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Support IowaWatch Journalism With A Tax-Deductible Donation

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The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism is in an ambitious year in which it wants to engage Iowans in news that affects their lives. You can support that effort with a tax-deductible donation. The Center, founded in 2010 and distributing news through its website, IowaWatch.org, and various news outlets statewide, is the only non-profit, non-partisan news and student training organization of its kind in Iowa. With its three-fold mission: public service, education, and sustainability, the center is dedicated to:

Long-form, in depth investigative and public affairs journalism. Collaborating with other news media on local, state, regional and national level
Being transparent about its work and its funding sources.

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Listen To The Podcast Of IowaWatch’s Most Recent WMT Appearance

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One of WMT radio talk show host Bob Bruce’s guests the afternoon of May 17, 2014, was IowaWatch’s executive director-editor, Lyle Muller. They talked about a variety of topics including, at the end of the program, IowaWatch’s stories about college debt in Iowa. You can listen to a podcast of the program here. Advertising in the podcast is WMT’s, not IowaWatch’s. IowaWatch is part of the 501(c)(3) non-profit Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism.

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IowaWatch Journalists Win Regional SPJ Reporting Awards

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IowaWatch reporters Katie Kuntz and Sarah Hadley have won regional Society of Professional Journalists’ (SPJ) regional Mark of Excellence Awards for stories they did in 2013 for IowaWatch.org and news outlets that published their stories.  Their awards were announced at a regional meeting April 25-26 in Overland Park, Kan. Additionally, former IowaWatch reporter Katelynn McCollough won first place for breaking news for work she did as a reporter at the Iowa State Daily newspaper, where is has been editor-in-chief this school year. Winning first place in the regional contest makes these journalists eligible for national Mark of Excellence awards, to be announced May 6. These winners were from the SPJ’s Region 7, which comprises Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. IowaWatch provides mentorship to college students in Iowa who want to be journalists and helps in getting their work published by newspapers and news web sites, and exposed through broadcast outlets.

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Listen To The Most Recent Podcast Of IowaWatch On KXIC Radio

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IowaWatch’s co-founder Stephen Berry and digital analyst/journalist Lauren Mills were guests on KXIC radio’s Your Town show the morning of April 15. Their topics: work Berry’s University of Iowa journalism and mass communication students are doing in one of his classes that ends up at IowaWatch, and stories on which Mills has been working. This is the KXIC podcast. Any advertising is part of the KXIC webcast and broadcast, not from IowaWatch.

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Commentary: Public Records Requests Shouldn’t Start With Costs

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The request seemed simple: provide your school district’s policy for handling emergencies that require a school lockdown and notifying parents. No one responded the way the Iowa City Community School District did. “Per your request and prior to starting the process, I wanted to inform you that the fee for the work will more than likely be between $25.00-$50.00…”

Center News

Grant To Help IowaWatch Engagement Audiences, Build Business Model

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IowaWatch has won a two-year $25,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Local Media Initiative that will help IowaWatch build audience engagement in the news its covers. This grant will help build a financially sustainable system of providing non-profit, online news in Iowa that has impact on communities. The grant will be paid in one-year increments of $12,500 each. IowaWatch aims to be able to sustain itself while producing the same high quality content that engages Iowans in important discussions that affect them. Through grants such as these IowaWatch is able to continue these efforts.

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Donate To IowaWatch In Time For A 2013 Tax Deduction

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DONATE HERE
The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism seeks your financial support of nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative and public affairs journalism. The Center, founded in 2010 and distributing news through its website, IowaWatch.org, and several respected news outlets statewide, is the only non-profit, non-partisan news and student training organization of its kind in Iowa. With its three-fold mission: investigative journalism as a public service, education, and sustainability, the center is dedicated to:

Long-form, in depth investigative and public affairs journalism. Collaborating with other news media on local, state, regional and national level
Being transparent about its work and its funding sources. Training college students in Iowa to do a high level of reporting that can be published on professional platforms.

The Center has received major grants totaling $200,000 over two years from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, plus grants from the Nicholas B. Ottaway Foundation, SourceMedia Group of Iowa (The Gazette Co.), Woodward Communications, the Burlington Hawk Eye, the Community Foundation of Johnson County, and the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

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In Memoriam: IowaWatch Director Richard Tapscott

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Richard Tapscott, a respected Iowa journalist and original member of the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism board of directors, died of cancer Sunday. He was 65. Tapscott was the board’s vice president. An adjunct professor since 2007 at Drake University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Des Moines, his was a storied career that included serving as managing editor at The Des Moines Register. Tapscott became ill in late October and required emergency surgery.