- Will you consider this?

A year ago, he basically had a vague idea of what was ahead.

Before, he could blend into a crowd and still get his job done.

Now he's comfortable dressing up and hosting a gathering, and he's in the spotlight.

Stay here to see who's taking us through the past 12 months in central Illinois.

(upbeat music) From newspaper reporter to editor, publisher, he has slid what appears to be easily into his new role as the editor-in-chief, and he is Mike Bailey of Peoria Magazine.

Welcome.

- Thank you for having me.

- Thank you for being here.

- Again.

- Yeah, again, again.

Well, a year ago when we talked, you knew about writing stories, you knew about putting things together, but I mean, a whole magazine and here you are doing a little bit of everything, changing hats all the time.

- I am, I am.

Yeah, it's been a year.

The anniversary, I suppose.

Hard to believe, right?

- [Christine] Yeah.

- And Groundhog Day today too, so.

- [Christine] That's when we're recording this.

- Think he saw his shadow.

- Well, and (indistinct) on channel 25 used to say, no matter how you look at it, check the calendar, there's still six weeks.

So go figure.

- [Mike] That's right.

- Okay, so Peoria Magazine, it's slick.

Now, these are the last two issues at this taping January, and then February, Black History Month.

Very interesting.

And you come up with a theme every month?

- We do.

And know, some of those are recurring themes.

Some of them are new.

And so we're gonna be playing around a little bit with that.

You know, I mean, the great challenge here is to stay fresh, so you don't wanna kind of do the same thing every year.

And so, in March, for example, the theme's going to be how to bring some life back to downtown Peoria.

And that's, I think Covid kind of emptied out the offices downtown, but there was some decline prior to that.

And so how do we get it moving again?

I remember when I moved here in 1985, Peoria had double digit unemployment or close to it, but downtown was hopping, as you and I both will recall.

- I can remember back that far.

- It was a lot of fun.

So how do we recapture some of that?

So that's gonna be a little different.

And we're using a little different approach this time, which is kind of a team reporting approach.

And I will say that one of the things I'm proudest of is building a staff from scratch.

- [Christine] A solid staff.

- Yeah, a very solid staff.

One that I'm very proud of, by the way, because, you know, most of these people, the vast majority, almost all of them are freelancers and they have other jobs that they're juggling and family responsibilities and all of that.

And so this is a staff that I have great confidence in.

And so we've built it up to about 35 or 40 people, and that's a very solid stable of people.

And I can rely on them and count on them, and there's some movement in and out, which is why you need a larger staff.

So there's always somebody you can slide into that slot.

- A lot of them you had worked with previously, but a lot of them have been contacting you, just saying, hey, what can I do to help or?

- Yes, some of those.

So I need to build a staff quickly, so I need people that I knew and could trust right away.

And people who would meet deadlines.

Entire career has been dedicated to living by a deadline.

And so I needed those folks, and I needed them right away.

And so we did that.

But we brought some really young, fresh faces, people who did not come from journalism backgrounds, but write well, and they've done an outstanding job.

We've created some features like the 20 something.

And so we went out and tried to find somebody who was 20 something.

And that's been a fun and very popular feature in the magazine.

So, hey, so we had a lot of them.

We have built the staff.

For the longest time, we were in search of, we've got some good illustrators on board now.

We've had a cartoonist, Dan Acley for a while.

But that's another important feature of the magazine.

We'd like to highlight local artists in the area a lot more.

In fact, the February cover is- - [Christine] Yeah, it's beautiful.

- Actually a piece of art by Jonathan Romaine.

And it's really sharp.

I really love this cover, and he's great.

And so we would love to have him on board in the future too.

- I'm trying to get it in the picture.

There we go, okay.

Yeah, we have a lot of talented artists in the Peoria area.

- [Mike] Lot of talent in Central Illinois.

- Yeah, it is.

Well, all right, so a year ago, you're trying to figure this out.

How many pages do you have to have?

What's the layout and all that stuff?

What was your biggest challenge for issue number one?

- Well, we had six weeks to put it together, and we did a complete redesign of the magazine- - Well, getting ready for from winter to spring.

- That's right.

And we had a very small staff, and I think I wrote 5, 6, 7 stories in that first issue.

Phil Luciano wrote about an equal number, but we got it filled, and we know we wanted to fill, you know, 96 pages, 100 pages.

So we're consistently above 100.

I think our largest magazine was maybe 120 pages or something like that.

The issue now as I get 35 stories dropped on my lap at the end of every month, which is a lot all at once.

And we go through those, and now the issue is, you know- - [Christine] Length.

- Length, right?

We gotta cut it down a little bit so we're able to save some stories for other months.

But frequently in the magazine, like you said, it's themed.

And so if the story fits that theme, we're gonna try to get it in.

And people seem to want more copy rather than less.

That's some of the feedback that we've gotten from the community, so.

- See, and I like it 'cause it's concise.

I like it because I can get through an article, even if I'm interrupted, I can finish the article.

But a lot of times, I get to something and I just go, (sighs), it's gonna take me another two days.

- [Mike] Right, exactly.

- But you're enjoying it?

- I am.

You know, it is busy, and sometimes it just seems very much catches, catch, can it, you know?

Every now and again, you feel a little overwhelmed with a lot of the different things because one of the things is, you know, so I come out of a daily deadline background, which is almost easier in some way.

So this is a monthly.

But as soon as we put one issue to bed, it all starts right again, right?

- On the next, not only the next issue, but a couple of issues, yeah.

- And I'm trying to plan issues two issues out.

And so that can be just a lot of balls to juggle, right?

And so, but I am having fun.

It's exciting to do this.

I thought my journalism career was over.

And so to come back to that again has been a challenge and- - [Christine] Enjoyable.

- Yeah, it's been enjoyable.

- Well, so you got all these notes, I'm gonna need 'em.

When you're coming up with your themes, your monthly themes, obviously February was fairly easy, but it's also heart month.

And so you could do that at some point down the line.

You can do Irish St. Patrick's Day for March, right?

Who is deciding on what the theme, what the focus will be from month to month?

- Well, I would say largely me in consultation with Leslie and Julie Sanders and Phil and all.

We sit, we meet once a week and we kind of talk about the issues and what's going on in the community.

You have to be pretty flexible and fluid.

Sometimes we changed up things at the very last minute.

Last year we added an innovation, excuse me, an architecture and infrastructure issue, which we had not planned on, but there were a lot of things going on in the community.

And that was a subject that personally interested me.

So some of us just, you know, I'd like to really delve into this, right?

I mean, so the March issue, which is the downtown issue.

I mean, that's probably as deep a dive into downtown and what its needs are as any journalistic enterprise has done in central Illinois.

We went out and interviewed dozens and dozens and dozens of stakeholders downtown.

- And what are you finding out?

That there's definitely potential.

- Oh, yeah, there's long been potential.

Downtown Peoria does not lack for investment, right?

But there's something missing.

You don't see the pedestrian traffic, right?

There are concerns about crime, which are, you know, legitimate in some ways.

Concerns about violent crime are legitimate in communities all over America.

I mean, there's been a spike in that.

But, you know, some of that is overblown.

Most of that does not occur in the actually confines of downtown.

There's some concern about the rising homeless population.

There are concerns about just the vacancies.

Covid emptied out those offices, and not all those people came back.

That's a problem.

- [Christine] Because they can still work from home.

- That's right, they can still work from home.

So many of them are on hybrid schedules now.

So the office, the workers have not returned downtown.

The concerns about the general appearance of downtown, aesthetics, that sort of thing.

- Well, once the streets are two-way again, that should help things.

- I hope so, hope so.

A lot of the restaurants and bars, for example, are very dependent on the Civic Center.

So if the Civic Center's all lit up, they're all lit up.

If it's dark, they're dark.

And so, but things are coming back.

I mean, I think Covid we hope, fingers crossed, is behind us, so we'll see.

So there's a lot of potential.

A lot of the trends in downtowns across America.

Everybody talks about walkable downtowns.

Peoria's downtown's not really walkable, right?

It's too big.

It's a very large footprint for a downtown.

Not walking from Obed and Isaac's to the Warehouse District, for example.

So what you need to do maybe is reimagine downtown with these sort of pockets, right?

And the walkabilities within those pockets.

The big thing and the big push is to get more people living downtown.

They're about 1500 people living downtown now.

If you recall the Dimitrio plan of 50 years ago.

- [Christine] Oh, well, yeah.

Almost 50 Years ago.

- That was his big push.

He said there need to be 3,500 to 4,000 people living downtown.

They can't build these loft apartments fast enough.

So there is a demand there.

And so, reimagine the downtown.

I think you have to account for, you know, that remote work is probably here to stay, at least for as far as the eye can see.

And so we need residents living downtown.

You gotta have support services downtown.

You gotta have a grocery store somewhere.

You gotta have a drug store somewhere.

And so, you know- - [Christine] We used to have a drug store.

- You used to have a lot of that.

Used to have a very busy restaurant.

I think the old busy bee was it, you know, that sort of thing.

And now, I mean, where would you get breakfast?

I mean, you can get breakfast, but there's not like a breakfast place.

- Right, exactly.

- And so, but we just need to see sort of little beehives of activity, and that would resolve some of the concerns about crime, which I think are mostly perception downtown.

But you know, when you have people walking about, that's kind of its own protection, right?

So it's own security.

And so I just like to see downtown be live there again.

- Yeah.

Even though we're old and we might not use all those services.

- I'll bring my kids and grandkids down.

I'm always the one popping.

Let's go for dinner.

- [Christine] They'll be like, let's do it.

- If I'm paying, they'll come.

- So you've kept alive the traditional Peoria magazine themed, the women in leadership and the 40 under 40, and there you are up in front of audiences all the time.

A lot different than when you were in the newspaper business and you could wear the flannel shirt and sit in the back of the room.

- [Mike] Pajamas.

- But here you are now, and just as comfortable in front of an audience as ever.

- I guess, I don't know.

I guess I'll leave that to other people to judge how comfortable I am.

But it's been fine.

I don't mind doing that sort of thing, and I think Leslie would like me to do more of it, so I'm here today.

- Okay, yeah, here you are.

All right, so what's in your notes that we need to make sure that we hit on because we have three pages.

- I think the big challenge moving forward is gonna be sustainability.

Finding stories that haven't been told.

The magazine really needs to stay fresh.

And if we're recycling stories that other media have done or that we have done previously, that's no good.

So we need to go out and find new stories to tell.

You know, I've got some very good people on staff for that.

Phil Luciano is really good at digging up some obscure little thing from a little town.

And he's doing a lot of TV and so there's some intermingling with the magazine and WTVP.

So some of the things he's writing about, he's also doing shows here in the station, and I think- - It's a nice marriage.

- Yeah, it is a nice marriage.

And so I think we'll see more of that in the future.

I mean, we're kind of in a growth mode, and without being too specific about that, I mean, we are adding things and the challenge there is to not add too much too fast, I think.

That'll be, you know, Leslie's a go-getter, and I enjoy that.

That's one of the things that's really exciting about this job is this desire to do things.

- It's just not a ho-hum.

- That's right, that's right.

But you've gotta be very careful about that because if you take on too much, then you're doing everything in a mediocre way.

- Exactly.

- And so you wanna retain, you wanna keep the quality up and steady, manageable growth.

And I think that's what we're gonna do.

- Well, you remember, so back in the newsroom days, you know, I mean, okay, so Groundhog Day.

We're gonna go out and Gertie the groundhog, that's really a nice story, but how do we put a little fresh spin on it?

And it was the same.

It's like, oh no, another year of this.

I remember being sent out one time and it was news released was I'm, there's nobody here.

Well, it was from the year before.

It just got recycled in the schedule.

So you're right.

That is a challenge.

- And it becomes easy and lazy and yet really, you know, you've always gotta guard against that.

- [Christine] Yeah?

- Yeah.

- Okay, so projecting ahead, you wanna find some more 20 somethings to help you out?

- Well, I think if any enterprise is gonna survive, yeah, you've gotta have a little younger customer base, right?

I mean, it's that, you know, it continues to grow and grow and grow.

- Are you finding that some of the younger ones are reading the magazine?

- Yeah, I mean, I will say, our circulation is way, way up, right?

I mean, way, way up.

And so I'm very happy about that.

'Cause you never know for sure, you know?

I mean, we're in an environment now where a lot of media are dying off and really, really struggling to capture an audience.

And we have not had that issue, in fact, just the opposite.

And suggests there's a starvation in the community, or starvation is the wrong word, I hunger in the community for news and for and for print to some degree, yeah.

- Well, because- - [Mike] Yeah, for stories.

- Because of the lack of some of the places where they could get their information before.

- Things have really changed, yeah.

- Things have really changed.

And we've been around a long time to witness the changes and be part of the changes and say, but, but, but, but we need to do it that way.

- Yeah, that's right.

That's exactly right, so.

So I'm thrilled about that, and we'll just keep chugging along here.

I'm excited about there's a, just the creativity and all of this.

I'm it, you know, it's fun having that kind of outlet again at my age.

(laughs) - [Christine] But no surprises, no big surprises for you?

- No, not really.

You know, as I said, I couldn't be prouder of the staff because I think anybody who runs any kind of business will tell you that hiring quality staff is the most important thing they do.

And I think I'm most pleased with that.

And so the challenge there then is to keep that staff and to add some more fresh voices in the community, and we'll mix things up here and there.

So the February issue, which is for a black history month, achievement and progress.

We had several people write, African Americans in the community who wrote for that issue.

And I think we'll try to bring them back for other issues.

And it doesn't have to be an African American issue.

It can be any issue, you know?

It's the part of the fabric of the community.

- [Christine] It is.

- [Mike] And so I would love to have some of those folks back, you know, and writing for the magazine.

- Well, it's always a challenge to have people look back and look forward simultaneously.

Are you the assignment editor also?

- [Mike] Oh yeah.

- Oh, are you?

- No, that's right, that's right.

No, I am.

Now, I'm receptive to ideas always and encourage people if you've got an idea, pitch it to me and we'll decide from there.

But for the most part, you know, we're generating ideas within this little circle, and we know what the theme is, and then I make assignments, you know?

An like I said, they're all freelancers, and some will say, yeah, I'd love to do that or I can't do it this month, but keep me in mind for next month, that sort of thing.

And yeah, so I'm the assignment editor.

- [Christine] All right.

- And the actual editor.

(laughs) And a reporter.

Yeah.

- You kind of do it, like I said, you're changing your hat all the time.

- Exactly, yeah.

- Well, how is it to kind of dress up for some of the things that you have to do?

I mean, you don't have to dress up like that every day.

- Oh no, I think I, you know?

- [Christine] You just did that- - Actually don't even have an office here at WTVP.

I work outta my home.

I work remotely.

- [Christine] Oh, you're one of those too?

- Yes, I'm one of those.

So I'd never put on a jacket unless I'm doing something like this.

(laughs) Or 40 under 40.

- And you remember how to tie a tie.

- I do, I do.

Although I don't even put on a tie most of the time.

- So of those where you have been in front of the audiences, what has been the most nerve-wracking for you to get up and prepare?

- I don't know that anything's really been nerve-wracking.

I mean, sometimes it's just there's preparation, there's just time involved in getting ready for that.

And it's something aside from the magazine, right?

And so- - [Christine] But it's still part of the magazine.

- It is still part of the magazine.

And so, you know, you gotta prepare, you gotta do background on people.

You gotta, you know, when you're doing something in front of a camera, it's just a little different.

And you know, you get up, you kind of try to tell a few jokes, you try to put the audience at ease, right?

That puts you at ease, that sort of thing.

But the Local Legends is a good one.

Where this very studio was packed with people, you know, of very influential people in the community.

And so I hosted that.

I mean, I shouldn't say I hosted it.

I was the moderator.

WTVP did great job of hosting it.

Lot of people involved in that, very talented people.

But that sort of thing.

40 under 40, kind of same thing.

But you know, I interviewed Daniel Ash Heim, who's from the Israeli Consulate in Chicago at this very table.

Yeah, and so, but so that requires some research and that sort of thing.

And you know, TV's a little different medium then.

And I've got a radio face, so.

TV's a different medium than print, so.

But it's been fun to do, yeah.

- But you don't think nerve-wracking, so that's good because- - Not really.

And I've done some public speaking to the Rotary and that sort of thing and I'm usually, by the way, heads up out there, I'm usually available for that sort of thing.

- And if you have any ideas, he's available for those too.

Right, right.

- [Mike] Yeah, yeah.

- Well, compared to a year ago when we talked, you are much more at ease in front of the camera.

- [Mike] Oh, well good.

- I gotta say that.

You were a little bit nervous, and that stands to reason because you had to brush off some of the dust, I guess, from being out all the time.

- And you know, things a year ago were by no means assured that we really didn't know.

We're just launching this big experiment.

And so far so good it's turned out.

- It is.

And then the advertisers are coming forward for you.

- That's been another really refreshing thing.

Yeah, absolutely.

People have been, are really supporting the magazine.

Yeah, and I really gotta owe that to, credit Leslie and her staff, Julie Sanders and Angie Spears and others who are out there selling ads and that sort of thing.

They've done a great job.

- And then who's doing the layout?

Are you doing the layout too?

- No, Debbie Cody does the layout.

No, that's well beyond my skill level.

Yeah.

So Debbie Cody, who does all of our design work and layout, she's really, really gifted.

And her husband Tom handles the webpage for us.

And so they've been doing a great job.

So the magazine looks as good as it does, and I think it really looks great because of Deb and her work.

Yeah.

- So you are going through every inch, every word page by page, and what is the longest story?

You don't have to tell me what the subject matter was, but what was the longest story that was written by one of your freelancers that you had to chop to pieces?

- Yeah, probably 2000 words.

I mean, I've gotten a few that were very, very long and I had to edit to a more manageable level.

You know, 40 under 40 was really a hard thing to do.

So we get these applications and- - [Christine] So much information about those.

- The no nominators go on and on and on.

And I had to edit, quite literally, some of them were 4,000 words and I had to edit them to 400.

So that's a lot of work.

- Right.

- To still make it sound coherent.

(Mike laughs) - [Christine] Okay.

But I give every, before we even start down that path of putting together the magazine, I give every reporter a word count goal.

Now, they don't have to meet that exactly, but get me close, you know?

But I always tell them also give it what you think it deserves 'cause you may change my mind.

This may be so fantastic.

- [Christine] It might be more deserving.

- We're just gonna go with it.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, I really, that's the other thing.

I really want our reporters and artists to be able to spread their wings a little bit.

And I think I'd like to see Peoria Magazine develop a reputation for cultivating talent and giving people a chance.

For example, illustrators and cartoonists.

I mean, that's a profession that has almost gone away in many ways.

- [Christine] It really is.

- There are no jobs at newspapers for them anymore.

And so you literally become a starving artist, right?

I mean, and these people, a lot of these folks are really talented, you know?

And so I'm glad to be able to offer them an avenue to express themselves, - [Christine] Showcase them.

- Absolutely, and so we'd like to see more of that, right?

And so, yeah.

- What is the oddest thing that has crossed your path in this past year when it comes to the magazine, if you have something that really stands out?

- You know, I'll think of it five minutes after I leave here.

But one of the surprises is, this is an issue with a monthly publication is that we'll get actually scoops, but it's very, we have to wait on that.

- [Christine] You have to sit on 'em.

It's not like newspaper.

- Yeah.

And one of the one of the very earliest issues, quite literally, we were seven days out from that landing in people's mailboxes.

And five or six stories appeared in other media in town.

We had to tear it up.

- [Christine] Right.

- Yeah.

- You know, some things, things just happen at the last minute, and I'm not gonna get into specifics on this one, but we hadn't issue in town where we had profiled someone and something happened and we had to- - Had to drop the story?

- We had to pull the story.

Yeah, that's right.

And so- - Well, and it really truly is different than the news business.

I mean, when you had to scoop, you could go with it right away.

Make sure you check your boxes and do it.

- We have a couple things right now that we're just chopping at the bit to get in, you know?

When can we get it in?

Does it fit the theme?

- [Christine] Right.

- Yeah, and so.

- You're not gonna put a spin on anything?

- You know, we discussed this last year, we were putting together basically a business journal, right?

But it was to highlight the positives of central Illinois.

So I kind of referred to it as journalism light, but still journalism.

And so I think that's an important thing to remember.

We're out there doing reporting.

We're not gonna gloss over the challenges that the community faces, right?

You know, in whatever issue.

So this downtown issue is a good example of that.

I think you have to be honest about where you are before you can start to do things to fix it or correct it or make it better.

- Right.

- And so, but it starts from a position of honesty, you know?

Let's not gloss over that.

Let's confront it, and then deal with it in a constructive way.

Let's move forward in a constructive way.

- How can we move forward?

- That's right.

- Exactly.

And so that's part of the mission of the magazine, that we're a little different than some other media, you know, which is not just out there report the news and the chips fall where they may.

- Right.

Well, but you're presenting, again, both sides of the story.

- [Mike] No, that's right.

- And that is the most important thing that it doesn't seem like we're getting from anybody anymore.

- [Mike] That's right.

Yeah, so.

- Okay.

- I'm old school in that sense.

- Well, you know, we are.

And hopefully that legacy, that's our legacy to bring up some of the younger people and say, hey, this is how you have to do it.

- Yeah, the one thing we're not doing, I should probably emphasize this, we're not writing public relations.

That's not what we do.

We're doing journalism.

Yeah, so, yeah.

- Well, thanks for being here.

Our time's almost up.

How about it?

- [Mike] It flew by just like the last year.

(both laugh) - Exactly.

Well, all the best to you.

- [Mike] Thank you.

- And all of your special staff that you brought on board in the next year, and we'll do another follow up.

- [Mike] Come back another groundhog back.

(both laugh) - History repeats itself.

- That's right, that's right.

- [Christine] Thanks so much, Mike.

- Thank you.

- And thank you all.

Got any ideas from me and people, places, things that are interesting?

you got anything for him too?

Same thing.

So thanks for joining us.

Stay safe and healthy and hold happiness.

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