The Minnesota Daily is entirely student-run and student-written, employing more than 150 students with the guidance of a general manager and the governance of its board of directors.

[1] The newspaper dually operates as a training institution, providing students with real work experience in journalism, photography, editing, advertising sales, marketing, finance, graphic design, editorial and advertising production, human resources, information systems, public relations, survey research and web programming.

[3] In 1899, another local newspaper called Football was started by Horace Bagley, Mike Luby and Clarence Miller.

There have been a number of notable individuals to work at the paper, including former NAACP leader Roy Wilkins,[5] longtime CBS correspondent Harry Reasoner,[6] radio personality Garrison Keillor[7] and musician Bob Dylan[citation needed].

The Minnesota Daily was the first college newspaper to provide access to its coverage via the Internet in 1990[citation needed].