,
Japan. The
Pioneer Press traces its history to both the
Minnesota Pioneer,
Minnesota's first daily newspaper (founded in 1849 by
James M. Goodhue), and the
Saint Paul Dispatch (launched in 1868). Ridder Publications acquired the
Pioneer and the
Dispatch in 1927. Ridder merged with Knight Publications to form
Knight Ridder in 1974. The two papers were operated for many years as separate morning and evening papers, but in 1985 were merged into the all-day publication the
St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, which later dropped the "and" from "and Dispatch" in 1986, simply becoming the
St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch. The publication eventually made the transition to a morning-only paper, and on March 26, 1990, the word "Dispatch" was dropped. The paper is sometimes called the "Pi Press", just as "Strib" is used for the
Star Tribune. During World War II the paper had
war correspondents in the field. There were 30 correspondents from various papers at
Iwo Jima, including A.J. Crocker of the Pioneer Press. From 1947 to 1949, the newspaper printed the comic strip ''
Li'l Folks, by Twin Cities native Charles M. Schulz. This comic introduced a number of characters who would later return in 1950 in the syndicated comic strip Peanuts'', including
Charlie Brown and a dog strongly resembling
Snoopy. In 1952, the
Dispatch began sponsoring a
treasure hunt as part of the
Saint Paul Winter Carnival. Clues to finding a
medallion are printed in the paper, and the first person to find and return it with the clues and a registered carnival button wins a sum of money. The prize started off at $1,000 and as of 2004 rose to $10,000. The paper has won three
Pulitzer Prizes: in
1986,
1988, and
2000. On March 10, 1999, the day before the
University of Minnesota men's basketball team was to begin play in the
NCAA Tournament, the
Pioneer Press published a story written by
George Dohrmann with allegations that a staffer wrote coursework for many Minnesota basketball players within the past five years. Immediately, Minnesota suspended four players suspected of academic fraud, and in 2000, the
NCAA vacated all postseason appearances by Minnesota from 1994 to 1998 and docked scholarships for four years, among other penalties. Dohrmann would win a
Pulitzer Prize for
beat reporting in 2000 for his reports on the scandal. Dohrmann and his editor prepared for hostile reactions to the newspaper from the local community. Minnesota governor
Jesse Ventura accused the
Pioneer Press of timing the article to be published around NCAA Tournament time for the sake of "sensationalism journalism", and the
Pioneer Press got many hostile calls and letters in response to the story. In 2004 the
Pioneer Press made news itself. The great-great-grandson of George Thompson, a former owner/editor of the paper, took a 1914 pocket watch of his grandfather's to the
Antiques Roadshow when it came to St. Paul. In 2020 the show updated its appraisal of the watch's value to $2–3 million.
The McClatchy Company acquired the paper in June 2006 when it bought
Knight Ridder. As owner of the
Star Tribune, McClatchy had to sell the
Pioneer Press because of
antitrust concerns. The
Pioneer Press was subsequently sold by McClatchy to
MediaNews Group later in the year. The hedge fund
Alden Global Capital now owns a controlling share of the
Pioneer Press. In its operating year of 2017,
The Pioneer Press under Alden announced a profit of $10 million with a 13% operating margin after Alden cut the newspaper's workforce to around 60 people. Alden has faced notable criticism for this from editorial staff of
The Denver Post. In 2006 the
Pioneer Press had 206 reporters, copy-editors, and editors who were members of a union. By September 2023, that number had dropped to 29. In 2025, the
Pioneer Press indicated it would join the
Star Tribune and outsource printing the paper to a plant in Iowa in 2026. == Notable journalists ==