NORTHWEST IOWA NEWSPAPERS HAVE SIGNIFICANT INTEGRITY

 A northwest Iowa newspaper editor was interested in the integrity of northwest Iowa newspapers.  As a result, Iowalive net workers  prepared the following two tables for all to see.  As with politicians, rural and small Iowa towns generally have higher integrity.  It would seem that such towns would be highly promoting such integrity when discussing opportunities for integrous businesses.    

Anyone claiming to have better numbers than those in the following table is asked to provide them for evaluation and comparison. 

70% OF NORTHWEST IOWA NEWSPAPERS HAVE SIGNIFICANT INTEGRITY, COMPARED TO 50% FOR THE REST OF IOWA (not all shown in this table).
NOTE THE GENERALLY CLOSE CORRELATION BETWEEN INTEGRITY AND OPERATING EFFICIENCY RANK--which averages only 4.
INTEGRITY INDEX RANK	OPERATING EFFICIENCY  RANK	NORTHWEST IOWA NEWSPAPERS PLUS THOSE  SHOWN IN RED--FOR COMPARISON	AVG. INTEGRITY INDEX LEVEL BASED ON ETHICS AND MORALS PRINCIPLES, SCALE 0 TO 1,000 TOPS.  Significant Integrity Starts at 300.	AVG. YEAR-TO-DATE, 12-30-07 OPERATING EFFICIENCY
1	2	Lake View Resort	705	57%
2	3	Rock Rapids Lyon Co. Reporter	640	55%
3	1	Sergeant Bluff Advocate	620	59%
4	6	George Lyon Co. News	620	49%
5	8	Sheldon N ' West Iowa Review	620	48%
6	9	Spencer Daily Reporter	540	48%
7	23	Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune	530	41%
8	15	Doon Press	505	47%
9	10	Moville Record	470	48%
10	11	Sheldon Mail-Sun	470	48%
11	5	Everly/Royal News	460	50%
12	18	Newell Buena Vista Co. Journal	435	46%
13	19	Little Rock Free Lance	430	46%
14	4	Storm Lake Times	420	52%
15	12	Inwood West Lyon Herald	420	48%
16	13	Schaller Herald	420	48%
17	14	Hull Sioux Co. Index-Reporter	415	48%
18	16	Remsen Bell-Enterprise	410	47%
19	20	Le Mars Daily Sentinel	390	46%
20	30	Sac City Sun	360	34%
21	24	Cherokee Chronicle Times	340	40%
22	7	Ida Grove Ida County Courier	325	49%
23	21	Hawarden Independence/Ireton Examiner	320	46%
24	31	Sanborn Pioneer	315	34%
25	27	Holstein Advance	305	37%
26	17	Hospers Siouxland Press LLC	270	47%
27	26	Sioux Center News	270	39%
28	25	Orange City Sioux Co. Capital-Democrat	260	40%
29	29	Sibley Osceola Co. Gazette-Tribune	240	35%
30	28	Sioux City Journal	220	36%
31	33	Akron Hometowner	215	33%
32	36	Anthon Sioux Valley News	205	29%
33	37	Kingsley News-Times	180	29%
34	34	Rock Valley Bee	170	32%
35	42	Aurelia Star	170	26%
36	44	Hinton Times	170	20%
37	45	Danbury Review	170	18%
38	38	Sioux City Globe	160	29%
39	22	Newton Daily News	120	44%
40	32	Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil	120	34%
41	35	Emmetsburg Democrat	110	32%
42	41	Hudson Herald	110	27%
43	46	Spirit Lake Dickinson Co. News	70	17%
44	39	Odebolt Chronicle	65	28%
45	43	Decorah Journal	60	26%
46	40	Jesup Citizen Herald	30	28%

   

THERE ARE REASONS LARGE NEWSPAPERS AND THE IOWA NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION REFUSE TO TALK ABOUT NEWSPAPER INTEGRITY--AND THE LACK OF NEWSPAPER INTEGRITY AWARDS.
DESCRIPTION	AVG. INTEGRITY INDEX LEVEL BASED ON ETHICS AND MORALS PRINCIPLES, SCALE 0 TO 1,000 TOPS.  Significant Integrity Starts at 300.	AVG. YEAR-TO-DATE, 12-30-07 OPERATING EFFICIENCY
CEDAR RAPIDS GAZETTE	250	34%
IOWA NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION	160	32%
DES MOINES REGISTER	150	34%
IOWA NEWSPAPER FOUNDATION	75	15%
IOWA NEWSPAPER ASSOC. AWARDS SELECTION PROCESS	15	NA
Anyone claiming to have better numbers is asked to provide them for evaluation and comparison.

The derivation methods used by Iowalive net workers are not “unpredictable and subjective” at all--as the Cedar Rapids Gazette editor recently claimed about judging annual newspaper awards.  Iowalive's numbers are consistently derived with advanced, proprietary algorithms applying convergent ‘if-then’ arguments to a huge and proprietary database.   When newspaper  editors overtly pushed school officials to “break the law”, or “dumb the tests and keep two sets of school books” etc., or equivalent, and continuously refuse to retract or correct such stuff—and to ignore reporting or editorializing against wasteful spending and poor performance of schools and governments, it is not that difficult to connect the integrity dots with powerful, advanced algorithms applied to a huge data base.   Iowalive's Integrity Index is the result of connecting those and other dots.  

Iowalive’s Integrity Index is not absolute.  It is relative and is based on a scale of 0 to 1,000, where significant integrity starts at level 300—and the Divine is above 1,000. The accuracy and validity of Iowalive’s numbers are substantiated by the fact no one has meaningfully claimed to have better numbers, to date—including Gazette & Register editors and the Iowa Quality Center etc., etc. 

Governor Vilsack tried to refute Iowalive’s numbers but wisely backed off at the advice of highly paid professional consultants—who found the numbers to look even better under closer scrutiny--and then asked net workers how the numbers were derived, and were very satisfied with what they were told.  And of course, the Governor had NO comparable numbers at all!!  End of argument and discussion!