About North News
North News is a grassroots print and digital community news source and youth journalism training program in North Minneapolis. We seek to deepen understanding and empathy for the Northside through our deep, interrogative, and community-sourced journalism. Our goal is to expand local and Twin Cities-wide perceptions of this place, which is often reduced to a single, negative narrative – one of crime, poverty, blight, and disparity. We dig deep beneath the surface to lift up North Minneapolis’ nuanced truths. We are a source of great pride within our community.
Our monthly print paper has a circulation of 10,000 through 400 public bulk drop sites and home subscriptions in the 14 neighborhoods that make up North Minneapolis. We are the only North-focused newspaper that distributes to all Northside neighborhoods. Our Facebook and Instagram posts, along with our Tweets and web stories reach an audience that numbers in the thousands.
Founded in 1992 by Margo and Kerry Ashmore, we were bought by Pillsbury United Communities and relaunched as an independently operated social enterprise in early 2016. PUC addresses the marginalized and disengaged population of Minneapolis by building the capacity of individuals to interact with systems and civil society. PUC recognizes a key social issue facing Minneapolis is the lack of empathy and understanding of one another’s experiences. PUC helps to amplify these stories and voices to deepen understanding and ultimately trust through its Community Media Initiative (CMI), which comprises North News and KRSM radio station.
North News offices out of Oak Park Community Center in North Minneapolis. We run a year round internship program for area high school students and have taught a daily introductory journalism elective at North High School since the 2016-17 school year. In 2019, we plan to launch class at Patrick Henry High School as well.
Our Team
David Pierini, Editor
David has been a writer and photographer since the eighth-grade. He has degrees from Michigan State University and Western Kentucky University and has worked for a number of newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and The Herald in Jasper, Ind. He has been a contributing photographer for North News since 2016 and has won numerous award for writing and photography from the Minnesota Newspaper Association and the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Azhae’la Hanson, Reporter and youth program coordinator
Azhae’la joined North News in June 2022 as writer, photographer and manager of our youth journalism programs. She graduated from summa cum laude from Xavier University in New Orleans with a degree in history. Azhae’la’s first interest in journalism began at North High School in the very journalism class she now helps to teach. She was featured on the cover of North News in May 2018 after being named valedictorian at North.