{"id":23763,"date":"2021-07-16T10:01:55","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T17:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=films&#038;p=23763"},"modified":"2025-10-14T15:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:19:13","slug":"storm-lake","status":"publish","type":"films","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/storm-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Does American democracy survive without the backbone of independent local journalism? Go inside The Storm Lake Times, a family-run newspaper serving an Iowa town that has seen its share of changes in the 40 years since Big Agriculture came to the area. Pulitzer-winning editor Art Cullen and his team dedicate themselves to keeping the paper alive as local journalism across the country dies out. Go inside The Storm Lake Times, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper serving an Iowa town that has seen its fair share of changes in the 40 years since Big Agriculture came to the area. Editor Art Cullen and his family dedicate themselves to keeping the paper alive as local journalism across the country dies out. &quot;}\" data-sheets-userformat=\"{&quot;2&quot;:15293,&quot;3&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:0},&quot;5&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:[{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;5&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:0}},{&quot;1&quot;:0,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;3&quot;:3},{&quot;1&quot;:1,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;4&quot;:2}]},&quot;6&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:[{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;5&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:0}},{&quot;1&quot;:0,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;3&quot;:3},{&quot;1&quot;:1,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;4&quot;:2}]},&quot;7&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:[{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;5&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:0}},{&quot;1&quot;:0,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;3&quot;:3},{&quot;1&quot;:1,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;4&quot;:2}]},&quot;8&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:[{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;5&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:0}},{&quot;1&quot;:0,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;3&quot;:3},{&quot;1&quot;:1,&quot;2&quot;:0,&quot;4&quot;:2}]},&quot;10&quot;:1,&quot;11&quot;:4,&quot;12&quot;:0,&quot;14&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:3,&quot;3&quot;:1},&quot;15&quot;:&quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;16&quot;:11}\">Does American democracy survive without the backbone of independent local journalism? Go inside <em>The Storm Lake Times<\/em>, a family-run newspaper serving an Iowa town that has seen its share of changes in the 40 years since Big Agriculture came to the area. Pulitzer-winning editor Art Cullen and his team dedicate themselves to keeping the paper alive as local journalism across the country dies out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Update<\/b>\u00a0(April 11, 2022): The number of local\u00a0news publishing companies in\u00a0Buena Vista County and Cherokee County in Iowa\u00a0recently declined with the purchase of\u00a0the<i>\u00a0Pilot-Tribune\u00a0<\/i>and the\u00a0<i>Cherokee Chronicle Times by\u00a0<\/i>The Storm Lake Times Company. While the\u00a0<i>Cherokee Chronicle Times<\/i>\u00a0will remain as is,\u00a0<i><a title=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https:\/www.stormlake.com\/articles\/storm-lake-times-buys-pilot-tribune-and-ad-guide\/__;!!Ppj8HQ!MhO56MUm-Qq65YTBYghcJN7hkpvvI2RJxI0p7bawenp3lxvgh3eFPHOa6T4czwiMImfUuafW3iI-e_Hf$\" href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https:\/www.stormlake.com\/articles\/storm-lake-times-buys-pilot-tribune-and-ad-guide\/__;!!Ppj8HQ!MhO56MUm-Qq65YTBYghcJN7hkpvvI2RJxI0p7bawenp3lxvgh3eFPHOa6T4czwiMImfUuafW3iI-e_Hf$\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https:\/www.stormlake.com\/articles\/storm-lake-times-buys-pilot-tribune-and-ad-guide\/__;!!Ppj8HQ!MhO56MUm-Qq65YTBYghcJN7hkpvvI2RJxI0p7bawenp3lxvgh3eFPHOa6T4czwiMImfUuafW3iI-e_Hf$&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1649806208898000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0DgYBz79QKaIr-qUF8e0T3\">The Storm Lake Times<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>has\u00a0merged\u00a0with the<i>\u00a0Pilot-Tribune\u00a0<\/i>into a single publication,\u00a0<i>The Storm Lake Times Pilot.\u00a0<\/i>The\u00a0new\u00a0paper reports that\u00a0&#8220;all staffers were offered jobs at the same or better pay,&#8221; and that the new publication will contain more advertising and pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does American democracy survive without the backbone of independent local journalism? Go inside The Storm Lake Times, a family-run newspaper serving an Iowa town that has seen its share of changes in the 40 years since Big Agriculture came to the area. Pulitzer-winning editor Art Cullen and his team dedicate themselves to keeping the paper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":23850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1253,1225,1983,1226],"class_list":["post-23763","films","type-films","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-climate-change-2","topic-politics-and-government","topic-science","topic-social-justice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Storm Lake | Family-Run Newspaper Keeps Local Journalism Alive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Inside a family-run newspaper keeping local journalism alive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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