Nick Vlahos|Journal Star
Experience. You just can't beat it.
If memory serves, a local politician used a similar catchphrase in at least one of his campaigns years ago. It must have worked, because David Leitch spent almost 30 years representing Peoria in the Illinois House.
Before he became a public servant, Leitch covered the Peoria City Council for the Journal Star. It probably would be safe to assume his experience there served him well once he stopped chasing quotes and started attending quorum calls.
Nick in the Morning was one of Leitch's successors on the City Hall beat. In between, the newspaper has had some excellent ones. Most of them— including two legends of the game, Shelley Epstein and John Sharp— had exactly what Leitch was advocating in his campaigns.
Experience. Not just in journalism, but in Peoria.
Combine those aspects and there's plenty of reason to purchase a Journal Star digital subscription. Plenty of value, too.
The newspaper's current introductory offer is exceptional — six months at $1 per. At the regular price of $7.99 a month, it's still a great deal.
Nowhere else in Peoria-area media can you get as much local-news experience for so little money.
Who works at the Journal Star?
Yours truly just celebrated his 33rd full-time year at the paper, not including two years as a sports-department part-timer while attending Bradley University.
Columnist Phil Luciano's 33rd Journal Star anniversary is this spring. The relative "rookies" on our news-reporting staff, Andy Kravetz and Leslie Renken, came aboard more than 20 years ago.
The granddaddy of them all, sports reporter Dave "Cleve" Eminian, is approaching his 36th year at 1 News Plaza. Sportswriting colleagues Johnny Campos and Stan Morris have been around since big hair and low-rise jeans were in style.
Most of our behind-the-scenes editors have close to two decades of Journal Star service, too. Editor Katie Gaston even is a native Peorian, a graduate of old Woodruff High School.
What do we cover?
The current Journal Star staff has spent lifetimes covering news and sports in every nook and cranny of Peoria, the Tri-County area and much of west-central Illinois.
When big news breaks, our reporters know exactly where to go in a timely fashion to find details others might miss. We also have a wide and trusted network of sources, built with care over the years, who help us uncover stories that can't be found anywhere else.
How else and where else could you discover late "Saved by the Bell" actor Dustin Diamond spent considerable time in Peoria during his final years? Or that a man who once attended high school in McDonough County made national headlines for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot?
Nowhere else could be found a sobering story about local young adults who paid the ultimate price for their drug addiction. Nor detailed looks at candidates in the upcoming Peoria mayoral election.
Or reputable analysis about why Bradley men's basketball hit a mid-season swoon. And informed, perspective-laden opinion, not hot takes from know-little attention-seekers.
We have more experience than other news organizations
In the Peoria area, other media outlets cannot provide the breadth and depth that can be found daily in the Journal Star. That isn't fake news.
Most local radio and television news departments are staffed with younger reporters. Some have excellent potential. But those 20-somethings often view Peoria only as a place to hone their reporting chops for a couple of years before they move to a larger market.
That isn't necessarily a criticism, and at one time it wasn't the rule for Peoria-area electronic media. Look at former long-tenured TV anchors and reporters like Bob Larson and Tom McIntyre and Christine Zak. But the business has changed.
It's changed for newspapers, too. The Journal Star doesn't have the mammoth staff it once did. But most of our current reporters and editors are Peoria lifers, long part of this community and devoted to it.
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Granted, a veteran staff isn't always ideal. It's good to have some new blood that offers different views and ideas about how to cover things.
Executive editor Romando Dixson, on the job since last summer, is an example. We're working on adding another newbie, to provide a fresh set of eyes and to keep the old-timers on their toes.
This synthesis of old and new, and breaking news and in-depth reports, is worth your attention. Pardon our directness, but it also is worth your hard-earned cash.
It doesn't take much cash, relatively speaking, to have access to it all. All that news. And all that experience.
