I can tell you for certain, CR was not my only source. I also was able to verify it with someone in Ames who was not using CR as his source - within 30 minutes of the info being on CR.
Plus, it was announced on KXNO today, etc.
Paul Clark, Chris Williams, Jeremy - etc - are not the only individuals that know good sourced at ISU.
You made a good point, a lot of people have a lot of sources and it's not hard to find somebody that would know things before they get posted. There are a lot of people in the know and it only takes one to get the info out there. There is a lot of news and only a portion of it is either worthy of writing about or is printable based on what a source may have asked of us. I know a lot of things that would not be good news to post about but there are other people that may have the same info and glad to share it.
It all depends on who you know and what they know. Follow the below example...
A recruit calls ISU to make a verbal, the coach relays it to the staff and the staff puts it down on paper. The papers may need to be passed on for future uses or for the NCAA. The player may then give word to a reporter, family, friends or others.
As you can see, there are a lot of potential sources involved, not just a random recruiting reporter. It's a complicated web of information and sources and it's sometimes harder to figure out what dot to call than it is to get the actual info.