Narcisse’s rate card, Fallon’s censorship, Food Guru’s disappearance
Amidst causing major headaches for Chet Culver in his own campaign for governor, Jon Narcisse has been busy selling ads in his newspapers — or his kids’ newspapers, or whoever owns them now. But the former Des Moines school board member told Skinny that he voiced frustration recently over disparity in advertising placed by the U.S. Census Bureau in two newspapers he is “associated with.” His African-American newspaper, The Bystander, received a “business card sized ad order.” His Hispanic newspaper, El Communicador, received “multiple large display ads.” Narcisse, never one to play the race — or rate — card, asked the bureau why one minority group was being sought more than another. The response, he said, involved a lot of “long pauses, hems and haws,” much like what he should expect to hear from Gov. Culver in upcoming debates, if there are any. …
More political stuff. Former Iowa gubernatorial candidate and past member of the Iowa legislature Ed Fallon claims he was “censored by the Democratic party,” or, more specifically, by Gov. Culver, Skinny is told. Fallon, who pays $350 a pop to host four hour-long radio shows each week on KWQW, 98.3 WOW-FM, says Polk County Democrats staffer Tamyra Harrison was told by the group’s executive committee not to send out any information about Fallon or the radio show to the group’s list. Tom Henderson, chair of the Polk County Democrats, said the decision was partly because Fallon had “said some critical things about Culver.” But who’s listening? Fallon and his wife, Lynn, claim to have 4,000 weekly listeners to their show, although the Arbitron ratings state KWQW has a radio listening audience share ranging in the past year from 3.5 percent to 4.2 percent. That means about 96 percent of people who say they listen to radio are tuned in to other metro stations. Most are still listening to 1040-WHO radio, where, Skinny is told, talk show hosts don’t have to write checks to get on the air. …
Some dining news. Peter Harmon, the self-proclaimed “Food Guru” left the West Glen hot spot Graze a few months ago, packing both his “gu” and his “ru” in his suitcase and disappearing overnight, so a partner in the business tells Skinny. The restaurant/night club temporarily shut the doors last Saturday night and is in the process of remodeling, we are told, for a quiet reopening that is set for Friday, March 12 under a new name — Ciao. The grazing style of dining will be gone, Skinny hears, and a new menu with full plates will be offered. …
Back to politics. Jim Gibbons, the former NCAA champion wrestler and coach, has a tough political road ahead of him to win the seat in Iowa’s Third Congressional District, specifically in his Republican primary with Brad Zaun. And even if he passes that test, he must ultimately defeat Leonard Boswell, which has proven to as tough as pinning Dan Gable. Gibbons is well known in the wrestling community and has made numerous appearances at tournaments, including the recent state high school wrestling championships, but he needs to get out of his comfort zone. And quickly. He is preaching to the choir with his advertising on the gaudy jumbotrons at Wells Fargo Arena. …
Speaking of those flashing jumbotrons, a guy who attended the wrestling tournament at Wells Fargo Arena asked Skinny why at least a few of the numerous boards aren’t used to post individual match scores or team updates during the tournament instead of advertisements and text messages. Good question. The answer? Updated scores don’t pay the bills. Or get people elected to Congress. …
Rice Field drama — beyond Des Moines. News of the much publicized land struggle reached the nation’s Capitol and captured the attention of Peter Harnik, director at the Center for City Park Excellence. Skinny wonders if a center for average parks exists. Harnik stressed the importance of preserving the public green space: “From coast to coast – and everywhere in between – urban parks are gaining tremendously in importance and public attention. With many people’s economic problems, near is the new far. And in the parks world, that means accessible, high-quality urban parks for everyone. Rice Field appears to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the residents of northwest Des Moines to get high-quality parkland for all the many benefits that it will provide the community.” Somewhere Sharon Hummel is smiling. …
More on West Glen. Efforts are in the works for a new transportation option to link downtown and West Glen for nightlifers who prefer not to forfeit their driver’s licenses. Financing is still in the works, Skinny is told, but plans are being developed for a bus to transport bar hoppers from one area of the metro to the other. Skinny isn’t sure whether downtown or West Glen will benefit more but thinks any effort to keep drunk drivers from getting behind steering wheels is good. …
And finally, more rumors are circulating about large newspaper corporations looking at options to slash the number of publishing days of their daily newspapers. New York-based GateHouse Media, which publishes 90 daily newspapers and 289 weeklies (some in rural Iowa), is planning to cut a day for a daily in Illinois and “probably a couple others of theirs in nearby areas,” we are told. Skinny reported on similar rumors floating around with The Des Moines Register months ago when we were told newspaper officials were asking key advertisers what day (or days) they could live without. When the Register started pulling back statewide news coverage years ago, some mocked the paper’s tag line of “The Newspaper Iowa Depends Upon,” saying they should change it to “The Newspaper (central) Iowa Depends Upon.” Today, the words “depends upon” are even in question. Even so, Skinny wonders if a newspaper can still be called a daily if it doesn’t publish every day. How about an almost-daily, or a nearly-daily? CV
