Star Tribune announces lineup of new editors and revamped news departments

The Star Tribune on Monday announced a lineup of new editors who have been hired to lead a restructured newsroom.

The newspaper has reorganized around five key topic areas: News and Politics, Business, Sports, Food and Culture, and Outdoors.

“Within these key areas, we’re re-framing our coverage to produce more relevant, useful and impactful journalism, from breaking stories to utility information to in-depth accountability reporting,” Suki Dardarian, editor and senior vice president, said in a news release.

The new leaders include a mix of internal and external hires. They are:

Erin Golden, News and Politics editor

Golden has been the Star Tribune’s Minneapolis team leader since returning to the paper in summer 2023. That followed her stint as director of public relations at St. Olaf College. Before that, Golden was a reporter at the Star Tribune for seven years. She has an undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

Kristen Painter, Business editor

Painter has worked as a reporter and editor for the Star Tribune’s business team for a decade. She previously worked for the Denver Post’s business and metro news departments. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Ryan Kostecka, Sports editor

Kostecka was most recently a digital content writer for the NBA’s Utah Jazz, which he joined in 2021. He is originally from California and attended the University of Oregon. He was the sports editor of the Park Record in Utah and sports director for Park City Television.

Sue Campbell, Food and Culture editor

Campbell has been an editor in the Twin Cities for 30 years and previously worked at the Pioneer Press.

After working for the St. Paul newspaper, she spent a couple of years working for PBS Twin Cities’ Next Avenue. She has been with the Star Tribune for nine years where she has led arts, food and features content.

Andrew Putz, Outdoors editor

Putz joins the Star Tribune after most recently serving as editor-in-chief of MinnPost, where he worked from 2014 to 2022. He will lead the Star Tribune’s stand-alone Outdoors team. Before his tenure at MinnPost, Putz was an editor or writer at city magazines in Boston, Philadelphia and Minnesota. He grew up in Stillwater and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The newspaper also announced two deputy editor hires:

Allie Shah, deputy editor for Food and Culture

Shah has served as a deputy in the newspaper’s metro department since early 2020. Previously, she was a team leader working with reporters covering K-12 and higher education. She has also worked as a reporter covering education, immigration, suburban communities and health. She is originally from Iowa and majored in journalism at the University of Minnesota.

Phil Piña, deputy editor for News and Politics

Piña joined the Star Tribune newsroom in 2022 as a team leader for the newspaper’s Minneapolis coverage, and coverage of its surrounding suburbs. For the past year he has been a deputy metro editor. Piña is originally from Ohio, and he spent more than 20 years at the Pioneer Press as a reporter and editor.