20 Under 40 - 2006 Profile: Michael Riggs

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 2006

Chief Financial Officer/Senior Vice President for Finance and Information Technology | Star Tribune in Minneapolis

Michael Riggs owes much of his success in the newspaper industry to football.

As an outside linebacker for the North Dakota State University football team in the late 1980s, Riggs helped the Bison win three NCAA Division II national championships. Goal setting, working in a team environment and not allowing excuses to get in the way of success were all lessons he first learned on the gridiron, Riggs says.

Today, Riggs is putting those skills to work in Minneapolis at the Star Tribune as its chief financial officer and senior vice president for finance and infomation technology. Figuring out how to move the industry forward is "what excites me," says Riggs, 38, who has spent most of the past 10 years at the company.

As the paper's interactive media advertising sales and strategy director before starting his current job in March, Riggs helped the interactive media division increase revenues by 43 percent in 2005. He focused on growing the retail interactive segment by maintaining prices and driving banner advertising through more consistent and aggressive selling of the newspaper's audiences in print and online.

Riggs has "strong financial credentials and [a] keen—and unique among finance executives—understanding of our advertising business," says J. Keith Moyer, publisher and president of the Star Tribune.

The married father of three joined the paper in 1996 as a senior financial accountant. Riggs left in 1998, but he was lured back in 2000 after The McClatchy Co. in Sacramento purchased the paper.

Although the newspaper industry faces myriad business challenges today, Riggs says newspapers can regain their glory of old by applying the same tactics he learned playing football in Fargo years ago.

"There's only one way out of this," he says. "To work hard, get creative and make things happen to improve the picture as we move forward."

Michael Riggs
Chief Financial Officer/Senior Vice President for Finance and Technology
Star Tribune in Minneapolis

Q: In what ways do you think your current position will change over the next five years?
CFOs will need to be more strategic partners as newspapers expand their vehicles in which they deliver information.

What's the best career advice anyone ever gave you?
Don't make it about you.

What three things would you change about the newspaper industry?

• Move to total audience-based measurement and away from the traditional circulation measurement.
• The industry's collective reluctance to market itself in ways that will better drive demand for all our products.
• More willingness to focus on emerging technologies for delivery of our products.