I recently saw an online ad for what was posted as “the last copy of the Des Moines Tribune” for $3, so I bought it. I spent the rest of the evening scouring every line in every story on every page. I was mesmerized.
The date on the publication was Sept. 25, 1982. A banner across the top said, “So long! It’s been good to know you.”
This last edition of the Des Moines Tribune was the only Tribune I have ever seen. I started working at The Des Moines Register in 1990 — less than eight years after the afternoon paper ceased — but the Tribune was hardly mentioned and never seen. Some copies may have been stowed away in the Register’s library archives, but I never saw them.
What I did see when reading the last issue of the Tribune a few days ago was a really good afternoon newspaper, something I would guess was sorely missed by those who relied on it each day. It was “scrappy” and “lively” and “sassy.” Those are words not used to describe many newspapers today. It was also “struggling,” which, unfortunately, IS a descriptor for many of today’s remaining daily newspapers.
Frank Miller’s front-page editorial cartoon was simply a feather quill with “The Tribune” on it, showing one final drip of ink.
Beanie Zwart. Walt Shotwell. Mark Hansen. Bill Bryson. Herb Owens. Gordon Gammack. Lil McLaughlin. These and others left their mark on the pages of the Des Moines Tribune. And so did more than 185 full-time employees in news, promotion, circulation and production operations at the Register and Tribune who were let go when the paper folded, or “merged” with The Des Moines Register.
That final edition of the Tribune was printed in two sections with a total of 36 pages. I counted more than 115 local display ads and six pages of tight classifieds in type so small I could not read it. In comparison, I counted 15 ads in Friday’s Des Moines Register of 28 pages, and very few of those ads were local.
Then-publisher Gary Gerlach, who had the difficult job of closing the 75-year-old newspaper, wrote of “some terrible truths” about the demise of the Des Moines Tribune. Other sources reported the afternoon newspaper lost $618,000 in its final three months. Several stories in the paper boasted of the Tribune’s peak circulation of 147,000. None mentioned the circulation at its close.
But, even in its final issue, the paper had a full page of church news, incredible high school sports coverage, useful TV listings and more than two dozen ads for movies. Its pages measured 14 inches by 23.75 inches and had only “spot” color on a handful of pages. Annual subscriptions were $1 per week, and the single copy price was 25 cents.
An old saying says, “What goes around comes around,” and I learned a great deal by reading that last issue of the Tribune. Despite its financial woes, those involved with the paper did a lot of things right, and — 42 years later — their efforts are still sparking some ideas for this scrappy and sassy publisher.
Have a great week, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305 | 
