I am honored to welcome Dave Busiek to the columnist ranks of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, an initiative a bunch of us started to provide commentary and original reporting for readers interested in our state. After 29 years as news director for KCCI-TV, he retired in 2018. We have lured him back to storytelling, to our collective benefit.
We have professionals from Davenport, Carroll, Bussey, Okoboji, Jefferson, Des Moines, Storm Lake, and Lovilla, soon to be adding members from Denison and Dubuque.
We link readers to writers. It’s that simple. Members of the collaborative are independent columnists with a separate subscriber base. We grow by referring our readers to other members of the collaborative. Through an alliance with Iowa Capital Dispatch, our work will appear both there and can be available to newspapers throughout Iowa, with attribution and a link back to the writers’ column.
Busiek’s first column portends the perspective he will bring to his writing. He is a consummate professional who built the Number One television news team in central Iowa.
To get a sense of what he will bring to his writing, check out the retirement story below, created by his colleagues. You will get a sense of the respect he earned from his news team.
KCCI-TV Retirment story
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative now includes Ed Tibbetts, who covered politics for the Quad-City Times before becoming Editorial Page editor. He left the Lee Enterprises paper during a recent layoff.
Ed is the kind of professional journalist and observer we will all benefit from reading. When you subscribe to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Roundup, you will find a weekly email featuring links to the members of our group listed below:
Iowa Writers Collaborative: Iowa Writers Collaborative
Here is the group so far. We are on the grow:
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury
Dave Busiek: On Media
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt
Dana James: New Black Iowa
Bob Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi
To receive a weekly Roundup of member columns, sign up:
Thanks so much Dave for giving us an important reminder of Johnny, Eugene and their families -- tragic stories for all involved. I was living in Fort Dodge at the time and remember your reporting. So well done then, so well done now.
Well done, Dave. You were "a star that fell from the sky" right here in good old Des Moines.
Regards to you and Laura.