Who’ll lead the Des Moines Register now?

Executive editor Carol Hunter is retiring after a heroic tenure during one of the most challenging and transformative periods in the media company’s history.

DES MOINES, Iowa – I’m not sure I can name anyone more deserving of a happy, easy and fulfilling retirement than Carol Hunter after her 20 years of sometimes torturous work as a top news executive of the Des Moines Register.

The 67-year-old Hunter announced last week that she’ll retire at the end of this year as executive editor, her title the past eight years. Before that, she served twice as interim editor of the whole operation. She had started as editor of the editorial pages and later was political editor and then news editor.

When directed by the Register’s corporate owner Gannett, Hunter had to preside over reductions of staff, cutbacks in the newspaper coverage and circulation area, and the increasingly rapid transition from the print era to the digital era for all media companies. If all that wasn’t challenging enough, she also endured the illness and death in 2019 of her husband Tom Perry, a journalist who’d also worked at the Register.

Carol Hunter.

My own 26 years at the Register predated Hunter’s time there. But I’ve been able to get to know her and I’ve really admired her courage, vision, persistence and kindness in the way she’s handled all the challenges she’s faced.

Through it all, my sense is that Hunter has had respect and even devotion to the important role the Register has long had with the people of Iowa. For decades it was known as “the newspaper Iowa depends upon.”

So, who should succeed her?

Gannett officials announced there will be an interim editor assigned while the company has a nationwide search for a permanent replacement.

I have a recommendation.

Before I give it to you, let me preface it by saying that in my 26 years, I got to work with four of the best editors in the Register’s history – the legendary Kenneth MacDonald, maybe the best-ever Michael Gartner, James Gannon and Geneva Overholser. They were great to me, and I was spoiled.

The last editor in my Register years was Dennis Ryerson. He was a good person and a reasonably good editor. But despite being an Iowa farm kid himself, I don’t think he had a real understanding of Iowa’s people.

When I decided in 1998 it was time to move on to teaching and free-lancing, the Register’s top executive, publisher Barbara Henry, summoned me to her office. When it was clear she wasn’t persuading me to reconsider, she finally asked, “Well, what should I know?”

“You’ve got the wrong person as editor,” I told her.

“Who’s the right person?” she asked.

“Randy Evans,” I answered without hesitation.

I believe Evans was then managing editor, after having won great respect as a reporter and lower-ranking editor. Later on, he was editor of the editorial pages before he retired. Since then, he’s been executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and a great advocate for Iowa media across the state and beyond.

I still believe Evans would have been a great editor in chief of the Register. At 74, he’s too old now.

But Kyle Munson, at 52, is in his prime.

He’s my recommendation to succeed Carol Hunter.

I’m telling you all this before I tell Munson.

Kyle Munson.

He is a native of the Carson-Silver City area in southwest Iowa, a graduate of Central College in Pella, and a person of very broad interests. Since the spring of 2018, he has worked as a “senior strategist” for the Principal Financial Group in Des Moines. And you know he’s one of my colleagues here on the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative.

Most Iowans will remember that before he went to the Principal, Munson had nearly 25 years as a Register music critic, entertainment editor, feature writer and then for eight years one of my successors as the paper’s “Iowa Columnist.” He was terrific in every position. He knows the newspaper, he knows digital media and – maybe most important of all – he really knows the territory.

On his “LinkedIn” page on the internet, Munson describes himself this way now: “I’m an experienced content strategist, business marketer, journalist, and storyteller who has developed a broad skill set in financial services, media, and nonprofits. I currently work as part of an in-house team where my expertise in narrative, digital media, and in-depth reporting helps deliver results for our clients and audiences at large.”

Doesn’t that sound like a valuable set of additional skills that he’s picked up in his half-dozen years in the corporate world?

In addition, Munson has served in recent years as the president of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. That’s a 501.c3 non-profit that has attracted significant donations “to support community journalism that ensures long-term access to accurate local news and investigative reporting throughout western Iowa.”

I’ve kidded him in recent years about how he eventually should return to the Register.

I’m serious now. Gannett should pursue Kyle Munson to become editor in chief of the new-age Register.

Right person, right time, right place.

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You can comment on this column below or write the columnist directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com.

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The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative

Below is the roster of our writers from around the state, contributing commentary and feature stories of interest to those who care about Iowa.

Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center

Rekha Basu: Shouts and whispers, Des Moines

Ray Young Bear: From Red Earth Drive, Meskwaki Settlement

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities

Dartanyan L. Brown: My Integrated Live, Des Moines

Douglas Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Jane Burns: The Crossover, Des Moines

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Rachelle Chase : Reading with Rachelle, Ottumwa

Iowa Writers Collaborative: Roundup

Steph C: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Taylor Decker: Taylor’s Millennial Mindset, Sioux City

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Randy Evans: Stray Thoughts, Des Moines via Bloomfield

Daniel P. Finney: Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines

Marianne Fons: Reporting From Quiltropolis, Winterset

Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Chris Gloninger: Weathering Climate Change, US

Dennis Goldford: Let’s Talk Politics, Clive

Avery Gregurich: The Five and Dime, Marengo

Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Rob Gray's Area: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny

Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Phoebe Wall Howard : Shifting Gears, Detroit,

Iowa Capital Dispatch, an alliance with IWC

Iowa Podcasters' Collaborative

Iowa Writers Collaborative Roundup Sunday Roundup

Black Iowa News: Dana James, Iowa

Chris Jones: Chris’s Substack, Iowa City

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Letters From Iowans

Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County

Hola Iowa: Iowa

Alison McGaughey: The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities

Kurtis Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Relatively Minor: by Vicki Minor, Winterset

Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids

Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines

Ty Rushing: Ty’s Take, Iowa City

Steve Semken: Ice Cube Press, LLC, North Liberty

Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk

Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander's Emerging Voices: Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Jason Walsmith: The Racontourist, Earlham

Kali White VanBaale: 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

The Iowa Writers Collaborative also partners with the Iowa Capital Dispatch.