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March 2009 Blog Posts (23)

As Other Media Falter, Ad Dollars Roll Into New Media

Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. reached a record $23 billion last year, according to the 2008 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, released Monday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Interactive advertising continued to grow, despite downward trends in the overall economy. IAB attributes this to “marketers’ increased recognition of the medium’s value in reaching consumers online,”… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 31, 2009 at 9:30am — No Comments

Newspaper Revenues Fall Off a Cliff

We've all heard how bad the newspaper business is, but last week the Newspaper Association of America confirmed it with their year end report for 2008. In short, the newspaper business is really, really, really bad.

There were no fancy news releases when the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) released it's latest figures showing print ad revenue was $34.74 billion in 2008 which was the worst performance for the newspaper industry since… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 29, 2009 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Community Health Center Receives Funding To Help Families Who Have Lost Insurance

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today announced that Iowa will receive an additional $3.176 million in funding from the Economic Recovery Package, the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009, for community health centers.

The funding will be used for offsetting the cost of caring for families that have lost their insurance due to a job loss. This funding comes from the $2 billion Senator Harkin worked to include for community health centers… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 27, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Local Water Trail News

Currently in Fort Dodge and Webster County there is a group of volunteers, city and county organizations working to increase water recreational opportunities in our community. Canoeist, kayakers and tubers will have two water trails to use in the near future. Although these waterways have always been available for use, the current projects will educate enthusiasts on upcoming dangers, features and historical significance of the land they are going through. These projects will also provide… Continue

Added by Fort Dodge Convention and Visitors Bureau on March 27, 2009 at 6:00am — No Comments

Should Local Police Logs Be Online?

Would you like to see last nights local reports of vandalism, burglaries, or arrests on your home computer? If you live in Story County, Iowa you can, but you can't if you live in Fort Dodge.

If you go to the Story County, Iowa website and look down the center of the column, you'll see a link from the Sheriff's Department titled "Daily News Release for (date)". Click on that link and… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 26, 2009 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Find Local Garage Sales and Advertise Yours For Free

Remember the days when you could advertise your garage sale at no charge in the local free paper with just a phone call?

We'd like to offer you today's alternative version using the Internet and our local website at Find Garage Sales.

Garage sales are not only a way to find great bargains, but for some people they're even a fun local treasure hunt that… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 24, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

Frontier Communications Orders Furloughs for Nonunion Employees

Frontier Communications is telling its nonunion workers to take more than two weeks off without pay between April 1st and the end of the year.

CEO Maggie Wilderotter asked all employees to take four days off without pay for each of the remaining three quarters of 2009 for a total of 12 days.

Frontier Communications has also put a freeze on hiring and is strictly controlling discretionary spending for items such as overtime and… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 20, 2009 at 4:30pm — 2 Comments

Fort Dodge Bank Received $10.2 Million In Bailout Money

More than $200 million in federal bailout money has been paid out to seven Iowa banks since December 2008 according to the U.S. Treasury Department's records on funds coming from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The seven Iowa banks which received money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program included Heartland Financial USA Inc., Dubuque, $81.7 million; West Bancorporation Inc., West Des Moines, $36 million; North Central Bancshares, Fort… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 19, 2009 at 10:00pm — No Comments

Hy-Vee Food Drive To Benefit Area Food Pantries

Your Hy-Vee Food store in Fort Dodge is spearheading a local food drive that will benefit all the food pantries served through the Upper Des Moines Opportunity Agency.

Starting Thursday, March 26th and running through Sunday, March 29th, Hy-Vee will have a Decker Truck Line Semi parked in the parking lot for people to drop off their non-perishable goods. The donated food will be donated to all three food pantries; Salvation Army, Lord’s… Continue

Added by Hy-Vee, Fort Dodge on March 18, 2009 at 10:30pm — No Comments

Advertising on Social Networking Going Up Instead of Down During Recession

While you can find article after article on how advertisers are cutting back on traditional advertising mediums such as newspaper and radio, that doesn't seem to be the case for social media.

Instead of cutting back on all advertising mediums, more than half of the marketers who responded to a recent Forrester Research study say they intend to increase their social media efforts if the recession continues.

In the report,… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 18, 2009 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Local Newspaper Ditches Print to Go Digital Only

A lack of buyer interest in the storied Seattle Post-Intelligencer prompted the Hearst Corp. to take things digital. The publishing firm announced today the newspaper will no longer appear in print starting tomorrow, and instead will be available only in digital form.

The company also said it plans to build a unit for selling digital advertising on its own properties and partner properties including Yahoo.

The move could… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 17, 2009 at 10:11am — No Comments

Fun March Activities

Enjoy your March with these fun events.

March 20-22 – Home and Garden Show at ICCC Career Education Building

March 21-22 - Fort Dodge Sportsmen Show at the Webster County Fairgrounds

March 21 -Nest Box Building at Kennedy Park 9 am- registration required

March 21- Maple Syrup Festival at Kennedy Park 1 pm

March 22 – Karl King Band’s Annual Irish Concert at 3:30 pm at Decker Auditorium

March 23 – Pheasants Forever 24th Annual Banquet at Webster County Fairgrounds… Continue

Added by Fort Dodge Convention and Visitors Bureau on March 16, 2009 at 4:13pm — No Comments

Are State Bar Associations Allowing Felons to Practice Law?

Does favoritism exist in our State Bar Associations? Are attorneys who couldn't attain many regular jobs because of their felony convictions allowed continue to practice law because of favoritism from their peers?

That's the one of the topics that is explored on Show 101 of "You Are The Guest" Podcast. Sam and Deidre are law partners from Alabama and both share their… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 13, 2009 at 1:30am — No Comments

Twitter, Followers, and Those Who Tweet

I've been a member of many Web 2.0 applications since I started podcasting 4 years ago, but the one I never understood was the appeal of Twitter. But now I "get it" after watching late-night television over the last couple of nights.

If you've been reading any of my recent postings in the "Watching Television" group here on MyFortDodge, you'll see a discussion about… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 12, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

Shellabration Showcases Creedence Clearwater Revisited For 2009

The question of who is going to be playing Shellabration for 2009 in Fort Dodge, Iowa has now been answered. I know who CCR is, but who is the band known as Creedence Clearwater Revisited?

First and foremost I am a CCR fan from way back. I remember borrowing my brother-in-law's 8-track tapes of Creedence Clearwater Revival and playing them over and over. In fact, CCR's Chronicle album was one of the first CD's I ever bought back…

Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 12, 2009 at 8:00am — No Comments

Middle-Aged Drives Growth As Social Networking Overtakes Email

Blogs and social networking are consuming more online time than checking and writing personal email according to a new report on Monday from market research firm Nielsen Online.

Globally one in every 11 minutes online is spent by users on social network and blogging sites or 45 billion minutes in total. That works out to a bit more than a combined 85,500 years spent on blogs and social networking sites in Dec. 2008 alone according to… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 10, 2009 at 11:30am — No Comments

Lawmakers Seek Limits On Teens Who Text at Fort Dodge Schools

There's a proposed bill in the Iowa Legislature that would restrict the use of cell phones in schools. This could have an impact locally because Fort Dodge schools allow students to use cell phones on campus between classes and at lunch.

According to a story reported by KCCI-TV, one student admitted that his addiction to text messaging interferes with his school work and has taken the place of conversation.

"I hardly ever pay… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 8, 2009 at 12:30pm — 1 Comment

New shelter

I've seen the plans for the new shelter and it's going to be great. The animals are going to have a much brighter, happier place to stay until their new family finds them.
I know some people have given up on a new building ever getting done, but it is happening this Spring. Keep watching for our progress.

Added by Robin Rongved on March 7, 2009 at 5:05pm — No Comments

Taking a Bite Out of Webster County Crime With Social Networking

Back in my radio days, I remember a regular radio program we used to run in conjunction with the Webster County Crime Stoppers.

On a weekly basis, John Bruner or another representative from Webster County Crime Stoppers would stop in and record a message asking our listening audience if they knew of any information pertaining to a crime for that week. In my conversations with John he would report that people were responding to the requests… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 6, 2009 at 12:00pm — No Comments

IRGC Doesn't Tip Their Hand: Final Casino Study Due in June

It looks like Fort Dodge residents will have to wait until June to find out if there's a casino in the city's future.

According to a story published on www.ottumwa.com, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission wants to wait until the final version of a report from their consultants before they would determine whether Fort Dodge among other Iowa sites would be… Continue

Added by Bill Grady on March 5, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments