MNNEAPOLIS – The state jobs commissioner, Steve Grove, has been named publisher of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Grove’s appointment marked a major management shift by Glen Taylor, the Mankato magazine printing magnate who bought the newspaper in 2014. Grove’s job will be to “drive digital subscriptions and increase advertising,” Taylor said. The Star Tribune, like many newspaper companies, has been losing subscribers to broadcast and online competitors — although with a circulation of 242,000 daily and 351,00 Sundays, it still dominates regional journalism; Grove, 45, has led the state Department of Employment and Economic Development under Governor Tim Walz since 2019. Earlier he was an executive at Google, where he founded Google’s News Lab.
Verbatim
Grove: The people and businesses I’ve worked with in my time as commissioner give me great confidence in the future of Minnesota. Minnesota’s economy is rich with a nationally renowned workforce and an entrepreneurial business community that has brought so much opportunity to our state.”
Grove. Ex-Google exec now at Strib’s helm. Assignment: Fund digital path to future.
Grove profile
Steve Grove grew up in Northfield. His first job was for his parents’ landscaping business. He holds a degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Claremont McKenna College and a master’s in public policy from Harvard. He was a journalist at his hometown Northfield News and later at the Boston Globe and ABC News. He built YouTube’s news and politics team, launching the first partnership programs for news organizations, nonprofits, and political candidates. For 12 years he was an executive at Alphabet’s Google and created the Google News Lab for innovation in the news industry. Grove also led Google’s civic engagement work, including the company’s nonpartisan voter information and get-out-the-vote efforts. He and wife Mary co-founded a nonprofit in 2014 called Silicon North Stars to help youth from underserved communities in Minnesota to pursue technology careers. During his four years as state economic development director under Governor Tim Walz, he quadrupled grants to black-owned and indigenous-owned businesses. He also designed a goal-setting system to drives the agency’s equity metrics.