A graduate of
Carleton College and the
New York University School of Law, Gartner was a member of the New York and Iowa bars as of 1997. His career in journalism began in the sports department of the
Des Moines Register at the age of 15. After completing his undergraduate degree, he joined the staff of
The Wall Street Journal (1960–1974), ultimately serving as page one editor. He then served as editor and president of the
Des Moines Register (1974–1985), general news executive of the
Gannett Company and
USA Today (1985–1986), editor of the Louisville
Courier-Journal (1986–1987) and president of
NBC News (1988–1993). He was president of the
American Society of Newspaper Editors from 1988 to 1993. As chair and editor of
The Daily Tribune in
Ames, Iowa from 1993 to 1999 (which he also co-owned from 1986 to 1999), Gartner won the 1997
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for a body of work about community issues. He previously served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1983 to 1992. He has also been a columnist for the
Op-Ed pages of
The Wall Street Journal and of
USA Today. Gartner chaired the Vision Iowa fund, which provided communities money to fund projects such as the
Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, from 2000 to 2005. In May 2005, Iowa Gov.
Tom Vilsack named him president of the
Iowa Board of Regents, which oversees the state's three public universities (the
University of Iowa,
Iowa State University, and the
University of Northern Iowa). He served until December 2007. Gartner is chairman of Raccoon Baseball, Inc., which owned the
Iowa Cubs baseball team from 1999 to 2021, and formerly was co-owner of Big Green Umbrella. When the Iowa Cubs were sold to
Endeavor he and the other owners shared the proceeds with their full-time staff. ==Dateline controversy==