As we’ve watched the farcical state budget developments in Springfield the past few weeks it again strikes me how the state of Illinois is two different states. There is “Chicagoland” and then there is everybody else.

The first symbol of that is our governor who supposedly rules from Springfield but spends only a minimal amount of time there. Don’t we continue to maintain a “Governor’s Mansion” there?

When Governor Blago first took office, I recall meeting with some state bureaucrats at the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago. “Everything is moving up here,” they told me. These folks, like their leader, had two offices, one here and one downstate, and they spent as little time as possible “down there.”

A few years ago, at The Business Ledger, we launched a statewide magazine called “Illinois Forward” which is designed to provide career information for high school students who aren’t sure what they should do after graduation.

The initial funding for the magazine came from a federal grant, “Education-to-Careers” that was managed by state education officials. The woman I met with who approved the funds told me: “The only way we can do this is if you promise to distribute the magazine throughout the state. Everyone south of I-80 always feels left out.”

We have published that magazine for five years although due to a decreasing amount of funding from the state, it looks like we might have to take a sabbatical this year. It’s too bad because some of the most favorable comments we received from students and guidance counselors were from Champaign, Peoria, Galesburg and points south. They appreciated being included.

For the past two years we have conducted a “statewide” competition to honor the Best Places to Work in Illinois. This year out of 30 companies that were honored, two were from Peoria and one from Champaign. Two other companies from the Springfield area applied but didn’t make the list.

Our marketing partners in this program have been the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and the Society of Human Resource Managers—Illinois State Council. The representatives of both of those organizations signed on with us specifically because it gave them an opportunity to serve their downstate members.

We invited two downstate business journals to help us promote the program. Brant Mackey, publisher of the Springfield Business Journal, said that some of his business associates in that area were reluctant to participate expressing the feeling that “all the winners will come from Chicago.” And, that’s about how it turned out.

Just for the record, the process by which companies are chosen as the Best Places to Work in Illinois is a completely objective one conducted by a research company in Pennsylvania that collects data from throughout the nation and compares good HR practices.

There is no question that downstate has an inferiority complex and with good reason. The sheer volume of Chicago area businesses just overwhelms the rest of the state.

In trying to sell advertising to support statewide publications, the message we hear is that the advertisers are not interested in the distribution that we provide outside the Chicago area.

It’s hard to find any company other than a utility or energy provider that markets its service or product throughout a state that stretches more than 400 miles from north to south with the major percentage of population living in eight counties in the northeast part of the state.

I’m sure there are other states in the nation with similar situations. New York certainly comes to mind as does Michigan, although Detroit does not have anywhere near the economic strength in that state that Chicago does in Illinois.

The Illinois Chamber used to publish a magazine for its members and others who were interested in the state’s economy appropriately titled: “Illinois Business.” It faced the same issues that we have with our statewide publications. It’s hard to get advertisers in Chicago excited about reaching readers in Carbondale.

That same philosophy applies to most businesses. Why go outside Chicago when the business market here is larger than in many of our small and medium-sized states. I’m sure that business managers downstate are intimidated by trying to do business in the Chicago area.

As we have found at The Business Ledger, however, one doesn’t have to serve the entire market. You can be profitable and comfortable just serving your niche.

This economic division is caused by geography. I’m sure downstate folks say the same thing about us that we think about them: “It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.”

Contact publisher Jim Elsener at jelsener@thebusinessledger.com or at 630-428-8788.