You Don't Win by Looking Needy | Steve Grove, CEO of The Minnesota Star Tribune

Steve Grove left a career in Silicon Valley to come home and take on one of the hardest jobs in American media: leading a nearly 160-year-old newspaper into a future it isn't guaranteed to have. As CEO and publisher of the Minnesota Star Tribune, Grove is trying to do what almost no one in the country has pulled off: transform a legacy newspaper into a thriving digital media company without losing the culture, the credibility, or the mission that made it matter. In this conversation, host Elizabeth Kitzenberg talks with him about the business of trust, the case for local news as essential civic infrastructure, and why the way most mission-driven organizations ask for support is exactly backwards. In this episode: Why giving journalism away for free devalues it and how Grove thinks about what good work is worth The reframe at the heart of fundraising: you don't win by looking needy; you win by looking like a bet worth making The staggering decline of local news, and why it drives everything from polarization to voter turnout to charitable giving Making the hardest calls in leadership, and what it means to reinvent an institution without losing its soul The myth that a beloved institution's survival is somehow guaranteed Building a "swift, clear, and brave" culture through painful change A conversation about ambition, reinvention, and treating the work you believe in like it's worth betting on. 🎙️ Proof of Impact is a production of Gleam Tower Media, recorded at Picnic Linden Hills in southwest Minneapolis. 📬 Connect with Elizabeth Kitzenberg on LinkedIn, or learn more about nonprofit consulting at thekitzenberggroup.com.