Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Fifth District Democratic congressional candidate Rob Hubler may be well behind U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, in fundraising, but the challenger expects big dividends from the strategic use of advertising in small and weekly newspapers, most notably with the insertion in the last few weeks of an 8-page “Congressional Voters Guide” in 75 papers in the territory he’s seeking to represent in Congress.
Hubler said in an interview Saturday that he developed the strategy after reading an Iowa Independent analysis about the power of community newspapers in shaping public opinion in rural Iowa.
“It gets away from the 30-second soundbites,” Hubler said. “It was me that was in there.”
Hubler’s campaign said it spent $16,000 on the community newspaper insert — which went in papers ranging from The Sioux City Journal and Carroll Daily Times Herald to weeklies.
Hubler said that unlike television commercials — which he is running, too — the newspapers have more shelf life.
“This is something that lies on people’s tables,” Hubler said.
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