This week is essay No. 300, dear reader. I’m shooting for No. 400!
The Chas has a dream.
He dreams of becoming a newspaper publisher.
In the early 20th Century, Aurora had three major daily newspapers, the Aurora Beacon (a conservative point of view), the Aurora Star (a liberal point of view), and the Aurora Daily News (somewhere in between), all of which vied furiously for the heart and soul of Aurora and, not so coincidently, new subscribers and advertising revenue. You’ve heard of newspaper wars, yes? Well, Aurora’s newspapers were no slouches when it came to blasting each other as well as the local politicians.
In the midst of the wars, the Star burned down under mysterious circumstances, and then there were two. Later on, the Daily News faced financial problems and sold out to the Beacon, and then there was one, The Aurora Beacon-News . It reigned supreme as the voice of Aurora for a long time.
There was, however, one little bump in the road the B-N’s trucks had to travel over in the 1950s. It was a broadsheet published by the late Paul Egan, former Mayor of Aurora. The Beacon-News could not afford to ignore this paper, because Hizzoner went for the jugular vein when it came to accusing the B-N of graft, libel, and political partisanship. When Mr. Egan was defeated in one of his re-election bids, the B-N breathed a collective sigh of relief. It had no more competition.
When the Copley Press and all of its newspapers was bought out by the Hollinger conglomerate in 2002, the B-N became a shadow of its former self. The new owners saw it as another cash cow and not as a source of news. The paper invariably suffered the same fate as dozens of other small dailies/weeklies across the country. But that’s a story for another time.
The Chas dreams of resurrecting the old Aurora Star and giving our fair city a newspaper it can be proud of. The new Star would be a beacon (!) shining on the shady dealings of government and business. It would give the citizens of Aurora a greater voice in the affairs of the city.
The Star would start out modestly, perhaps only 16 pages in length, until it established itself, bringing in more subscribers, advertising revenue, and readers’ commentaries at which time it could expand to 20 or more pages. The physical size of the paper would equal that of The Beacon-News but would not increase over time.
Page one would feature national, and/or State-derived news articles, via the Associated Press and the Illinois Capitol Times, respectively, concerning issues which had an impact on the local community. Page two would contain the usual publishing information, a mission statement, a table of contents, a list of wildly important goals for the city government to pursue, and a hard-hitting editorial by the publisher. Page three would be devoted to City Council meetings and departmental activities. Page four would create a community bulletin board whereby local organizations could post their upcoming meetings and events in a timely fashion.
The last four pages would be reserved for classified and local business advertisements. The remainder of the paper would be devoted to local news articles, special contributions. health, veterans, seniors, library, local sports, readers’ commentaries, and obituaries of note. Missing would be the majority of syndicated material for cost-cutting reasons; exceptions would be a few political and non-political cartoons and a focus-on-history feature. The Chas intends the Aurora Star to be a newspaper of the people, by the people, and for the people.
When will The Chas’ dream become reality? When he wins the lottery, of course, which could happen any day now. Anybody taking any bets?
Just a thought.