The Truth About Iowa

A down-to-earth daily covers the Hawkeye State like corn

First they study the paper for signs and portents. Later they make a pilgrimage to the Des Moines Register and Tribune Building. Candidates seek the paper's blessing and pray for its endorsement. Out-of-town journalists beg background and clues. The Iowa presidential caucuses are just six weeks away, and for the moment the Des Moines Register is just about the most closely read and eagerly courted newspaper in the land.

The Register has everyone's attention because it is Iowa's only statewide paper (27% of all Iowa families subscribe, 40% on Sunday), with the power to define issues and influence election results. It is also sophisticated, readable and not at all bashful about its leadership role. Says David Oman, press secretary to Iowa Governor Robert Ray: "They feel they have a mission to set the agenda for Iowa and to prod the state on important issues."

Lately the Register has been making some national headlines of its own by sponsoring a debate between leading Democrats on Jan. 7 (G.O.P. contenders meet two days earlier). The Register initially invited President Carter and Senator Edward Kennedy but not Jerry Brown; the editors felt the California Governor was not mounting a serious challenge in Iowa. Protested Brown: "I'm troubled ... that in a free society I have to convince an editor that I'm a bona fide candidate." Nevertheless, Brown tried to do just that: he made several trips to the state, set up a campaign committee, met with the newspaper's editorial board and generally paid the Hawkeye State the kind of homage that the Register felt was fitting and proper. Last week the editors finally extended him an invitation.

The Register (circ. 209,000 daily; 392,500 Sunday) started getting its own way back in 1903 when Gardner Cowles Sr. bought the paper and began distributing it throughout the state. Its sister paper the Tribune (circ. 83,000) is distributed primarily in Des Moines and nearby counties. The Register has six news bureaus around Iowa, an elaborate stringer network and a large, aggressive contingent at the statehouse in Des Moines. Four reporters, two editorial writers, a columnist and an editor are assigned to Washington. They concentrate on topics that have special significance back in Iowa, most notably farm issues. Bureau Chief James Risser won Pulitzer Prizes in 1976 (writing about grain-export corruption) and in 1979 (for stories about soil conservation). The Iowa staff has exposed substandard conditions in old-age homes, written extensively about railroad safety problems and tangled with insurance companies. Politics gets blanket coverage year round. "We're loaded with political junkies," says Editor and President Michael G. Gartner. "We cover the hell out of the state. We smother it."

The Register contains a lot of the bright, breezy writing of the sort found in the Wall Street Journal, which is not surprising since both Gartner and Executive Editor James Gannon are Journal alumni. Reporters are encouraged to write imaginatively about offbeat and humorous subjects. After two weeks in Cedar Rapids, for example, the new Register bureau chief filed a delightful yarn about how the city's street plan made it impossible to go north. This kind of creative license adds to the esprit de corps in the newsroom. Says Managing Editor David Witke: "For many of the people on the staff, the Register is the place they most wanted to work when they were young. This is the place they hoped to end up at."

Ambitious journalism requires a thoughtful audience, and Iowa's population is well educated (it has one of the highest literacy rates, 99.5%, in the U.S.), affluent and increasingly cultivated. Chief Political Reporter James Flansburg, who patiently shares his expertise with hordes of out-of-state journalists, says he writes for "the boys around the stove in my father's hardware store in Tiffin, Iowa. You have to speak plainly or get your ass chewed." The boys, he quickly adds, are sophisticated businessmen who run farms worth millions of dollars. Says Gartner: "The Register reader cares more about news and current events than people in other places."

Politically, Iowa is a fairly progressive state, closer in outlook to liberal Minnesota and Wisconsin than conservative Kansas or Indiana. Even so, the Register is a couple of steps to the left of Iowa opinion. Says Editorial Page Editor Gil Cranberg: "If I hated the paper as much as some of our letter writers do, I don't know why I would buy it." The paper favors abortion on demand, gun control and SALT II. It strongly supports Governor Ray, a moderate Republican, and pushed hard last year for the re-election of Senator Dick Clark, a liberal Democrat. The day after Clark was defeated, the Register published an editorial entitled "The Best Man Lost." Says Publisher David Kruidenier, grandson of Gardner Cowles Sr.: "I now regret it. We sounded like poor losers and were second-guessing the people."

The Register's circulation has declined some in recent years, mostly because fewer families find they can afford it along with their local evening paper. It is also being pinched hard by inflation and high energy costs. "The newspaper was built on the idea of cheap gas, cheap newsprint and cheap reporters," says Gartner. "It's a new game now." Fortunately, though, the paper can count on some old and deep loyalties. Explains Reporter David Yepsen: "The Register is part of the Iowa experience, like tall corn and snow days home from school."

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