Des Moines Register Outdoor Page??

[Bob Jensen]

Have you noticed that the Des Moines Register appears to have dropped the Outdoors Page from the Sports Section?? The past several weeks there has been no Outdoors Page, only an Outdoors Calendar and I believe the Solunar Tables. It is really strange that a newspaper that should be serving a large percentage of Iowans has chosen to ignore the outdoors. Hunting and fishing are more than hobbies for many Iowans, they are lifestyles. Have any of you noticed other newspapers reducing their outdoor coverage?

Perhaps Tom Kollings decision to leave the paper recently is indicative of the direction of the newspaper. Kollings was a true outdoors-guy who shared his actual in-field and on-the-water experiences with his readers. I and many other outdoors-people miss Kollings' weekly articles.

On the positive side, some of the smaller papers across Iowa are doing a great job with their Outdoors coverage. Dick Johnson at the Globe Gazette in Mason City assembles a very nice page every Friday, while our buddy Steve Weismann puts together a top-notch Outdoors Pages for several newspapers in northwest Iowa. The Charles City Press covers outdoors nicely, and the Waverly Newspapers do a similar job in Waverly Iowa, as does Larry Myhre in the Sioux City area.

It's too bad that the Des Moines Register chooses to ignore Iowa outdoors-people. Letters could perhaps convince them to change their mind, but, unfortunately, outdoors-people too often won't write letters. Maybe we could get some e-mails to them however. If you feel the decision to ignore anglers and hunters in Iowa is a bad idea, contact Randy Brubaker at brubakerr@news.dmreg.com

[buzzer IA]

Hey Bob,
One of the reasons that I don't get the Quad City Times anymore is the fact that they dropped their Outdoor page as well..The guys name that used to do it was Ross Bilema, I beleive, and although he was no Doug Stange, he still covered fishing, hunting, and other related items (ie:Morels in the spring, recipes, etc.) as well as reports from the local and area bait dealers..
Don't understand the thinking of some of the editors and publishers who don't realize the impact of their decisions not to cater to the outdoor folks who look forward to part of a page of useful info from their "local" news sources..Guess they'd rather use the paper space for national ads, or print up the school menus for the week..

[Walizz]

Sounds as bad as The Appleton Post Crescent here in WI. The Sunday outdoor page usually consists of a writer recalling a deer his neighbor hit with his car or some such nonsense. The entire Winnebago system is in the circulation area and we never see a local fishing report. The Mercury National and Otter Street tournaments (with over 300 entries each) get very little,if any coverage. This area is home to several PWT, RCL, MWC and some top notch local anglers. Gary Gray lives here and I never saw a mention of his Angler of the Year title. I offered to take one of the writers out one time and I know others have too. I guess they just don't care. Oh well, gotta go check the local soccer, golf and bowling scores. Thanks for listening.

[s.f.]

i have had this "lack of outdoors coverage" with many editors, including the mpls. startribune which is in the middle of outdoors america. they seem convinced, even though the demographics prove overwhelmingly otherwise, that the interest just isn't within their
readership. someone simply has to educate the ad agencies that represent the big corporations that infact the demographics of the fishing/hunting populations around the country are even bigger than golf. ad money talks.

[genio]

Bob, I beleive the Des Moines Register stop caring about the outdoors a couple years ago. Even before Tom retired, there seemed to be a decline on outdoor stories. Remember it was about three years ago that Larry Stone also left the paper.
Here in Northern Minnesota we are blessed with many paper with gifted writers. The Duluth News Tribune has Sam Cook and Larry Meyers. The newspapers in Grand Rapids, Virginia, Ely, Grand Marias, Branierd etc: all do well for the outdoors person. Plus we also have access to the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Pioneer Press. There are a number of radio and TV stations that carry weekly programs towards the outdoors.

Also on the wall in my computer room I have a plate from the April 12, 1992 Sunday Des Moines Register of a story Tom Kolling did on "Cold Weather Crappie" on Saylorville lake with Marty Lamberti, me and Tom. On that day Tom lived up to his nick name..."Cold Front Kollings".

If any one wants go to www.outdoorspressroom.com and check the outdoor pages. There will be newspapers that have outdoor pages from around the USA.

Gene in Duluth