Covering Iowa The history of the Des Moines Register and Tribune company, 1849-1985

Friedericks competently traces the origins of the renowned DesMoines Register, which eventually garnered 15 Pulitzer prizes and was marked by its pioneer use of scientific polling, to a small frontier weekly. In 1870, the Clarkson family acquired the Register, initiating "a new era in Iowa journalism"; the newspaper championed the Republican Party and became "the most influential" publication in the state. The Register endorsed the Grange movement but opposed the Populist Party, backed Prohibition, and displayed some sympathy toward women's suffrage. In late 1903, the Register was purchased by banker Gardner Cowles; editor Harvey Ingham offered a more liberal editorial policy backing progressivism, civil rights for African Americans, and an internationalist foreign policy. Still supportive of the Republican Party, the newspaper nevertheless supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt's efforts to widen American involvement in international affairs. In the early postwar period, the Register continued championing civil rights, favored a pragmatic foreign policy, and criticized Joseph McCarthy. Increasingly, the Register confronted competition from other media, faced mounting expenses, and wrestled with technological changes. Experiencing reduced profits, the Register was sold in 1985 to Gannett, which targeted central Iowa alone for the paper. Upper-division undergraduates and above. R. C. Cottrell; California State University, Chico