Projects

White Papers

Martin, Christopher R. (2020), What Makes Iowa Newspapers Resilient?

This study investigates why some dailies, weeklies, and news organizations in Iowa are more resilient than others, particularly in a time of financial distress brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The findings are based on interviews with editors, publishers, and general managers of eight newspapers and digital publications in Iowa. The report also relies on data from the Iowa Newspaper Association. The study finds that 10 dimensions contribute most to resiliency: local ownership, centrality of journalism to the business, nonprofit status, nonprofit funding support, diversified business, commitment to community, the health of the local economy, little/no reduction of newsroom staff, historic reputation and civic institution status, and the lack of competing local media. The study considers additional factors that may help struggling newspapers, including employee stock ownership plan structures to maintain local ownership, and postal subsidies to reduce expenses for small newspapers that use the postal service almost exclusively for distribution.

This paper is made possible by a generous grant from the Knight Foundation; the Center for Journalism & Liberty, a project of the Open Markets Institute, has been a part of the Knight Research Network since August 2019. This paper was edited by Michael Bluhm, Open Markets’ managing editor.

Dreier, Peter and Martin, Christopher R., ““Job Killers”in the News: Allegations without Verification” (2012). Faculty Publications. 1.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/com_facpub/1

A comprehensive study analyzes the frequency of the “job killer” term in four mainstream news media since 1984, how the phrase was used, by whom, and—most importantly— whether the allegations of something being a “job killer” were verified by reporters in their stories.

Dreier, Peter and Martin, Christopher R., “Manipulating the Public Agenda: Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong” (2009). Faculty Publications. 2.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/com_facpub/2