Iowa Capital Dispatch celebrates 5th anniversary

Iowa Capitol on Jan. 10, 2024. (Photo by Kathie Obradovich/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Iowa Capital Dispatch on Tuesday marked the fifth anniversary of its launch on Jan. 7, 2020.

I never imagined back then that we would be where we are today.

Here are a few milestones:

• Iowa Capital Dispatch was the 10^th news site launched by States Newsroom, which is now the largest nonprofit, state-focused news organization in the country. States Newsroom now operates newsrooms in 39 states and partners with other nonprofit news organizations in the other 11 states.
• Since our launch, we have published nearly 10,400 stories. Many were reports readers could find nowhere else. Some, like Clark Kauffman’s scoop in November 2020 about Tyson managers making bets on worker COVID-19 cases, made national and international news.
• The most-read story on our website, Nursing home administrator cited after man was locked outside overnight, illustrates some of the work Kauffman has done to single-handedly raise awareness of the horrific abuse and neglect taking place in some of Iowa’s nursing homes.
• Iowa Capital Dispatch was one of the first two digital media organizations admitted to the Iowa Newspaper Association. In 2023, we won the award for Best News Story, competing against the largest newspapers in the state: Iowa Newspaper Association Best News Story award in 2023: Town’s drinking water contamination returns after testing ends.
• Our membership has grown from a few hundred subscribers who signed up for our free daily newsletter before our launch to about 10,500 today.  But that is only a fraction of our readership, which includes more than 16 million pageviews on IowaCapitalDispatch.com and countless more who have read our stories republished by their community newspapers or broadcast stations.

It’s part of our mission at Iowa Capital Dispatch and in States Newsroom to share our content for free with other media and it’s one of the things that I love most about working here. “Community journalism for democracy” is our motto and that work has never been more vital. We give local news organizations a few more tools to do what they do best – cover important news in their communities.

Anelia Dimitrova, who spent 23 years as executive editor for Waverly newspapers, said it best: “What I think is most valuable about their coverage is that they keep focus on the issues at the state level and on important developments that smaller community news organizations do not have the capacity to cover,” she told States Newsroom. “The fact that the content is free for readers, and to news organizations interested in carrying it, is a great testament to their commitment to sharing their quality journalism, which ultimately benefits all. Their work is immensely valuable and deserves special recognition.”

It’s a testament to the hard work of our staff — Kauffman, Robin Opsahl, Brooklyn Draisey and Cami Koons – and other talented reporters who helped build this organization from the ground up, including Perry Beeman, Linh Ta, Katie Akin and Jared Strong.

I didn’t dare to dream of how quickly Iowans and legacy media outlets would embrace a startup, online news outlet as a trusted source for accurate, objective reporting. But I am not at all surprised by how many Iowans still have an appetite for news about public policy, health care, agriculture and the environment and education.

Iowans have stepped up from the beginning to support our not-for-profit mission with donations that are vital to our work. Without our donors, we would not be where we are today. A special thanks for your generosity and commitment to supporting community news.