When I entered journalism school back in the 1970s, my intent was to work for a magazine. After all, they were everywhere in our home while I was growing up: Life, Look, Redbook, Time, Field & Stream, Guideposts.
And later, away at college, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly — even a publication notorious for its photographs that nobody really read only for the articles.
But as the saying goes, life is what happens while you're busy making other plans. Marriage, a child — but mostly establishing visible means of support — intervened. My career veered toward and continued in newspapers: county seat dailies, then regional and statewide publications. I covered cops, schools, city and state government. At several stops, I wrote columns. Early on, I even took photographs and reported on high school sports events. As an editor, I directed staff news coverage, coordinated a state government bureau for a news service, oversaw enterprise projects and investigative reports.
To keep up with daily events, I would read four or five newspapers a day, along with myriad wire services that were fed into our newsroom computers. All the while, a diverse assortment of magazines would still show up at home: National Geographic, Newsweek, Outside, Consumer Reports, Vanity Fair, Southern Living, fly fishing and golf publications, among others. Reader's Digest, an annual holiday gift from my now-octogenarian mother ever since I left my parents' home more than three decades ago. Illinois Issues, of course.
It took 30 years or so, but I've finally realized my journalism school goal.
I'm honored and thrilled to take over the reins at Illinois' leading public policy magazine from retiring executive editor Peggy Boyer Long, as well as to become director of publications for the Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
I'm deeply saddened by the convulsive changes occurring in newspapers, my passion for nearly all of my adult life. But their move toward quicker, shorter, more intensely local stories will make publications such as ours even more vital. Illinois Issues tries to provide the context and background of a topic, as well as balanced, in-depth analysis.
Take this issue, for example: Statehouse bureau chief Bethany Jaeger writes about public sector unions emerging as the primary force in organized labor; Chris Wetterich examines whether smoking bans throughout the state have hurt businesses and governments; Aaron Chambers looks at whether the state's "uniform" tax structure could be changed under the Illinois Constitution; James Krohe Jr. analyzes the new moment-of-silence mandate for students; and Joseph R. Fornieri takes Abraham Lincoln and Plato at their words. All that along with our regular features, such as insightful columns by Bethany and Charles N. Wheeler III, and our People and Briefly sections.
You can expect that kind of wide-ranging journalism to continue in the future. We also intend to expand the offerings on our Web site, and explore new ways to tell stories and to keep up with developments on important events as they happen. And we will look for more outlets for you, our readers, to tell us what you think about subjects that affect Illinoisans and to let us know what you'd like to see in the magazine and online. In that vein, we urge you to send any ideas or thoughts you might have.
We also want to continue to grow our circulation and our reputation. Illinois Issues is known in public policy circles, but we'd like more of our fellow Illinoisans to take a look at what we produce. Our mission statement talks about "enhancing the quality of public discourse in Illinois." We take that to heart.
If you see something in our publication or on our Web site that ignites a spark, please tell a friend, a neighbor, a relative. Ask for us at your local bookstore or newsstand. And what better gift for those whose opinion you value than sending a year's worth of issues directly to their mailboxes.
I think you can guess how I intend to repay my mother for all those years of including a magazine subscription among my holiday presents.
Welcome
Please welcome Patrick O'Brien, this year's intern from the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield, to our staff for the next five months.
Patrick, who hails from Chicago, graduated in 2007 from Northeastern Illinois University with a bachelor's degree in history, while also focusing on English and philosophy. He was editor in chief of his college newspaper and garnered statewide awards from the Illinois College Press Association for news, editorial and column writing.
He joins Bethany Jaeger in our Statehouse bureau to cover what's expected to be another contentious spring session of the Illinois General Assembly.
The Public Affairs Reporting program, directed by our columnist Charles N. Wheeler III, allows participants to work side-by-side with reporters at the Capitol.
Also relatively new to our staff are Linda Anderson, associate director for marketing and circulation, and Bonnie Burcham, our graduate assistant, both of whom joined us last fall.
Linda oversees our marketing, advertising and underwriting efforts, as well as our promotional events. She has nearly two decades of experience in public relations, communications and marketing with non-profit, corporate and governmental entities and most recently taught high school journalism.
Bonnie, a 2007 graduate of Blackburn College, checks facts in our articles, as well as writing some of her own. She also edits our Roster of State Government Officials, available in March. Originally from Decatur, she is in the communication master's degree program at UIS.
[T]he convulsive changes occurring in newspapers ... will make publications such as ours even more vital.
Dana Heupel can be reached at heupel.dana@uis.edu.
Illinois Issues, February 2008
