Strib Varsity is the Minnesota Star Tribune’s bold new sub-brand and a transformational revenue strategy built around one of the most passionately followed — and historically underserved — topics in Minnesota: high school sports. Launched in August 2025, Strib Varsity unified a fragmented network of legacy prep sports sites into a single platform that combines journalism, livestreaming, stats, scores, newsletters, social media, sponsorships and partner-generated content.
It is Minnesota’s new essential high school sports platform.
The project addressed a clear challenge facing local news organizations: how to convert high-interest audience engagement into sustainable subscription and advertising revenue while deepening community connection. For years, the Star Tribune’s high school sports journalism generated significant traffic and loyalty on affiliated but separate sports websites, but the experience was decentralized, difficult to monetize and disconnected in ways from the main brand. And in such a large state, it typically focused on the Twin Cities area.
Strib Varsity reimagined that model. The Minnesota Star Tribune invested heavily in expanded journalism resources, doubled the size of its prep sports team and built a new platform that now supports coverage of more than 30 sports, 500 high schools and more than 200,000 student-athletes statewide. Every participating school received its own homepage, creating thousands of localized entry points for readers, families and advertisers.
Revenue Model
The revenue model blends multiple streams into one unified strategy:
Strib Varsity was designed not simply as a sports product, but as a sustainable business platform that connects our brand to communities and families. It fills a unique coverage gap with reporting and storytelling no national competitor can replicate. This is deeply local journalism in an era when many rural news producers are closing.
