The Des Moines Register is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa, in the United States. A separate edition of the Register is sold throughout much of Iowa. As of 2003, the Register has a circulation of 152,320 for the daily edition and 244,244 for the Sunday edition. [1]
History
The first newspaper in Des Moines, the Iowa Star, was founded in 1849. In 1855 the Iowa Citizen began publication; it was renamed the Iowa State Register in 1860. In 1902 the Register merged with the Des Moines Leader, a descendant of the Star, to become the Des Moines Register and Leader. In 1903, Des Moines banker Gardner Cowles purchased the Register and Leader; the name became the Des Moines Register in 1915. Cowles also acquired the Des Moines Tribune in 1908. The Tribune, which merged with the rival Des Moines News in 1924 and the Des Moines Capital in 1927, served as the evening paper for the Des Moines area until it ended publication on September 25, 1982.
Under the ownership of the Cowles family, the Register became Iowa's largest and most influential newspaper, eventually adopting the slogan "The Newspaper Iowa Depends Upon." Newspapers were distributed to all four corners of the state by train and later by truck as Iowa's highway system was improving. The Register employed reporters in cities and towns throughout Iowa, and it covered national and international news stories from an Iowa perspective, even setting up its own news bureau in Washington, D.C. During the 1960s, circulation of the Register peaked at nearly 250,000 for the daily edition and 500,000 for the Sunday edition – more than the population of Des Moines at the time. The Register & Tribune Company eventually acquired other American newspapers as well as radio and television stations, but almost all of them were sold to other companies by 1985.
In 1906 the first front-page editorial cartoon, illustrated by Jay Norwood Darling, was published; the tradition of front-page editorial cartoons continues today under Brian Duffy. In 1943 the Register became the first newspaper to sponsor a statewide opinion poll when it introduced the Iowa Poll, modeled after the national Gallup poll. Sports coverage was increased under sports editor Garner "Sec" Taylor – for whom Sec Taylor Field at Principal Park is named – in the 1920s. For many years the Register printed its sports sections on peach-colored paper, but that tradition ended for the daily paper in 1981 and for the Sunday Register's "Big Peach" in 1999. Another Register tradition – the sponsorship of RAGBRAI – began in 1973 when writer John Karras challenged columnist Donald Kaul to do a border-to-border bicycle ride across Iowa.
In 1985, faced with declining circulation and revenues, the Cowles family sold the Register & Tribune Company to Gannett. In 1990 the Register began to reduce its coverage of news outside of the Des Moines area by closing most of its Iowa news bureaus and ending carrier distribution to outlying counties. Although an "Iowa Edition" of the Register is still distributed throughout the state, the majority of the Register's news stories and editorials now focus on Des Moines and its suburbs. Given the reduced coverage of Iowa stories and the departure of several longtime columnists in recent years, many critics feel that the quality of the Register has declined under Gannett's ownership.
The Register opened a new printing and distribution facility on the south side of Des Moines in 2000. The newspaper's offices are located in downtown Des Moines.
Current Register columnists include Rob Borsellino, Rehka Basu, John Carlson, Marc Hansen, and political columnist David Yepsen.
Awards
The Register has won 15 Pulitzer Prizes over the years: [2]
References
- Friedricks, William B., Covering Iowa: The History of the Des Moines Register and Tribune Company, 1849-1985 (ISBN 0813826209). Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 2000.
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