The Storm Lake Times becomes the Storm Lake Times Pilot with purchase of longtime competitor, thanks to big donation

The new nameplate, with the same logo and motto that were used by the Storm Lake Times 

One of rural America's most famous weekly newspapers has a new name because it has bought its local competitor, with the help of a big donation from a philanthropist who says he wants to preserve the free press. The Storm Lake (Iowa) Times has become the Storm Lake Times Pilot, with its purchase of the Pilot-Tribune, formerly owned by Rust Communications of Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Rust sold the Pilot-Tribune and its other northwest Iowa papers (including the Le Mars Daily Sentinel, the Cherokee Chronicle Times, the Dickinson County News and the Spencer Daily Reporter) to Hallmark II Publishing of Charles City, owned by Gene Hall and his son Chris, who immediately sold the Pilot-Tribune, its shopper publication and the Cherokee weekly, in adjoining Cherokee County, to Times owners John and Art Cullen, the Times Pilot reports.

Art Cullen's 2017 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing led to a book by him, Storm Lake, and a documentary of the same name by Beth Levison and Jerry Risius. It presented the brothers and their family as an object example of community newspapers trying to stay alive in the digital age, but in its 90 minutes did not mention one of their biggest challenges, that they had an entrenched competitor, which is an unusual situation in rural journalism today. (Dick Tofel writes about that on Substack.)

Art Cullen, left, and his brother John, right, with the 2017
Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and
tenacity in rural journalism, presented by Al Cross of
the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

The Times Pilot tells the story: "For the Cullens, it marks the end of a 32-year contest with Storm Lake’s oldest continuous business, the Pilot. John Cullen founded The Storm Lake Times in 1990 in competition with the Pilot-Tribune," after its owners wouldn't sell to him. "The launch of the weekly started a mini-newspaper war that escalated into both The Times and the Pilot-Tribune going to daily publication — Storm Lake was the smallest town in America with competing daily newspapers — and then reverting to twice weekly. The competition was fierce."

Rust bought the Pilot-Tribune in 2003. The paper's print circulation was below 1,000 last year, the Times Pilot reports: "The Times, likewise, hemorrhaged money during the pandemic, although it was able to hold its circulation near 3,000 copies." It also benefited from donations spurred by Art Cullen's national profile and the documentary, and the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation, created by them and other publishers.

John Tu (via Forbes)

But the big difference was made by John Tu, a Taiwanese-American billionaire who made a "large" donation to the foundation after hearing Art on the NPR "Fresh Air" interview show, and that made the purchase possible, reports Courtney Crowder of the Des Moines Register. The purchase price and the amount of the donation were not disclosed, and the Times Pilot story didn't mention the donation, but Art Cullen did a column about it and discussed it with Crowder. He said Tu seems to have no agenda other than keeping the newspapers and their staffs going "and that the free press flourishes – at least in this part of northwest Iowa," Crowder reports. Cullen said, “The only thing he’s told me is, ‘Believe in your dream; it will come.’”

John Cullen said in the Times Pilot story, “We’re grateful to Gene and Christopher Hall, longtime friends, for the opportunity to purchase the Pilot-Tribune and Ad Guide. This concentration of resources will allow us to put out an even stronger newspaper that helps build The City Beautiful. It’s been a long time coming.” The Cullens will move their printing to the Halls' plant. Gene Hall said, “We’re happy that we could help the Cullens realize their ambition to consolidate the local newspapers into one product that better serves Buena Vista County and is locally owned. We look forward to working together in Northwest Iowa to strengthen communities through better journalism.” The county has one other paper, the Buena Vista County Journal, in the small town of Newell in the southeast corner of the county.