How do you keep a newspaper alive for 92 years?

Tracey Williams-Dillard is the CEO and publisher of Minnesota’s oldest Black-owned newspaper, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. The family-owned publication was founded by her grandfather, Cecil Newman, in 1934.

In this episode of the Twin Cities Business Show, Tracey takes us inside her family’s business, which has served African-Americans across Minnesota for decades. She tells us about how they’ve kept the paper going in a challenging media landscape that has seen many similar organizations go under.

She also shares her personal story of what it took to keep the paper going through some of the hardest years of her life, including losing her husband during the COVID pandemic, when George Floyd was murdered a few blocks from the MSR’s headquarters, and when she lost her mother only years later.

We talk about her grandfather’s unusual strategy for building the newspaper, her grandmother taking over after his death, the legendary journalists and talent who came through the newsroom like Larry Fitzgerald Sr., Gordon Parks, and Charles Hallman, and why Tracey believes the MSR plays such an essential role in recording the history of the community.

This episode includes:

• 0:00 — Meet Tracey Williams-Dillard
• 0:51 — How Cecil Newman started the newspaper in 1934
• 1:54 — Cecil Newman and Hubert Humphrey
• 3:15 — Launa Newman takes over
• 4:31 — Tracey is chosen to lead the family business
• 5:30 — Why the newspaper became the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
• 6:40 — Growing up around the MSR
• 8:12 — What happened to the neighborhood around 38th Street
• 9:56 — How a 92-year-old newspaper survives
• 10:28 — Why the Black press still matters
• 12:51 — What mainstream media misses about Black Minnesota
• 13:57 — The people and stories the MSR has preserved
• 16:49 — Gordon Parks, Carl Rowan and the MSR talent pipeline
• 19:01 — Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and preserving Minnesota’s history
• 20:48 — How the newspaper makes money
• 21:04 — Turning community problems into new businesses
• 23:50 — How Sister Spokesman was created
• 27:01 — The newspaper’s changing revenue model
• 27:45 — Tracey’s approach to finding new ideas
• 30:23 — The struggle to find media salespeople
• 32:52 — How Minnesota’s Black community is changing
• 35:43 — The hardest years of Tracey’s life
• 36:16 — Losing her husband while keeping the paper alive
• 38:29 — George Floyd and boarding up the MSR
• 39:20 — “It was like a war zone”
• 40:19 — How Tracey kept going
• 41:23 — Where she finds her strength
• 42:26 — What her grandparents would think today
• 43:06 — Taking the MSR digital—and into AI
• 43:37 — The future of community newspapers
• 45:11 — Supporting the Black press
• 46:07 — Why Tracey keeps going