Star Tribune drops speciality publication, six staffers

We mentioned the "painful cuts" memo from the Star Tribune yesterday in our media roundup and the warnings are starting to come true.

The Star Tribune killed MARQ, their speciality publication distributed to some of the pricey neighborhoods of the Twin Cities, according to MinnPost. Dropping the publication meant six staffers got the boot.

More from MinnPost:

The already published Winter 2008 issue is MARQ's last; it leaves the declining luxury-goods market to more venerable titles such as Mpls.St.Paul and Minnesota Monthly. MARQ departs having just won two gold medals at the Minnesota Magazine and Publishing Excellence Awards.

While few will shed tears that rich folks have one less thing to read, specialty pubs not only keep journalists employed, they can be a big boost to a publisher's bottom line.

David Brauer says their other speciality publication, vita.mn, is still safe. At least for now. We don't think this will be the only cut in the coming months at the Strib and we will keep you updated on the latest.

In other Star Tribune news, Editor and Publisher's latest Web traffic numbers show the paper ranked No. 20 with 2,489,000 hits in October. Their Web traffic is up 59 percent from last year. Village Voice Media's 15 papers topped the Star Tribune, ranking No. 19 with 2,526,000 hits last month.