It’s been an extremely difficult year for the newspaper industry, and Iowa has not been immune. Layoffs, cut backs, company losses and furloughs have ruled the day at all of Iowa’s largest newspapers.

The trade journal Editor and Publisher has manged to finally bring some good news to Iowa journalists with its annual “10 That Do It Right” awards highlighting papers from around the country that “are doing one particular thing very well (sometimes more than one thing), and merit recognition for that effort and achievement.”

The Sioux City Journal’s efforts to provide news that gives readers “something to talk about” in the paper and online  won it a spot on the 2009 list, compiled by staff of E&P.

Sioux City (Iowa) Journal
Latin American and European newspapers have proven so much more interested in applying the findings of The Readership Institute than U.S. publishers that the research center suspended domestic operations. But in the American heartland, the 40,000-circulation Sioux City (Iowa) Journal proves every day that one “readership driver” identified by the Institute works.

When Editor Mitch Pugh arrived at the Lee Enterprises-owned Journal in 2007, he focused the 32-person newsroom on giving readers “something to talk about” in the paper and online. The Journal already had a couple of very popular local columnists with a knack for finding the engaging, sometimes irreverent, stories that get readers talking. “It just was not part of the everyday DNA of the newsroom,” Pugh says. It is now.

In the past 12 months, according to researchers Tom Wilkerson & Associates, Journal readership is up about 5% on weekdays and 6% on Sundays. Total market reach increased 5.3%, and the number of readers accessing its Web site “yesterday” jumped 86%.

It has been a particularly tough few years for the Journal’s owner, Davenport-based Lee Enterprises. In June, the company reported a $24.5 million quarterly loss and a drop in ad sales of 24 percent. The company owns numerous papers in Iowa, including the Quad-City Times, Waterloo Courier and the Mason City Globe Gazette.