You speak, Gazette responds

You need more local news and events of the surrounding Eastern Iowa communities, a Gazette customer writes. "Too much Cedar Rapids and Iowa City."

Another writes:

"There are many interesting and good things happening in our rural communities that could be featured more."

These are in a sampling of comments I'm responding to in my Sunday, Jan. 24, Gazette column on a mailbag day.

I appreciate the calls for more regional news. Their roots come from The Gazette's long history of covering news of interest to Eastern Iowans in a 16-county area where we deliver.

Keep in mind that the vast majority of our readers are from the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas and we are obligated to be their local newspaper, with news relevant to them. However, we want to get to your towns through Eastern Iowa to cover news of interest to all of our readers.

We won't cover your city council for you -- plenty of local weekly newspapers exist for that. Plus, my experience has been that the most up-to-date local news in a rural Eastern Iowa town usually is delivered much better locally than in the Cedar Rapids newspaper.

How do I know this? Because that's how it was when I grew up in the Clayton County town of Farmersburg, where the town news was distributed at school functions, church, the gas station, locker and tavern, and not necessarily in that order.

But a lot of things people should know happen in small towns all over Eastern Iowa and we have a network of correspondents who can tell those stories. We're redoubling our efforts to make sure we have correspondents in the right place, mining stories.

In the past few months we've told you about how Manchester residents and business people have rallied to provide movie entertainment. Correspondent Virginia Sheets told me last week the theater was packed on a few nights earlier this month.

We also have told you in recent months about efforts to get more women on Decorah's Planning and Zoning Commission, a Central High School of Elkader graduate getting a high national honor in aviation, an increase in construction in Kalona, a new ethanol production plant in Vinton and discussions by the South Winneshiek and Turkey Valley school systems about sharing a superintendent.

Thanks for the feedback on letting us know how much we are valued outside of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

"I buy your paper for the puzzles, funnies and obituaries. The Sunday puzzle has gotten so difficult and absurd, it takes me days to finish and I have to cheat on most words," a frustrated subscriber writes.

I hear this from time to time. The Sunday puzzle often knocks me for a loop, too. However, a lot of people like a difficult puzzle. Last year the syndicate that gives us our crossword puzzles switched editors and readers noticed the change. I'd be interested in hearing from others on the Sunday puzzle.

"We discontinued your newspaper because you fail to print the truth to your subscribers. Unfortunately you and most of the newspapers in our country are 'in bed' with Obama and the lies he is telling."

I hear this from time to time, too, from people who don't want Obama to be president. As was the case with this reader, a lot of times it is from someone who says we would never know the truth without Fox News.

Setting aside that the reader is commenting from his or her own particular point of view and unaware of the stories they are missing because Fox News chooses not to air them, calling into question whether the newspaper presents pertinent facts in an unbiased manner is fair game. But the assertion is not true and reveals more about the reader's point of view than it does about the coverage.

We use Associated Press and the McClatchy-Tribune News Service for our national and international coverage. We try to chose from them stories that give people either a briefing of what's going on or supplemental information for news they already are getting from somewhere else. Our aim is to be informative so that you at least know what's going on as you form your own opinions.

I wonder how Obama is enjoying a supposed bed partner that is pointing out his difficulties explaining government bailouts that people are criticizing, putting together a health care reform package that critics think he's mishandled and keeping Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in the Republican Party.

"Your paper is doing better that it was -- more news in it and I'm real glad."

Thanks. 

"More Dr. Donahue and where is Heloise? Less comics."

Dr. Paul Donahue has settled into a regular Monday slot. We thought last spring we'd get him into the paper more but he is a good fit for Monday's Accent section, which focuses on health matters. Heloise won't be coming back, we dropped her last spring.

And,

less comics? Yikes, you're killing me. To the comics fans I've been hearing from this month: Want to weigh in on that one?