Who’s Responsible for Illinois Magazine?
The other day we uncovered a specialist in a kind of journalism we’d never heard of.
The whole project took about a year. Reynolds prepped for it by taking a crash reading course in the state, which ranged all the way to The Truly Disadvantaged by sociologist William Julius Wilson of the University of Chicago. “Although I grew up in Moline, I wasn’t necessarily familiar with the rest of the state,” she said.
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“One problem we have on all our publications is to convince people that we are really interested in serious journalism and to take this seriously,” Reynolds said. “And this is not easy, especially with the best writers.” Who tend to take the attitude, Vanity Fair I’ll work hard for; the state of Illinois–get serious!
“That attitude,” said Reynolds, “was clearly in evidence in a couple of the stories I received.”
DCCA’s caught some heat over Illinois’s being, well, maybe not gray enough, maybe too consumerish, not pinpointed at the corporate Caesars it was primarily meant for. But O’Connor had calculated that Caesars’ decisions on where to extend their empires boil down to perceptions about quality of life.
“Me,” said O’Connor.
Foerstner also mentioned that Mapplethorpe had AIDS. (He died in March.)
