A Peoria Paper Is Working to ‘Be There’ in Underserved Community—Without Adding Reporters

Robin Berry remembered a time in Peoria, Illinois, when residents of the South Side so detested the local newspaper that groups of people would buy a single copy and pass it around so they wouldn’t have to give the Journal Star “a dime more than they had to.”   Until a few months ago, the Gatehouse Media Inc. paper only seemed to report negative news from the South Side of Peoria, said Berry, housing development director for the non-profit Peoria Citizens Committee for Economic Opportunity. “Based on the newspaper, it would be a place that I would not want to live,” she said.