Jay Weiner is a writer and editor based in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
His fourth book, “A More Dangerous Game: How a Young Sportswriter Met Patty Hearst and Landed in Federal Prison,” will be published later this year by the University of Minnesota Press.
Weiner spent over 30 years in daily journalism, focusing on off-the-field sports issues, particularly the public financing of sports facilities. He was one of the nation's leading Olympic reporters, covering every Winter and Summer Games from 1984 to 2010. In the final years of his journalism career, Weiner shifted his focus to political reporting.
His coverage of the 2008 Al Franken-Norm Coleman Minnesota U.S. Senate recount earned Weiner the prestigious Frank Premack Public Affairs Journalism Award for breaking news, Minnesota’s highest honor in journalism.
The subsequent book about the recount, THIS IS NOT FLORIDA: How Al Franken Won the Minnesota Senate Recount, was published in October 2010 and was nominated for a 2011 Minnesota Book Award.
The Star Tribune of Minneapolis was Weiner’s long-time professional home. He also worked at Long Island Newsday and MinnPost, the Twin Cities public affairs website. He regularly contributed to Minnesota Public Radio and Twin Cities Public Television’s “Almanac” public affairs program.
Weiner became the speechwriter to the University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler in 2011. After a seven-year stint at the ‘U,’ Weiner jumped to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He managed the content on the Bank’s vibrant website and helped launch “For All,” the magazine of the Minneapolis Fed’s Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute.
In 2000, he authored the book Stadium Games: Fifty Years of Big League Greed and Bush League Boondoggles.
His book, Professor Berman: The Last Lecture of Minnesota’s Greatest Public Historian, was published in 2019. It’s the posthumous memoir of the late, entertaining, and beloved University of Minnesota scholar Hy Berman.
In 2004-05, he was a Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and, from 2005-2007, an adjunct journalism professor at the University of Minnesota.
He attended Oberlin College, where he studied under noted and controversial sports sociologist Jack Scott. He graduated from Temple University in 1975.
Jay can be reached at jayweiner@gmail.com.