Overholser’s work stands out in an industry that is still raising its consciousness. Like most newspapers, the Register has always reflected the interests of its mostly male editors. Overholser has not so much altered the paper as added to it. Topics such as child care, sexual harassment and the safety of contraceptives receive prominent, thoughtful coverage. Reporters and editors have come to view routine stories through new prisms: last week a homicide account noted that five other Des Moines women had died in recent domestic assaults. “Not once have I heard Geneva say, ‘This is a women’s story so let’s play it big’” says Michael Pauly, the Register’s news editor.
Overholser, the daughter of a nomadic Presbyterian scholar, worked in Des Moines during the early 1980s, won a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, then moved to the editorial board of The New York Times. She returned to the Register for the top job. She inadvertently prompted the rape series with an opinion piece she wrote for her own paper and for the Times. In it she argued that the routine newsroom policy of suppressing the names of victims in sexual-assault cases actually stigmatized the women rather than protecting them. Rape victim Nancy Ziegenmeyer read the article, telephoned Overholser and volunteered her story. The resulting articles by reporter Jane Schorer helped frame a broader debate about naming rape victims.
The Pulitzer only underlines her role as a crown jewel among editors at Gannett Co., the Register’s corporate parent and owner of 82 dailies nationwide. (Go ahead–try to name the editor of USA Today.) She is quick to credit Gannett for its commitment to promoting women and minorities, but she hasn’t shied from questioning its devotion to high profits. Last December, shortly after she was named Gannett’s editor of the year, she surprised a corporate gathering by urging that the pinch-penny company raise wages, increase news coverage and pour more money into cultural and social activities in the communities its papers serve. “We work in a business in which hard times mean a 25 percent profit margin cut to 18 percent,” she said.
As recently as two months ago, many of her staffers feared that Overholser might leave. Worried that publisher Charles Edwards Jr. would drastically shrink the paper’s circulation and areas of news coverage, Overholser said she wouldn’t preside over the Register’s demise. Edwards settled on relatively minor changes, closing one regional bureau and raising the price for distant subscribers. Overholser, who insists she never threatened to quit in the first place, says she will stay at the helm. After Harvard Yard and Times Square, Des Moines looks pretty good.
