Arts and journalism enterprises may serve as effective economic development tools for small cities and neighborhoods. The author demonstrates how a new, for-profit, weekly newspaper serving a Minnesota city of 12,000 residents in a county of 36,000 has diversified and energized a depopulated downtown and surrounding region. Through powerful investigative reporting and by investing in and hosting exhibits by area artists, the newspaper has attracted new businesses into adjacent unoccupied retail spaces.
MarkusenA. (2004). Targeting occupations in regional and community economic development. Journal of the American Planning Association, 70(3), 253-268. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360408976377
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MarkusenA.KingD. (2003, July). The artistic dividend: The hidden contributions of the arts to the regional economy. Project on Regional and Industrial Economics. University of Minnesota.
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MarkusenA.SchrockG. (2003, May). Cities as hierarchists or specialists? Evidence from occupational profiles. (Working Paper #258), Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, the Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota.
