Guide
Overview
The Des Moines Register is Iowa's largest newspaper by circulation and the main paper for the Statehouse, the Iowa caucuses and the Polk County courts. The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, the Quad-City Times in Davenport, the Sioux City Journal, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, the Ames Tribune, the Mason City Globe Gazette and the Burlington Hawk Eye cover their regions, and Iowa Capital Dispatch covers state government online.
Iowa newspapers carry the legal notices state law requires for sheriff's sales, estates, county board proceedings and school budgets, publish obituaries for 99 counties, and hold court coverage that pairs with Iowa Courts Online.
Official sources on this page were checked on September 25, 2026.
Guide
Iowa Newspapers
Find local and statewide newspaper publications for Iowa. Access news, sports, classified, entertainment, and archived articles.
Guide
Major Iowa newspapers and what they cover
The Register covers Des Moines, state government, the Iowa Supreme Court and the federal court, with back issues from the 1870s onward in the digital archives. The Gazette covers Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, the Quad-City Times covers Scott County and the Illinois side of the river, the Journal covers Sioux City and the tri-state, and the Courier covers Black Hawk County. Iowa has more weekly newspapers per capita than almost any state, and papers such as the Storm Lake Times, the Carroll Times Herald and the Ottumwa Courier carry county supervisor minutes, sheriff's logs and district court filings in detail.
Guide
Historic Iowa newspapers online
The State Historical Society of Iowa holds newspaper microfilm for every Iowa county in its Des Moines and Iowa City research centers, and the Iowa Digital Newspaper Project contributes titles to Chronicling America. The Des Moines Public Library provides free access to the Register archive with a library card, and the University of Iowa Libraries hold eastern Iowa titles. Many Iowa county libraries have digitized their local weekly through the Advantage Preservation program, searchable free from the library's website.
Guide
Legal notices, public notices and obituaries in Iowa
Iowa law requires sheriff's sale notices, probate notices to creditors, name changes, tax sales, county board of supervisors proceedings, city council minutes and school district budgets to be published in the official newspapers of the county, and the Iowa Newspaper Association collects them in a statewide search. Nearly every Iowa daily and most of the weeklies carry obituaries, and the State Historical Society keeps obituary indexes. Court coverage pairs with Iowa Courts Online, the statewide case search.
Guide
Browse Newspapers by State
Straight answers
Iowa Newspaper Directory, questions
What is Iowa's largest newspaper by circulation?
The Des Moines Register, followed by the Gazette in Cedar Rapids, the Quad-City Times, the Sioux City Journal and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
Where can I search Iowa legal notices?
At Iowa Notices, the Iowa Newspaper Association's statewide database of sheriff's sales, probate notices, county proceedings and other notices published in Iowa newspapers.
Where are old Iowa newspapers online?
Chronicling America has free digitized Iowa titles, the State Historical Society holds every county on microfilm, and many county libraries have digitized their local weekly free.