Secrets of the City + MNSpeak + MSP Magazine + Ciceron = ♥

This just in: Secrets of the City joins Mpls. St.Paul Magazine and MNSpeak moves to Ciceron. Taylor Carik explains:

Through the rest of this week, as the Secrets brand integrates more and more with MSP Magazine, you’ll see some changes on this site, which will stay at this web address. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine editors will contribute news to Secrets of the City from their specific areas of expertise, including food and dining, arts and entertainment and local lifestyle. Later this summer mspmag.com will be re-launching with new daily content, including city news from Secrets of the City.

Also starting this week, MNSpeak will be moving under the watchful eyes of old-timer MNSpeaker, Andrew Eklund (aeklund) and Karl Pearson-Cater (bigboxcar) at Ciceron, a digital strategy and social advocacy firm in the Twin Cities. Ciceron will be leading the charge for what the future holds for MNSpeak, re-imagining local content and conversation in the age of Facebook and Twitter.

Congratulations everybody and keep up the good work!

Via Secrets of the City and MNSpeak.
Submitted by @marrina.

LAST DAY to play Minneapolis Conquest!

If you haven't been following along, the objective of the game is to collect the Conquest Cards from multiple locations throughout the city and present them to Secrets of the City at tonight’s the MIA at Third Thursday by 7:30pm to win a glorious prize package!

Here are the last locations to pick up the Secrets of the City Conquest Cards.

Red Stag Supper Club! Merlin’s Rest! Cupcake! Manny’s Tortas at the Midtown Global Market!

There are still some cards available at the other locations: Patisserie 46, Victory 44, The Red Stag Supper Club, The Inn Restaurant and Bar, The Bryant Lake Bowl, Angry Catfish Bike & Coffee Bar!

via Secrets of the City on Twitter

Let the Games Begin! Conquest Day 1

Via Secrets of the City

Ok, let the game begin! Here are the first locations to pick up the Secrets of the City Conquest Cards:

The Red Stag Supper Club!

The Inn Restaurant and Bar!

The Bryant Lake Bowl!

Angry Catfish Bike & Coffee Bar!

We’ve dropped a limited amount of cards (that look like pic in this post) at each location, and each location has a different style card. For example, Angry Catfish has the “Nokomis” card and The Inn has the “Downtown” card. Ask someone at the location for the cards; the cards aren’t hidden, so don’t go tearing up the joint looking for them.

The objective of the game is to collect the Conquest Cards from multiple locations throughout the city and present them to us at the MIA at Third Thursday THIS Thursday, December 16th by 7:30pm.

Whoever presents the most Conquest Cards cards at the MIA wins a prize pack that includes framed art from local artists including Adam Turman, Studio on Fire, Allen Brewer and more, as well as a hipster dinosaur t-shirt from Kara Hendershots and $100 worth of gift cards to local restaurants. (If a tie occurs, we’ll do a random drawing of the participants with the most cards.)

Secrets of the City Presents: Conquest

As a part of their Third Thursday partnership with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, our friends at Secrets of the City are hosting a city-wide game that starts on Monday and ends at the MIA’s Third Thursday event on December 16th.

“Secrets of the City Conquest Cards” have been delivered to businesses in several parts of Minneapolis, and the locations will be announced on Twitter starting on Monday, the 13th. The objective of the game is to collect the Conquest Cards from multiple locations throughout the city and present them at the MIA at Third Thursday by 7:30pm.

See details here.

Submitted by @marrina.

Poster Offensive Giveaway & Social Media challenge

A very cool giveaway is happening tomorrow that you need to know about! Here are the deets:

Our pals over at Secrets of the City got their hands on a Poster Offensive #5 print that they're giving away with a $50 gift card to Cara Irish Pubs (ie-the Liffey, Kieran’s, and the Local).

They are going to use the random clock generator to pick a time around lunch tomorrow (Oct 29th) and whoever has commented on mnspeak or retweeted them closest to that time wins the print and gift card.

Poster Offensive opening reception is happening tomorrow night at Frank Stone Gallery in Northeast Minneapolis.

Submitted by @marrina.

Taylor Carik takes over MNSpeak/Secrets of the City

Today it was officially announced that social media dynamo Taylor Carik will be taking over Secrets of the City (formerly The Rake). We approve! Yours truly will even stick around as an editor. We're excited to see what Taylor does with the site, as he mentioned having it be more editorial content-heavy (read: Rake-like) once he gets organized. Personally, we're wishing for the return of the Vicious Circle, among other Rake-y goodness! What would you guys like to see return?

Matt Bartel posted this statement on MNSpeak today...

Dear MNSpeakers,

Today, the iron fist of the Bartel Cartel officially relinquishes control of Secrets of the City. Taylor Carik of |m|ediation and Bring Me the News will be taking over effective immediately. We’re excited to put the site in the capable hands of someone who has already been very active in the Twin Cities online community. Kate Iverson will also be sticking around to keep doing her daily Secrets thing. I’ll let Taylor tell you what else he has in store.

Thanks so much to all the people who have contributed posts and comments to MNSpeak over the years. And another big thanks to all the advertisers. I hope you’ll all stick around for a long time to come.

Peace out,

Matt and Kris

Submitted by @letoilemagazine

Secrets of the City/MNSpeak is for sale!

Hot on the heels of City Pages/Rake founder Tom Bartel's recent departure to Ecuador - with his wife/publishing partner, Kristin Henning following suit at the end of the month - the Secrets of the City/MNSpeak online empire (formerly The Rake) is up for grabs.

But Secrets/MNSpeak lovers don't despair: the site's editors Kate Iverson (who, yes, is also the editor of LOL/OMG and l'étoile) and Cristina Cordova (though she's planning a move to Puerto Rico very soon) plan to stick around for the immediate future - but they've declined offers to take over the administrative/financial aspects of the site. So, in other words: Secrets is looking for a motivated, like-minded group to grab the reigns and run with it! The site comes with a solid reader base, as well as with a plenty of opportunities to make moola for a dedicated investor and plenty of room for growth and expansion. The perfect opp for a social media-savvy business or collective to jump into the online media fray!

Matt posted on the site today offering:

• MNSpeak blog and archives
• Daily Secrets written by Kate Iverson
• A list of 8,000 opt-in email subscribers on the Daily Secrets and Weekly Deals lists
• The 5-year-old Theater All Year ticket program
• An event and restaurant database with over 2,600 local venues (including 800 restaurants)

Notes:

-We don’t necessarily need a single person or organization to take everything off our hands. We wouldn’t mind splitting off MNSpeak as a stand-alone site like back in the old days. The other assets are severable as well

-The email lists are only for sale to someone who intends to use them exactly as they are used now, for daily secrets and weekly deals.

Interested parties can contact honcho Matt Bartel at matt@secretsofthecity.com for more details. To hear what MNSpeak and Secrets readers are saying about the impending change, click HERE.

Is St. Paul anti-Mom?

The Daily Intel recently posted a list of The Best and Worst Cities for Moms and guess what: St. Paul came in dead last. (Wah Wah). Here are the somewhat confusing stats:

#200, St. Paul, MN

Moms-per-capita: 161 out of 200
Child care: 181 out of 200
Schools: 4 out of 10
Maternity care: 200 out of 200
Pampering: 123 out of 200

But hey, as reader Molly Washam said in her e-mail to LOL/OMG "At least you can console yourselves (and moms) at The St. Paul Grill!" which was named the "Best Mother's Day Brunch" spot.

Via e-mail and Secrets of the City.

Submitted by @marrina.

Who's that girl?

Lookie, lookie! Our own Kate Iverson made it to the list of Twin Cities Top Ten Titans in Social Media compiled by Judy Grundstrom of JustJudyJudyJudy blog.

Kate was nominated for her work with l’etoile magazine, Secrets Of The City, the651.com and several awards she got this year for being totally kick-ass. Some pretty clever peeps made it to the list which makes this recognition even more relevant.

But you know what the best thing about it is? This sketch:
How cute is that?? Congratulations Kate!

Submitted by @marrina