Work Samples

Sara Konrad Baranowski has been reporting the news since 2000, covering everything from city council meetings and school assemblies, to presidential campaign rallies and the red carpet reopening of a small-town movie theater complete with an A-list movie star. She’s received more than 25 state and national awards for her news and feature writing, investigative reporting, editorials, slideshows, videography and radio reporting.

Feature writing

• The Preservationist: Bradford Music Hall marries local man’s passion for history, music (August 2021)

• Lost and Found Part 1 and Part 2 (September 2018)

• Personal Archive: Making space for memories (July 2017)

• Lost in Translation Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 (March 2017)

• Where Friends Meet (September 2016)

• The Fine Print (July 2016)

• Living in the Light (November 2014)

• Getting on with Life Part 1 and Part 2 (May 2008)

Collaborative Reporting

• Child Care in Iowa (February 2019)

  • This was a collaboration of the Iowa Falls Times Citizen, Carroll Times Herald, Southeast Iowa Union and Cedar Rapids Gazette to tell the story of the struggle for families and communities to find child care, especially in rural areas.

• Seeking a Cure: The quest to save rural hospitals (September 2019)

  • This was a collaborative project about the health of rural Midwest hospitals. It was led by the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and IowaWatch, KCUR, Bridge Magazine, Wisconsin Watch, Side Effects Public Media, The Conversation, Minnesota Public Radio, Iowa Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio, The Gazette, Iowa Falls Times Citizen and N'west Iowa Review.

• In Focus (Spring 2021)

  • This collaboration involved more than 50 reporters from more than 30 Iowa newspapers. It examined public access to police body camera and in-car camera video in Iowa.

Audience Engagement

• Curious Iowa

  • I led the effort to launch Curious Iowa, a weekly feature in The Gazette that answers readers’ questions about Iowa, its people and culture. The newspaper solicits questions from the public, and I work with reporting staff to choose which questions to answer. Since the series launched in May 2023, I’ve overseen the schedule, made story assignments and edit the content.

• You Ask, We Answer

  • Through a semi-regular feature in the Iowa Falls Times Citizen, I answered readers’ questions about the news. When the news staff reported a story that generated questions through social media, emails and phone calls, I created a Google Form that invited readers to ask questions about the news. Reporters tracked the answers down and wrote a Q&A story.

    • Iowa Falls undertakes a risky infrastructure project:

    • Rural hospital considers closing its obstetrics department:

    • Coronavirus in Hardin County:

• Re-Engaging the Right

  • In 2021, I worked with Trusting News on a project called “Re-Engaging the Right”. I distributed a survey to readers of the Iowa Falls Times Citizen who identified as conservative and based on the answers to that survey, I interviewed six people. Twenty-six other newspapers participated in the study, which sought to understand the lack of trust in media among conservatives. The results of the study were published by the University of Texas at Austin Center for Media Engagement. Trusting News also published results of the surveys and interviews.

Editorial Writing

• Fixing River Road mess is not Iowa Falls’ responsibility (September 2019)

• Hardin County should leave public comment policy as is (January 2019)

• Ambulance decision leaves more questions than answers (December 2018)

• Supervisors must be more transparent about meetings (June 2018)

• Obey the spirit - not just the letter - of the law (March 2016)

• Assessments were the wrong decision for Iowa Falls (November 2013)