as possible.

The men and women who run the presses and deliver the printed product deserve special thanks for their commitment to bringing the news to Minnesota and surrounding states.

Our readership numbers have increased dramatically since the beginning of the U.S. outbreak, and many occasional readers have become digital subscribers for the first time. That vote of confidence means a lot to us.

We're also grateful for our partnerships with loyal advertisers, many of whom are struggling to adjust to fast-changing business conditions as the pandemic continues.

Thanks to reader and advertiser support, the Star Tribune continues to be Minnesota's largest news organization, with more than 240 talented journalists on staff.

Members of the news and multimedia teams recently won five 2020 National Headliner Awards, and Star Tribune Opinion's Jill Burcum was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for editorial writing.

Today our journalists are focused on the coronavirus, from the race to find a vaccine and treatments now underway at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic to the impact of the pandemic on Main Street businesses and their employees.

These are challenging times unlike any we've seen before. Like you, I worry about my family members, my colleagues, and the health care workers and first responders who are supporting all of us.

I'm confident that if we work together, we'll see better days. And I know with certainty that the Star Tribune will be there every step of the way — as a Taylor company, but even more importantly as a Minnesota company.