ROGER P. PARKINSON:

Minneapolis publishing executive Roger Parkinson was publisher and president of the Star Tribune newspaper, and a director and executive vice president of Cowles Media Company, the newspaper's corporate parent.

Roger Palm Parkinson was born in White Plains, New York, in 1941. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1964, and earned a master of business administration degree from Harvard University in 1966. He served in the United States Army Special Forces from 1966 to 1969. Parkinson then worked for Newsweek magazine (1969-1975) and for the Washington Post (1975-1980). He was publisher and president of the struggling Cowles-owned Buffalo Courier-Express (New York) newspaper from 1980 to 1982.

In 1982 the Courier-Express folded and Parkinson came to Minneapolis to work for the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, which was itself then experiencing some financial difficulties. He became president and publisher in 1983. In 1987 the newspaper was renamed Star Tribune, "Newspaper of the Twin Cities."

Parkinson left the Star Tribune in 1992, and subsequently took a new position as publisher and chief executive officer of The Globe and Mail newspaper of Toronto, Canada.

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The collection documents Parkinson's activities as publisher and president of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune (MST) and the Star Tribune newspapers; as an official of Cowles Media Company; and as a member of several business-related organizations and foreign affairs think tanks. It is particularly strong in its documentation of management philosophy and decision-making processes at the Star Tribune during Parkinson's tenure as publisher.

The collection includes: Star Tribune files, Cowles Media Company files, and personal interests and activities files. The alphabetically-arranged subject files include correspondence and memoranda, clippings, minutes, employee newsletters, press releases, speeches, circulation statistics, and studies and research reports. There is also some biographical information about Parkinson and other Star Tribune and Cowles Media Company executives.

Correspondents include Parkinson's fellow executives and subordinates at the newspaper; officials of the Cowles Media Company; other publishing and business executives; politicians; and members of the foreign affairs and business organizations in which he was involved.

Star Tribune files

This group of material includes files relating to both the Minneapolis Star and Tribune and the Star Tribune newspapers. Major focuses include efforts by Parkinson and his management team to restore and increase the newspaper's profitability; the construction of a new printing plant; the launching of the aggressive "metro strategy"; and Parkinson's involvement in efforts to attract special sporting events to the Twin Cities area.

There is information about advertising issues, company finances, circulation, the paper's unions and collective bargaining, management issues, and marketing and promotion. Files relating to employee issues include employee newsletters and bulletins, and information about downsizing that occurred at the newspaper in 1990.

Much of the material concerns the development and implementation of the "metro strategy," the newspaper's aggressive effort to increase its readership and circulation (and thereby its advertising revenue) in areas of the Twin Cities traditionally dominated by the rival St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch. A key component of this project was the changing of the name of the newspaper in 1987 from Minneapolis Star and Tribune to Star Tribune, "Newspaper of the Twin Cities," and the introduction of separate Minneapolis and St. Paul editions of the paper.

There is information about the "Pegasus Project," the design and construction of a new printing plant by the Minneapolis Star and Tribune in downtown Minneapolis that came to be known as Heritage Center. Also documented is the related "Project '87," which had to do with the move to and the start-up of operations in the new Heritage Center printing plant.

There is information about several special sporting events in the Twin Cities area that Parkinson helped arrange and promote (and which the newspaper helped sponsor), including major league baseball's 1985 All Star Game, Super Bowl XXVI (1992), the 1990 U.S. Olympic Festival games, and an unsuccessful bid for the 1996 Olympic Games. There is also material relating to the June, 1990 visit of Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev to the Twin Cities, which Parkinson helped arrange as chairman of a special committee established by Minnesota governor Rudy Perpich.

Cowles Media Company files

These files contain information about the Cowles Media Company, the Cowles Media Foundation, and the Cowles Family. There is information about directors' meetings, grant requests, litigation between various factions of the family, and some information about the failed Buffalo Courier-Express newspaper.

Personal interests and activities files

Materials in this group relate to Parkinson's interest and involvement in several foreign affairs think tanks (research institutes) and discussion groups, and his participation in some Minnesota-based business executives' organizations that were concerned with business ethics and the improvement of quality and productivity. Also in this section are notes and texts from Parkinson's speeches on a variety of topics.

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These papers are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Roger P. Parkinson Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,144

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, September 1995

Catalog ID number: 990017317530104294

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The Star Tribune and its predecessor newspapers are in the Minnesota Historical Society newspaper collection.

Cowles Media Company annual reports are in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Advertising, Newspaper.

Collective bargaining -- Newspapers -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Labor unions -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis -- Newspaper employees.

Newspapers -- Circulation.

Publishers and publishing -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Research institutes.

Special events -- Marketing.

Sports sponsorship -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Cowles family.

Cox, David, 1937- author.

Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich, 1931-

Kramer, Joel R., 1948- author.

Kruidenier, David, 1921- author.

McGuire, Tim J., 1949- author.

Organizations:

Caux Round Table, author.

Council on Foreign Relations, author.

Cowles Media Company, author.

Institute for East-West Security Studies, author.

Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.

Minnesota Council for Quality (Bloomington, Minn.), author.

Meetings:

All Star Game (1985 : Minneapolis, Minn.)

Super Bowl (26th : 1992 : Minneapolis, Minn.)

United States Olympic Festival (1990 : Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, Minn.)

Places:

Minneapolis (Minn.) -- Newspapers.

Saint Paul (Minn.) -- Newspapers.

Document Types:

Speeches.

Titles:

St. Paul pioneer press dispatch.

Star tribune (Minneapolis, Minn. : Minneapolis ed.)

Star tribune (Minneapolis, Minn. : St. Paul ed.)

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