Put simply, this magazine couldn’t exist without the extraordinary above-and-beyond dedication of a tiny but talented editorial team — and an extended family of writers, artists and photographers.
Thanks aren’t enough. Yet the end of the publication year does give me a chance to do this much at least. So here’s a few kudos for the folks who devote much of their time and energies to getting a lot of useful information and insight into your hands each month.
I have to start with Aaron Chambers, our reporter at the Statehouse, and my only full-time staffer. No one looks at government and politics in quite the way he does. That’s good for our readers because it means he invariably spots the stories behind, and beyond, the daily headlines. Among my favorite articles this past year were his about identity theft and the business of biogenetics. And the newspapers have yet to top his article on local efforts to prepare for potential terrorism attacks. Like everyone else on this team, he also assists with running down facts for other writers’ pieces. He has a hand in last-minute copy-editing and proofing. And he lends a good deal of energy and high spirits to our efforts.
Maureen McKinney’s title is projects editor. It should be utility player. She helps guide writers through the rigors of our tougher-than-most content standards. She writes in-depth pieces of her own for the magazine, and news updates for our Web site. Most valuable to me, she challenges us to keep an eye to the ethical standards of our journalistic craft.
Beverley Scobell juggles way too many responsibilities, too. She sets the magazine’s standards for grammar and style, and sees that virtually every fact is checked and double-checked — as much as can be accomplished on our surprisingly short production schedule. That’s no easy task because Illinois Issues provides a lot of facts in each and every issue. She’s also my essential “soothing presence” when the going gets toughest on that day before we send the magazine to the printer.
Debi Edmund is our “last eyes.” She reads each issue once and once only, a couple of days before we send it off. Her talent is spotting tiny gaps between letters and big gaps in thinking. In fact, we’ve come to measure ourselves by the number of marked-up pages she faxes back.
Diana Nelson is our art director. The magazine is only one of her responsibilities, yet each month she manages to block out time to bring our content to life in ways we couldn’t envision. She negotiates with artists and photographers and coordinates our efforts with the printer.
Rodd Whelpley usually edits books, but we convince him to help out with the magazine as much as we can — to write, edit, share ideas. He’s our backup grammarian and humorist, and we count on him to track baseball and licenses-for-bribes investigation stats.
Charlie Wheeler may be our most valuable player. No one else can parse a budget like he can, or, for that matter, remember virtually all of the details of every government action since 1970. Charlie writes our must-read “Politics” column every month.
Our regional columnists rotate their responsibilities: Madeleine Doubek of the Daily Herald from the suburbs; Pat Gauen of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from Metro East; and, our newest addition from Chicago, Bob Davis, formerly of the Chicago Tribune.
In fact, there’s an extended family of writers, artists and photographers who contribute regularly, as do our columnists, for not much more than this little bit of credit.
Someone once called this magazine a monthly miracle. And it is. The editorial team consists of two full-time staff members (one editor, one reporter). Everyone else is working part-time, on borrowed time or as a free-lancer.
So thanks again for another year of monthly miracles.
And have a good summer.
Illinois Issues, July/August 2002
