Progress Illinois

Sure, Illinois voters are sick and tired of corrupt politicians dishing off patronage jobs and selling vacant seats. But that doesn't mean the dirty dealing in Springfield is going to cease. In fact, it may get worse as the capitol press corps tasked with burrowing into official business is steadily shrinking.

Thanks to an unsustainable business model, a nasty recession, and poor ownership, American newspapers are struggling across the board. Just this morning, the Chicago Sun-Times followed the Tribune's lead in filing for bankruptcy. And as newsrooms shrink, so does coverage of state politics, as a new report this month by the American Journalism Review reminds us:

The tally found only 355 full-time newspaper reporters at the nation's state capitols, a 32 percent decrease from just six years ago. It discovered that 44 statehouses have fewer full-time reporters than they did six years ago. The number of full-time reporters remained the same in four states and increased modestly in two.

In the Prairie State, the Tribune, Gatehouse Media, Rockford Register-Star, Bloomington Pantagraph, and Champaign News-Gazzette have all cut Springfield staff since 2003. In a follow-up feature to their report, AJR asked the Daily Herald's John Patterson about the effect the cuts had on his work:

The loss of those watchdogs affects not only their communities and the quality of their papers, but also the press corps that remains, says John Patterson, who covers state government for suburban Chicago's Daily Herald. He illustrates how that happened in Illinois, where five papers eliminated a total of seven positions. Before she lost her job, News-Gazette reporter Kate Clements' coverage of the University of Illinois pension system "led to other people doing stories about pensions, who was on the boards and how decisions were made," he notes. The Rockford Register Star's Aaron Chambers broke the story about how the executive branch wasn't following the proper steps in managing contracts. "It involved millions of dollars, and nobody was following the proper channel."

Chambers now works for a lobbying firm and Clements (who now uses her married name, Cohorst) is communications director of the American Heart Association's Springfield office. "Now there are fewer voices asking a question that I might prick up my ears to," Patterson says.

AJR does highlight how a small but growing number of entrepreneurial and non-profit ventures are stepping in to help pick up the slack, even giving a shout-out to Rich Miller for his work at Capitol Fax. But those publications haven't had the time to generate the reach or revenue of the daily papers.  Until they do, the institutional memory that good, daily reporting creates -- and the public good it serves -- will suffer.