Charlie Rybak Reflects on Media, Storytelling, Minnesota, and His Last Name

Charlie Rybak has worked across just about every corner of modern media, from traditional journalism to digital strategy to launching hyperlocal news platforms. Today he leads editorial innovation at Twin Cities Business and hosts a YouTube series featuring conversations with business leaders across the region. Charlie shares his career journey, what's actually working in business media right now and how he's thinking about telling the story of a state that's growing well beyond just the Twin Cities.

Transcript

Rochester Energy And Show Setup

Speaker 0:00

The Growing Destinations Podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester, from live music and local breweries to unforgettable dining, events, arts, and outdoor experiences. Rochester, Minnesota is full of energy, creativity, and surprises people don't always expect. This is Rochester really. Learn more at ExperienceRochesterMN.com.

Speaker 1 0:24

It just feels like there is something exciting happening here right now. There's such a good energy in the air and in the room that I am just so bullish on where Rochester's headed. And I I was saying to somebody in the room, I just so badly want to get into a time machine to 10 years from now to see where this place has gone because it is it's really, really exciting.

Speaker 0:44

Welcome to the Growing Destinations Podcast, your source for conversations about the ideas, people, and strategies shaping the future of destination development and community growth. I'm your host, Bill Von Bank. My guest today is Charlie Rybak from Twin Cities Business. He's someone who's worked across just about every corner of modern media, from traditional journalism to digital strategy to launching hyper-local news platforms. Today he leads editorial innovation in Twin Cities Business and hosts a YouTube series featuring conversations with business leaders across the region. We'll get into his career journey, what's actually working in business media right now, and how he's thinking about telling the story of a state that's growing well beyond just the Twin Cities. Charlie Rybak,

Charlie’s Unusual Path Into Media

Speaker 1:33

welcome to the Growing Destinations Podcast.

Speaker 1 1:35

Thank you so much. I am delighted to be here.

Speaker 1:37

Charlie, you've had a really interesting path across journalism, digital media, and entrepreneurship before landing at Twin Cities Business. Can you walk us through your career journey and what's shaped how you think about media today?

Speaker 1 1:49

It's been rather unusual. I came up through the digital advertising world and I was working with some political clients and um actually ended up moving out to San Francisco where I was working with a bunch of startups and tech startups. And in doing that, the biggest lesson that brought me to where I am today is A, I got to meet a bunch of really fascinating entrepreneurs who are creating incredible companies. And I sort of fell in love with people that were building things and growing things. And you have to have a little bit of a screw loose to even do something like that. And I just found that really lovely to be around. And the other part of that is I just was doing a lot of just watching how information spreads on the internet. And A, saw people's media plans and I saw, wow, there is a ton of money being spent on media at the same time as all this local news is dying all around us. And two, um, you read the comments on any given social media post and you just read horrible things. Then you click through to somebody's profile and it's a very nice grandmother from Nebraska. And I'm like, how does that happen? And and you know, really kind of through that developed a keen belief in just how important I think local news and local media is. And I think when you look at some of the division and some of the um political strife and turmoil that exists right now, I think having institutions that can bring people back together around that, I began to think was really, really important. And that's why I really wanted to commit to working in media. And then I did spend two years as a COO at a cooperative solar developer, which I loved, which was sort of building community in a different way. But in this job of really come back around to my media roots.

Speaker 3:24

And we're at an interesting time in local media you alluded to. Hyperlocal

Funding Local News Without Falling Over

Speaker 3:29

journalism is often described as both essential and economically fragile. What models do you think still have real promise?

Speaker 1 3:38

So in 2021, I had recently moved back to Minneapolis, and the local newspaper where I grew up, the Southwest Journal in Southwest Minneapolis, had had folded because of the pandemic. And a gentleman named Andrew Haig and I came together and we said, well, we should start a new local news organization in this area and you know, looked at a bunch of different models around the country for how do you fund that? And the biggest thing that we found was revenue diversification is essential. If you are totally reliant on ads from small and local businesses, if something like a COVID pandemic hits, it's going to wipe you out. If you are totally reliant on revenue from your readers, you know, they are bearing a huge brunt of the cost. And for the most part, those businesses are, you know, they can work if you're kind of one person. So there have been some really good one-person local media operations that are entirely reader funded, but it's very difficult to figure out how you grow beyond one person, which you really need to cover a whole community. Um, so a couple of those, and then I think events are a really um really critical piece of the puzzle. I think A, local news bringing people together and playing a convening role is really important. And Twin Cities Business, where I'm at now, does really fantastic events that bring people from the business community together.

Speaker 4:48

I've been to many.

Speaker 1 4:49

Yes. You are you are one of our top attendees, which is great. Um, so I think those three are really important. And then, you know, looking out into the future, there are media organizations that are starting to get into Outside Magazine has this model where they have begun to get software as a service revenue and things like that. And I think media organizations, by and large, kind of got wiped out when the internet came along because a lot of them were really just slow to adapt. And I think we're in this moment where technological change is happening so quickly that media has to evolve along with commerce. Otherwise, you know, the advent of AI, things like that, it's another potential asteroid that could hit the industry. And figuring out ways to tap into some of the new ways that people are consuming information, new ways that people are able to monetize content are going to be essential for surviving the next five or 10 years.

AI’s Real Role In Journalism

Speaker 5:37

How do you see AI being part of that?

Speaker 1 5:39

I think, first of all, you know, when people hear that, they're like, okay, well, are robots going to be writing my restaurant reviews? Um, I don't think any robots are gonna be writing your good restaurant reviews. Are they gonna be doing some of them? Probably. I think that AI as journalism creation is just not that good. It can summarize well, it can pull insights out of things, it can research really, really well, it can really cut down on the amount of research you do. But human-created journalism that reads like it's written by a human or videos created by humans are things where, you know, when you can see the good ones, you can really see the good ones. But there, you know, there was a whole advent of sort of clickbaity journalism and listicles and things like that that I think AI is pretty prime to take out of the equation. And I think having humans spend their time doing valuable things and not assembling lists is really good. So I think that that is an interesting shift. And I think, you know, if you you assume that AI is going to take out a bunch of the kind of low-hanging fruit of journalism and that for humans to stand out, they're gonna really have to demonstrate their humanity, demonstrate the humanity of their subjects, really talk about their community with heart. I think that that can could actually be a very good thing for the industry as long as people can just adapt their business models quickly to say, okay, that's what we need to

Building Video And Meeting Audiences

Speaker 1 6:53

focus on. How do we fund that?

Speaker 6:54

You're now VP of editorial innovation and editorial director at Twin Cities Business. What does editorial innovation actually mean day-to-day in your role?

Speaker 1 7:03

I think it's looking at, you know, it's it's tied in with that question of just what sort of technological changes are happening. I mean, I think when I when I joined the organization, there was incredible journalism happening already. So I was lucky to get to be part of that. You know, we've had several people on staff, like Adam Platt and Liz Vetter and Eric Tormon that have been doing great journalism for a long time. Amazing writers. Amazing writers. And we're so lucky to have them. And Connor O'Neill, who's joined, who joined when I did, is another great one. He's actually writing about medical and healthcare and med tech stuff. And I think he will he will be doing lots of Rochester writing. But, you know, figuring out ways to say, okay, we need to keep doing that. We need to do as much of that as we can, and we need to be meeting people where they're at. So we've expanded our video capabilities. We launched a new YouTube show called The Twin Cities Business Show, where we're interviewing people doing interesting business stuff around the Twin Cities. You're the host. I am the host, which I'm just really lucky to get to talk to all these smart people across the state. And then we've really moved into, you know, how can we be creating short form videos, which I think is something that's been a it's been a difficulty for a lot of people who worked in journalism for a long time. Because, you know, can you get done in a 60-second video what you could get done in a 1200-word article? Probably not. But that is where a ton of people are getting their information. And as journalists, you know, you can either decide we're gonna show up there, we're gonna be in the information mix, we're gonna do what we can to reach people where they are and where they're getting info, or we're not. Because if you're not there, somebody else is gonna be giving those people information and you might not like what that is, and it might not tell a good story about your community or your industry or things like that. So we said, you know, we need to do more to be there.

Speaker 8:36

You're in a role that blends journalism, media strategy, and audience

Editorial Independence Versus Growth Goals

Speaker 8:40

development. How do you personally draw the line between editorial independence and business growth goals?

Speaker 1 8:46

It's really interesting and it's really tricky. And I think, you know, one thing that's happened in the media industry in the last couple of decades is that these the I think the hard walls that people had around these things have collapsed very quickly. And, you know, you have all of these one-person media rooms now that if you have a Substack and you have advertisers and you have subscribers, there is no you talk to our sales team or you talk to our editorial team, it's one person. And that's something that, you know, more legacy media organizations like the one that I'm at have to compete with. And so you have to say, how do we serve people and how do we maintain our editorial independence? And I think the biggest thing is readers are going to know if you are doing things because you don't believe in them, if you're doing things for a check. And finding ways to say, we need to be telling really, really good stories at all times, no matter what, separated from things that we can get paid for, are really important. And then at the same time, I think it's just about can you evolve your business models fast enough to keep up with some of these faster moving organizations? And part of this is just classic sort of disruption theory is that there are constantly people who are trying to break into this industry. There are many, many, many fewer journalists than there were. There are many more PR people pitching those fewer journalists. And as somebody who just really wants to see local media thrive and do well, I think it is incumbent on people like us who are working in it to say, how can we fund this stuff? And how can we make sure that the journalism is interesting and is independent and is able to do things that, you know, you you have to be able to do things that you can't fund because that's where really good stories are gonna come from. Right. Um, but and then how on the business side do you come and fund enough things that you have the resources to do that kind of journalism? And it's a really interesting challenge. I find it to be quite an exciting puzzle, and it's one that we just have to solve and that people are gonna solve, but it's gonna take a lot of experimentation to get to, you know, how we are doing this 10

Watchdogs, Positivity, And News Avoidance

Speaker 1 10:34

years down the road.

Speaker 10:34

Minnesota has a uniquely tight-knit business and civic community. Does that make it easier or harder to do critical journalism?

Speaker 1 10:42

It can be hard. You know, if you if you see people at um all the same events to write something that is critical of them or their company, but I think that, you know, there are moments where journalists, journalism's role as a watchdog is really important. You know, if somebody is screwing up, there has to be something to hold them accountable. And that's where the journalism can come in. And I also think, you know, one of the big problems right now in our society is news avoidance. There are, you know, there's the a lot of news is partisan, a lot of news is this and that. But I think that there has been a negativity bias in local news that has caused a lot of people to just tune it out altogether. And that to me is one of the most dangerous things. And when you really look at the studies, there are all these people that are consuming no local news. And if you ask them why, a lot of them are like, I don't really want to turn on the TV and hear about a murder and a fire and a murder and a business closing. That's not an enjoyable part of my day. So I really do think that local news on the whole needs to do more to lift people up. When you look at the business community, when you look at some of the people that are trying to build things and grow things and things like that, celebrating them, doing more to say, hey, what they're doing is actually important and in many cases heroic, I think is is great. And I think that that can bend against some of the, you know, there's this whole journalism is about comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable thing. And there I think there are definitely there is definitely a strain of media and local media that believes, you know, if there's someone that is successful, it is your job to find the the chinks in their armor, you know. But but I really think that we need to do more to just take a step back and say, hey, if there are people that are being positive and additive to our community, if there are people that are taking risks and building things, we should celebrate that. And I think that's where that's where that can come in. Now, that doesn't mean you celebrate people no matter what, but there are people that deserve to be celebrated that should be celebrated that I think it wouldn't always fall into the typical definition of, you know, what's the news here? But if you're just saying what's the news here all the time, then you know, the 40-year-old mom and pop restaurant might never end up in your newspaper or your magazine. And that's a huge mistake because those are the people that are the cornerstones of our community.

Speaker 12:44

Because community impact's important.

Speaker 1 12:46

It's it's super important. And I think it's, you know, if you think about how you experience a city day to day, you go to Rochester, you walk down the street, and you walk, uh, you get coffee, and you walk a little bit further and you pop into the bookstore. And then you go, um, you drive over to the school, and then somebody's organizing a bake sale. It's the things like that. And it's those people that make those things happen that drive communities forward and that bring people together and that create spaces that, you know, they're all these things that we've lost. Fewer people are going to church, fewer people are in lions clubs and little leagues are shrinking, things like that. And they're all, there were all these communal spaces that have shrunk. And I think that the local media is one of the few places that it can actually bring people back together. And celebrating those other people and those things that are creating that civic infrastructure feels like such an important way that, you know, local news and local media can help contribute to civic health and for people to feel more connected to each other during a time when I think a lot of people feel really lonely and really angry.

Covering Minnesota Beyond The Twin Cities

Speaker 13:41

As you think about editorial strategy at Twin Cities Business, how do you balance the gravitational pull of the Twin Cities economy with the broader statewide business story, especially fast growing markets like Rochester and southern Minnesota?

Speaker 1 13:55

You have to tell the full story, right? And there are there are more businesses in the Twin Cities, so we are always going to cover the Twin Cities more. But I think oftentimes that can get you sucked into this idea of, oh, there are so many businesses here that we don't really need to look at, you know, a company like Fast and All out of Wa out of uh Winona or, you know, the great all the great things happening out of Rochester. And there's super exciting things happening in the in the med tech space and new businesses, it feels like are getting funded every day, you know, on the backs of Mayo research and Mayo dollars and things that I think are fascinating. And I find a lot of those stories to be some of the most interesting ones. You know, how do you create a new startup in the Twin Cities? I think some of that stuff is great and some of it is important, but you know, you come across somebody like uh Sean Williams out of Oatana, who's really trying to create a base of um angel investing place like that. I think that's so cool and so interesting and so exciting that um I think those stories are critical, not only to the success of Minnesota's business community, but to the whole state. And, you know, we can't be a state that is totally reliant on one region. We have to be relying on multiple regions. We have to be relying on people building businesses all over the state. And I think just seeing Rochester's success and Rochester's growth makes me so happy as a Minnesotan. So I think it's incumbent upon people who have a big base in the Twin Cities to say, like, hey, we need to be lifting those things up and bringing them back to people who may not be hearing that story, may be missing that. And um, you know, we're really committed to telling great stories out of Rochester. And if you're listening to this and you have one, um, send it our way.

Speaker 15:26

I should note that you are currently in

Why Rochester Feels Different Now

Speaker 15:28

Rochester at the Mayo Civic Center. You just attended the Experience Rochester annual meeting, which kind of highlights all of the uh activities from a tourism development standpoint as well as all the work that Experience Rochester does on behalf of the city uh for convention and event business. Any takeaways that you took from the meeting?

Speaker 1 15:48

Yeah, I have a bunch. So I I spent a chunk of my childhood coming back and forth from Rochester, my mom's from here, and um, I'm related to various O'Haras around town. The uh the actually one of the more interesting ones that I had was before the conference. I I just stopped off um and got coffee and I walked into the coffee shop and it was full of students. And, you know, as a kid growing up here, that was not something that college students, that was not something that I had seen. And the coffee shop was packed with all these college students, and I was like, oh, this feels a little bit different than the other times I'd been here. And then just being at the Civic Center and at the conference today, you know, hearing how the University of Minnesota Rochester has grown from what, 50 some students in 2013 to 1100 today to going to 2500, that is amazing and it's so exciting and it's gonna add so much dynamism. And so that all happened before I walked through the doors of the building today. And just, you know, hearing about what the DMC is doing, hearing how that's so integrated within city government, hearing how that's building a platform for the future, you know, meeting, I was just meeting with a home builder and meeting with people who are creating manufacturing jobs. And it just feels like there is something exciting happening here right now. There's such a good energy in the air and in the room that I am just so bullish on where Rochester's headed. And I was saying to somebody in the room, I just so badly want to get into a time machine to 10 years from now to see where this place has gone because it is it's really, really exciting. And I I don't just say that everywhere that I go. Like there's something that seems genuinely special happening here that I want to help um tell that story. So I'm just trying to ask as many questions as I can to try to get my hands

Growing Up With A Mayor Dad

Speaker 1 17:22

around it.

Speaker 17:22

Being the son of a former Minneapolis mayor obviously adds public context to your name. How has that shaped your sense of identity and media and leadership? Helpful, complicated, or both?

Speaker 1 17:34

Yes. Um, it's great, you know, and I I I love my dad. And I was so lucky to get to grow up in the community. You know, I was able to grow up in a way that I interacted with all these different people who I never would have been able to interact with without that. And I now am pretty confident, you know, when I was 14 years old, I was just kind of getting dropped into a room of a bunch of adults. And so now doing that sort of thing is really not scary for me. So I loved that and I love getting exposed to all sorts of different people around the community. You know, having a last name that is random amalgamation of consonants that is not one that you see around a lot, you know, is I show my ID places and it's like, are you related? And I'm like, yep, my dad. So that can be complicated. You know, it's it's the piece of it that I that I don't like is I've never really wanted to be known as someone's son. Not that I I don't like being related to my dad. I love my dad, but you know, you want to be an individual and you want to be judged on your own accord. And I don't really want people to like or dislike me based on the actions of somebody else. And that can be a hard thing to break through. But, you know, I think it's something that uh there's no version of my life where I can experience that without it. And would I throw out the good stuff that came from it for some of that? Never in a million years. And, you know, I'm proud of him and I'm proud of my name. And um, it it does make it complicated sometimes to figure out, okay, well, I'm going into this room and this person might have done business with him and might be mad at it, you know. And at the end of the day, um, it's so many things to have to try to calculate that I've kind of just stopped, which has made it much easier to just operate as an individual. You know, if I say something that is it gonna make this person mad who's gonna react in a certain way to my family, I can't really control that. So I just need to operate as if, you know, I'm my own person because I am, and that's how I move through the world, even if other people don't perceive it like that. So it definitely adds a level of complication. It's added a lot of really wonderful things to my life. And um, you know, I get asked the question a lot, like, what was it like to grow up with a dad as a mayor? And I don't really know the answer to that because I don't know the counterfactual. And so that's always been a very interesting thing to navigate. And, you know, now it's it just kind of is what it is. And the more that I think I can show up and just be myself, the more I can be judged like that, which is really just kind of what I want.

AI, Reindustrialization, And State Optimism

Speaker 19:54

What are you most curious about right now in business or media that you're trying to better understand?

Speaker 1 19:59

Oh, that's a fantastic question. Do you have an hour and a half?

Speaker 20:03

We can make this a long way.

Speaker 1 20:04

I think I think there there are several interesting things happening. You know, um, where the AI stuff is going is so fascinating to me. You know, I am not quite as doomery, I think, as some people are. On one side of things, um, there are people that think AI is going to wipe out every single job. You know, I think when you look at technological advancement throughout history and knowing, you know, the printing press and automation, these things, they they have there has never been one that has wiped out widespread jobs generally. There have been several that have wiped out categories of jobs and the work has shifted. And I think some of that might happen here. You know, will we have as many accountants as we do today in 10 years? I don't think so. Will there be as many people playing around with numbers and maybe using robot-assisted um tools to develop, you know, financial models and things like that? I think there will definitely be those people, right? So knowing where that stuff lands is so fascinating to me. And I think people now really embracing, okay, how can I get better? You know, I mentioned the research thing, being working on this YouTube show, it's made research so much easier for me to do research on that than um it would have been five years ago. So I'm I'm fascinated by where some of that stuff lands. You know, on the more tangible side of things, I think there was this whole moment that happened uh during the pandemic, really, where all these supply chains shut down and people said, Oh, we really should not have outsourced all of our manufacturing. And we need to be building things here, we need to be building semiconductors, we need to be building all these things in the country that um I think people were totally reliant on global supply chains for before. I think the um reindustrialization of America and you know, what we can do to onshore some of these supply chains, what we can do to help to really be building more things in this country again, I think is really exciting to me. And then I think uh, you know, on the Minnesota side of things, I am markedly more optimistic about where Minnesota is. Minnesota is headed than a lot of people. I think that's why I really like the job that I do because I get to highlight people who are doing interesting things and building things and growing things. And there are a lot, so many amazing people that I wish I could take some of the people that were a little doom and gloom about where the state is headed and just say, Will you look at what this person is doing and then tell me how optimistic you are? And I'm just so bullish on this state, which I think has kind of more than anything, lost its story and its sense of self to rediscover that and to really say, okay, well, this is actually a really special place. And, you know, not everything is perfect, but not everything is perfect anywhere. And, you know, I have a one-year-old, and there's no other place in the world that I would rather raise a kid and have a career. And I think that ultimately is the thing that Minnesota has hung its hat on. And I'm really, really curious to see how we can continue to evolve our economy to cater to that and to build the industries of the future. Because I think Minnesota is home to so many smart, so many interesting people. Um I think we need a couple more people to be risk takers. But if we can just sprinkle in a little bit of that, I'm so incredibly excited to see where the state goes the next several years.

Closing Takeaways And How To Help

Speaker 23:09

Well, Charlie Rybak, this has been a fascinating conversation. I look forward to more of your storytelling uh through Twin Cities Business and all of your various platforms. And I love your YouTube show. Thank you for being our guest on the Growing Destinations Podcast.

Speaker 1 23:22

Thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted to be in Rochester.

Speaker 23:25

Thanks for listening to Growing Destinations, brought to you by Experience Rochester. If you enjoyed today's episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it. And if you're planning your next getaway, weekend trip or conference destination, discover everything happening in Rochester, Minnesota. Because this isn't the Rochester you think you know. This is Rochester, really. Learn more at ExperienceRochestermn.com.