The Des Moines Register's Future

The Iowa Independent reports:

It’s been a rough few months for the “Newspaper Iowa Depends Upon.”

Since August, Gannett Co. Inc., which owns The Des Moines Register, has eliminated 82 jobs at the paper. Names that had become familiar to Iowans, like Ken Fuson and Brian Duffy, and years of tradition were lost in the shadow of a national recession that exacerbated the woes of a newspaper industry already hurting from years of decline.

Overseeing the cuts locally was Laura Hollingsworth, who became president and publisher of the Register in September 2007. In June 2008, she was named group president of Gannett’s West Group, putting her in charge of 16 markets in the western region of the United States including Des Moines and Iowa City.

In an exclusive interview with the Iowa Independent, Hollingsworth discussed the recent layoffs, the Register’s future and the possibility of more painful choices in 2009.

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