Bureau County History Center to host talk on Illinois news deserts

Bureau County was once home to more than a half dozen independent newspapers. Only one remains today, according to Bureau County History Center Curator Jessica Gray.Two journalism professionals are scheduled to explain why that matters in a free talk at the history center, “Illinois’ Growing News Deserts and Why We Should Care.”The presentation is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, in the auditorium of the Sash-Stalter-Matson Building, 15 Park Ave. W., Princeton, according to the history center. Admission is free.The speakers are Julia Rendleman, an assistant professor of journalism at Southern Illinois University, and Alee Quick, director of development for the Illinois Press Foundation and its statewide nonprofit newsroom, Capitol News Illinois.“Nearly every one of our small towns operated their own paper for a time,” Gray said.Rendleman, a photographer, has received multiple grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.“We lose a central tenet of our representative democr