The Des Moines Register history

In 1854, The Star became the Iowa Statesman which was also a Democratic paper.

In 1857, The Statesman became the Iowa State Journal, which published 3 times per week.

1860:The weekly Citizen is renamed the Iowa State Register, an evening Republican newspaper and the first daily in Des Moines.

1862:The Iowa State Register becomes a morning daily newspaper.

In 1870, The Iowa Statesman became the Iowa State Leader as a Democratic newspaper, which competed with pro-Republican Iowa Daily State Register for the next 32 years.

The first university course in journalism was given at the University of Missouri (Columbia) in 1879–84.

An organization of journalists began as early as 1883, with the foundation of England’s chartered Institute of Journalists.

The following two titles, the Register and the Leader, merged in 1902 as listed above.

In 1903, Des Moines banker Gardner Cowles, Sr. purchased the Register and Leader.

1906: The Des Moines Tribune started in east Des Moines by C.C. Hellen.

1, 1908: Gardner Cowles takes over the operation of the Tribune.

In 1912 Columbia University in New York City established the first graduate program in journalism, endowed by a grant from the New York City editor and publisher Joseph Pulitzer.

May 4, 1918: Newspapers move into new building at 715 Locust St

1924: The Des Moines News, owned by Scrippes-McRae, is purchased by Gardner Cowles and combined with the Tribune into The Evening Tribune-News.

In 1925 Cowles engaged statistician George Gallup to survey reader preferences—a precursor to the Gallup Poll of public opinion.

12, 1927: The other remaining daily newspaper in Des Moines, the Des Moines Capital, is purchased and combined with the Tribune.

1928: The Register and Tribune purchases its first airplane, Good News I.

The Register employed reporters in cities and towns throughout Iowa, and it covered national and international news stories from an Iowa perspective, even setting up its own news bureau in Washington, D.C. in 1933.

In 1943, the Register became the first newspaper to sponsor a statewide opinion poll when it introduced the Iowa Poll, modeled after Iowan George Gallup's national Gallup poll.

The Iowan, 1952 to date.

1967: A four-story addition is built along Grand Avenue with additional loading area, mail room space, and area for the syndicate and promotion department.

1973: The first Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

1984: Charles C. Edwards Jr. (great-grandson of Gardner Cowles) is named publisher of the Register.

In 1985 the paper was bought by the Gannett Co., Inc.

In 1990, the Register began to reduce its coverage of news outside of the Des Moines area by closing most of its Iowa news bureaus and ending carrier distribution to outlying counties, although an "Iowa Edition" of the Register was still being distributed throughout most of the state.

Iowa Heritage Illustrated, 1996 to date.

July 1999: The Register celebrates 150 years in business.

2000: The first full edition of The Des Moines Register rolls off the new German-built printing presses March 13 from a new $52.2 million, 120,500-square-foot facility on the metro's southern edge.

2007: Laura Hollingsworth is named President and Publisher of The Des Moines Register in September of 2007.

Our Iowa, 2009 to date.

Iowa History Journal, 2010 to date.

On June 15, 2013, the Register moved to its new location from 715 Locust Street to 400 Locust Street.

In 2014, the old building has been sold for $1.6 million and will be redeveloped into a combination of apartments and retail space.

April 16, 2015: David Chivers is named president and publisher of The Des Moines Register.