Buena vista county’s hometown newspaper online edition
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A tradition of pride and community service
The Storm Lake Times published its inaugural issue on Friday, June 29, 1990,
with a full-time staff of just three persons in a 20-by-20 foot one-room office
at 521 Michigan Street.
Within a year the weekly newspaper rapidly outgrew the tiny office and moved to
larger quarters at 210 East Fifth Street, across from the courthouse. The paper’s circulation had increased from an initial 1,800 to nearly 4,000 copies every
Friday. At first the paper was printed at Buena Vista Stationery and Printing,
but with the growing number of pages and the need for color photographs,
printing was moved to the LeMars Daily Sentinel.
In March 1993 The Times began publishing daily, the first in The City Beautiful’s 120-year history. Three weeks later the other newspaper in town also went
daily, and for 10 months Storm Lake attracted national attention as the
smallest city in America with competing daily newspapers.
Coinciding with The Times’ switch to daily publication was construction of our new office and printing
plant at Times Square, which could accommodate our own six-unit Harris offset
press.
Heeding the voices of readers who thought there wasn’t enough news for a daily newspaper, The Times switched to twice-weekly
publication in January 1994. Several years later our competitor followed our
lead and gave up daily publishing as well.
In November 2001 The Times switched from our familiar tabloid format to
broadsheet because of increasing pressure within the newspaper industry to
standardize page sizes. The move to a larger page was welcomed by readers and
advertisers alike.
The Storm Lake Times has always been at the forefront of newspaper technology.
We were the first newspaper in Iowa to be composed entirely on computer (called
“pagination”), now nearly all are. We were also one of the first newspapers in the state to
have an imagesetter, an electronic film machine which allowed us to produce the
highest quality type and photographs, both color and black and white.
In 2004 we were the second newspaper in the state (after the Des Moines
Register) to adopt computer-to-plate electronic imaging which improved our
printing quality even more.
We strive to put out a quality product because we are the only locally-owned
newspaper in Buena Vista County and take good old-fashioned pride in our work.
No corporate doublespeak here — just two brothers and a dozen employees working hard to support their families.
Thank you for your support.
John Cullen, Publisher
Art Cullen, Editor
John Cullen, Publisher - Art Cullen, Editor
The Storm Lake Times
Times Square • 220 West Railroad Street
P.O. Box 487
Storm Lake, Iowa 50588-0487
Phone: 712-732-4991 • Toll-Free: 800-732-4992
Fax: 712-732-4331
Times Facts
The Storm Lake Times has the largest readership of any newspaper — daily or weekly — in Buena Vista County.
The Times is the only locally-owned newspaper in Buena Vista County, and the only newspaper still printed in the county.
The Times printing press produces more than 1.8 million copies of publications per year. In addition to The Times twice a week, we also print the Progressive Populist
(twice monthly political publication), four Northwest Iowa school alumni
publications, as well as various other printing jobs. Our platesetter also
produces high resolution printing plates for other printers.
The Times press can print up to 12 broadsheet pages per section with color
photos, at a speed of 15,000 copies per hour.
The buying power of Times readers is $476 million.
88% of Times readers have college educations.
76% of Times readers have family incomes over $40,000.
52% of Times readers keep their newspaper for a week or longer. 85% of them read the ads each week.
The Times is one of the Storm Lake Post Office’s largest customers, mailing more than 1.3 million pieces of various publications annually. The Times spends more than $200,000 annually
in postage.
An average issue of The Times includes 60 news and sports photographs, about one-third of them in color.
Over 800 area cooks have been featured in “My Favorite Recipes” weekly recipe feature.
Submissions
Have a news item to submit to The Times? Email us at times@stormlake.com
Birthdays, anniversaries, engagements and wedding announcements run for free in
The Times. Email us at family@stormlake.com
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The Storm Lake Times
