Iowa’s Newspapers Connect You to What Matters

Welcome to IowaNewspaperConnection.com, a dynamic new site that brings you valuable information on the newspaper industry, as well as news of the day from around the state.

Take a minute to browse the site, learn about careers in the industry, myths about newspapers and much more. We hope you’ll enjoy this new offering brought to you by Iowa’s newspapers.

We’re Still the One!

Once AGAIN, a comScore study released in late April 2012 reiterates that, once mores, the latest studies reinforce the continued strength and vitality of newspapers and newspaper websites.

Newspapers and newspaper websites… your newspaper and its website are the ‘value collection’… a content combination of local news and advertising, interacting with the community in a timely and up to date manner, with a unique, trusted and well established brand that delivers simple, identifiable and measurable response and results day after day or week after week.

Postal Service Holds Back on Closures

WASHINGTON – The United States Postal Service said Wednesday that it wanted to keep hundreds of small post offices open with reduced hours, whittling down its ambitious plan  to streamline its services and balance its books. It said it would also offer early retirement incentives on a voluntary basis to tens of thousands of employees.

Giving Congress more time to consider alternatives, the service held back from the wholesale closures of thousands of mostly rural post offices or slowing down mail delivery, as it had proposed earlier.

Millennials and Print Newspapers: A Surprising Story

Reports on the media habits of Millennials, those “digital negatives”, have given some the impression that young people never read newspapers. However, survey evidence stubbornly insists that they do. For instance, the recent Pew State of the News Media study notes that 23% of people aged 18-24  reported reading a newspaper yesterday.

[Continue reading...]

Newspaper Boom In Asia Defies Trends In West

While the print newspaper industry has been crippled in developed western countries which are battling digital alternatives, Asian countries are actually witnessing a major boom in newspaper paid circulation.

[Continue reading...]

Bill adding teeth to Iowa’s open-records law has new life

A six-year battle in the Legislature to create an Iowa Public Information Board has renewed life,thanks to a new floor manager for the bill with a “strong desire” to move it forward. “I think the time’s come for this bill to move forward. Six years is long enough,” state Rep. Walt Rogers,R-Cedar Falls, said Wednesday. [...]

[Continue reading...]

Study finds frequent newspaper readers are more trusting

PULLMAN, Wash. – A study out of Washington State University shows that people who are frequent readers of a daily newspaper tend to be more trusting of others than those who read newspapers less frequently. The effect holds for both residents of small towns and big cities, even though researchers found small town residents are [...]

[Continue reading...]

How people learn about their local community

  According to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, contrary to much of the conventional understanding of how people learn about their communities, Americans turn to a wide range of platforms to get local news and information. Where they turn varies considerably depending [...]

[Continue reading...]

Small towns: Where newspapers thrive

Some 8,000 weekly papers hit front porches and mailboxes in small towns across America every week. Of course, most of these newspapers are not uncovering major scandals on a regular basis. That’s not what keeps them selling at such a good clip; it’s the steady stream of news that readers can only get from that [...]

[Continue reading...]

The 25 most moving 9/11/11 front pages

This morning Poynter released a collection of The 25 most moving 9/11/11 front pages use type, color, photos, illustration to evoke memories. This collection includes two Iowa newspapers including The Sioux City Journal and The Des Moines Register. The front pages used tower imagery, illustrations, flags and iconic photography to capture the memories and emotions [...]

[Continue reading...]

Winnipeg Free Press Opens News Cafe

The Winnipeg Free Press in Winnipeg Canada has set up a cafe downtown where members of the public can stop in for lunch and maybe a quick chat with the paper’s multimedia reporter and editor. Though the working environment is unusual, it is done for the constant contact with the readers. New media engagement is [...]

[Continue reading...]