Editor’s Note: accolades, participation and breaking records

As we navigate the early months of the year, our newsroom has been working hard to provide coverage of the news our readers need to stay informed -- reflecting our commitment to delivering comprehensive and impactful journalism.

From our first-ever live coverage collaboration with young journalists during the Iowa caucuses, to last week’s documenting of Caitlin Clark’s record-breaking season, our journalists have been in the field.

Iowa Newspaper Awards

Recently, The Gazette had a fantastic showing at the annual Iowa Newspaper Association awards. We again placed in all of the individual writing awards and finished first in General Excellence for the second consecutive year.

Our own Mary Sharp was honored with INA's Distinguished Service Award, an honor bestowed by past recipients. Mary had a nearly 35-year career in Burlington, Ottumwa, Champaign, Ill., and Cedar Rapids before she “retired” in 2011. She came back a couple of years later and continues to copy edit several nights per week. A full list of awards is listed here.

In-Depth Week coverage: Homelessness in Iowa

Coverage of Iowa’s growing homelessness problem energized our efforts to hold an In-Depth Week about this topic. With over 500 attendees, we know this growing issue has a lot of concerned citizens looking for solutions and resources. Replays of our In-Depth Week Sessions on Homelessness can be viewed on our Iowa Ideas website, iowaideas.com.

Caitlin Clark’s record-shattering season

Lastly, the efforts at providing our audience with comprehensive and authoritative coverage on Caitlin Clark's record-breaking performance at Carver-Hawkeye Arena is worth checking out. Jeff Linder and Mike Hlas’ writing is fantastic, and Geoff Stellfox and Nick Rohlman’s photos helped show what a truly special night it was. Our design team worked to produce a poster-style front page of the historic event from a photo collected at the game.

Crossword puzzle feedback

I also wanted to address an uptick in audience feedback about our the Daily Commuter crossword puzzle, which we’ve been running for years. Readers noticed a change in the difficulty and style of clues in the crossword puzzle which is syndicated by Tribune Content Agency. While we didn’t change providers, the puzzle’s creator, Jacqueline Matthews, retired. The puzzle master taking Matthews’ place, Stella Zawistoski, has a noticeably different style in clues and subject matter since taking over.

We wanted to give the syndicate a chance to work with Zawistoski. We’ve seen some puzzle answers and clues get reissued over the past 10 or so days.

I’m considering making a change to the daily crossword puzzle, but finding one at the same difficulty level is a bit tricky. If you like the changes to the puzzle, please let me know. If you would be willing to try a few other samples to see if they match the difficulty you like, please drop me an e-mail at the address below.

As we reflect on the start of 2024, we thank you for reading and participating in our journalism. Thank you for trusting us to be your source of news and information, and we look forward to continuing this journey together.

Comments: [email protected]