Author: Jackie Spinner

News Analysis: Readers want good visuals, but newsrooms keep laying off photojournalists who can deliver them

As a young photojournalist just a few years out of college, Jason Howell was finally settling down. He had a full-time staff job at the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier in eastern Illinois and had just signed a year-long lease on an apartment in Charleston. As the only staff photographer at a paper that dates back…

New statehouse bureau aims to fill gap in coverage for Illinois newspapers

Like many statehouse press corps, the one in Illinois is a fraction of what it used to be. Since the legislative session started this year, about a dozen reporters, including interns, have been assigned to cover what’s going on in the Illinois capital. A decade ago, there were 30 full-time statehouse press reporters in Springfield…