Stories

“Everyone you talk to [at the Des Moines Register] is nervous, is scared, is trying to figure out what’s going to happen next, and unfortunately a lot of the economic news we’re getting isn’t very promising,” Hollingsworth said.

Shane Goodman, publisher of the Des Moines alternative newsweekly Cityview, announced this week that what was thought to be a one time arrangement for fired Des Moines Register editorial cartoonist Brian Duffy to publish his parting shot at his former employer has become a regular feature in the paper.

Layoffs, as well as cuts to Democratic priorities like education, health care and renewable energy, are all on the table as Gov. Chet Culver looks to cut $60 million from the state budget.
“We’re going to go through this process this week and take the important steps we need to take to reduce spending,” Culver said. [...]

Des Moines CBS affiliate KCCI has laid off four employees and will not replace two who are retiring, citing slumping advertising revenues.
Among the jobs cut are those of meteorologist Jason Parkin, who has been with the station 10 years, and reporter Ryan Luby, who has only been with KCCI for six months. Both men’s biographies [...]

Fired Des Moines Register cartoonist Brian Duffy has published the farewell piece his former employer never gave him a chance to show to the public.
In this week’s issue of the Des Moines alternative newsweekly Cityview, Duffy was given a full page to publish a cartoon of his choice, according to the paper’s editor and publisher [...]

Gannett Co. CEO Craig Dubow told a Wall Street media conference that his company, which owns The Des Moines Register and Iowa City Press-Citizen, is prepared to cut even more newspaper jobs in 2009, according to Jim Hopkins at Gannett Blog.
Dubow made the comments at the UBS Investment Bank 36th Annual Global Media Conference in [...]

Principal Financial Group Inc. announced today that it will eliminate 550 jobs, including 300 in its Des Moines headquarters.

Fired Des Moines Register cartoonist Brian Duffy is talking to the media about his dismissal from the paper he’s worked at for a quarter century.
Duffy, whose job was one of 71 eliminated last week, spoke with Des Moines NBC affiliate WHO and CBS affiliate KCCI about his departure from the Register.
Despite working for the paper [...]

The 56 job cuts announced Wednesday are not the only changes taking place at “The Newspaper Iowa Depends Upon.”
The Des Moines Register will eliminate several annual special sections, most notably the RAGBRAI preview and RAGBRAI campground editions. This also includes most sports special sections, with one exception being the Iowa-Iowa State football game.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen has cut six full-time and five part-time workers, the paper announced Thursday.
The layoffs are in several departments including advertising, editorial, production, circulation and finance.