Minnesota Star Tribune publisher writes about the surprises of returning home

Minnesota Star Tribune CEO and Publisher Steve Grove‘s new book is about 300 pages, but there’s a lot going on in them.

“How I Found Myself in the Midwest” is partly about Minnesota’s challenges but also a memoir that encompasses the Northfield native and his wife Mary’s struggles with infertility, making new friends after 40, repairing his relationship with his dad and reconnecting to his faith. I chatted with Grove, 47 — who grew up in Minnesota but left for college and his career, including founding news teams at both YouTube and Google, and returned in 2018 — about putting together the elements of his book. (Like all interviews for the books section, this has been edited for length and clarity. Grove did not read this story before publication.)

Q: Where did the book begin?

A: To me, the thing that was most interesting was the story of Minnesota at this unique moment in our history, and part of that was government being in the throes of some pretty challenging times for the state. My original idea was a bit more Minnesota-centric book about the state and its unique role and why does Minnesota punch above its weight in so many unique ways.

Q: What changed?

A: Simon & Schuster, the editor and publisher, said, to make this have a broader storyline, the thing that was most interesting to them was my own personal journey. So, the project evolved a little bit over time into more of a story of my own return to the state and what I’ve learned in doing that. I hope it works. “Minnesota is a character in the book” is how I frame it at the top.

Q: You write that “the state had drunk the Kool-Aid on our own story, and it was blinding us to the real challenges we faced.” Can you expand on that?

A: I do think Minnesota is giving itself a closer look and I do think the nation’s focus is on us, in part due to George Floyd’s murder but also that our governor was a vice presidential candidate. It’s a weird paradox. Minnesotans are exuberant and loyal and do drink the Kool-Aid on our exceptionalism but also are oddly humble about it.

Q: A fair amount of the book is about you becoming commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development in 2019, months before the pandemic sank the economy. Not quite what you expected?

A: There was definitely a moment of, “Oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into?” But a couple things you find out in those moments: One, things are moving so fast you don’t always have time to think about it. You’re just going. I also found that the things that make government service hard — the bureaucracy, slowness, resistance to change — things that are in some ways important but also challenging about government service, do fade away in a crisis. When I was at DEED, some of the work that I felt like was the best work we’d ever done came because that crisis hit.

Q: Did it turn out to be the book you thought it would be?

A: Yes and no. I think the personal dynamics around my parents and my faith and our fertility journey were not on my radar when I started writing the book as a part of the story that I planned to engage with. They’re pretty vulnerable things to share. And of course they involved a lot of conversations with my parents and my wife about whether that was worth doing.

Q: They had veto power?

A: My parents read every word I wrote about them. Mary did, too. They had to feel good about it.

Q: When you were offered the Star Tribune job, a friend advised you to take it but said it would be really hard. Was he right?

A: I think we’re taking on a challenge that we’re uniquely positioned to meet and, with Glen Taylor as our owner, with a belief in our future and a state that likes journalism, I think we have all the ingredients you would want for tailwinds. But is it hard? Yeah, it’s challenging. The world is changing quickly and habits are changing quickly. We’ve got to be assertive on all those fronts. If you let the world happen to you in these moments, I think it’s much harder than if you go make your own weather.

Q: There are always rumors about you returning to the government. Would you ever run for office?

A: I liked public service a lot. I think that comes through in the book. I can see doing some version of it again in the future. I don’t know what version that would be. I don’t have some plan. But I would say working at the Strib feels like public service, too. It’s not government service but, in terms of its role in society, I have found a tremendous amount of meaning. It’s a different version of public service but I’ve enjoyed it. I don’t know the long-term future for me but at this moment I’m excited about the Strib.

Q: The word “hope” pops up a lot in the book and in chatting with you. What do you hope readers take away from the book?

A: What I really wanted to do was write a book that gave people a sense of hope, because that’s what I felt coming back here. Not in any kind of Pollyanna-ish way: In Minnesota, the grass is greener. But when you step into doing public service of any flavor and you look at the ways to make change, I think when you go local there’s a lot of momentum and there’s a lot of collaboration, in ways you don’t always feel in this constant, punishing national narrative of how divided we are.

How I Found Myself in the Midwest: A Memoir of Reinvention

By: Steve Grove.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 275 pages.

Event: 7 p.m. June 24, Q&A + book signing, music by AirLands, $15-45 (higher price includes book), magersandquinn.com/events.