Des Moines | In search of the missing fifth 'W'

Publisher Laura Hollingsworth of The Des Moines Register hit all but one of the traditional five "Ws" of news story writing in her memo to employees earlier this month:

1. Who: Gannett's board of directors
2. What: a quarterly board meeting held in an unusual venue, one away from Corporate headquarters in McLean, Va.
3. Where: the Register's building in Des Moines
4. When: today and tomorrow
5. Why: ___________________

In this case, why in Des Moines?

Certainly, of Gannett's major regional business centers, Des Moines is near the top. But so is Indianapolis. Both sites have been expanding especially over the past two years, as the company consolidated more work at the two cities: finance, marketing, human resources, advertising art production and, most recently, newspaper page design and pagination.

Given their relatively equal profiles, I can think of one possible reason tipping the scale in favor of the Iowa city: no unionized newsroom employees to make a stink that might embarrass directors.

Not so at The Indianapolis Star, where management and the Newspaper Guild have been fussing for some time. Earlier this month, for example, the union's Indianapolis chapter asked its nearly 180 members to wear union insignia as a form of protest during a visit by CEO Craig Dubow and other top brass. The chapter has been battling management on a range of issues, from the installation of new biometric time clocks to publishing USA Today-produced sports pages in the Star.

Then again, maybe the directors just wanted to glimpse Iowa's big bicycle ride.

Earlier: Des Moines cleans up its act for board of directors

[Image: yesterday's Register, Newseum]