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Mission: To hold government accountable through objective, balanced, citizen-focused public journalism with a taxpayer sensibility. Our work allows all readers to understand the impact and importance of governmental issues in their own back yard.

The Center Square was launched to fulfill the need for high-quality statehouse and statewide news across the United States.

The focus of our work is state- and local-level government and economic reporting. A taxpayer sensibility distinguishes our work from other coverage of state and local issues. As a result of this approach, our readers are better informed about the focus of state and local government and its cost to the citizens whose tax dollars fund governmental decisions.

The Center Square is staffed by editors and reporters with extensive professional journalism experience. We engage readers with essential news, data and analysis – delivered with velocity, frequency and consistency.

We distribute our journalism through three main channels at no cost to our partners or readers: a newswire service to legacy publishers and broadcasters, TheCenterSquare.com, and social media.

  • Focused on state-level government, legislation, waste, fraud, and abuse with short, quickly moving daily dispatches
  • We cover statehouse and statewide news across all 50 states and provide coverage of the federal government from Washington, D.C.

Franklin Media Group is the official advertising partner of The Center Square and Illinois Radio Network.

Franklin Media Group is the exclusive advertising agency for both Illinois Radio Network and The Center Square. Founded in 2019, Franklin Media Group specializes in radio, display, newsletter and podcast advertising in and around IRN and TCS products. Franklin Media Group welcomes advertising requests of all kinds to help connect brands and organizations to the high-quality, news-focused audiences that listen to and read our news every day.

For more information, please visit FranklinMedia.Group.

Illinois Radio Network is the preeminent news and information source for radio stations across the state. For more than 30 years, IRN has consistently provided statehouse and statewide news to local broadcast outlets.

Illinois Radio Network is the news, sports and information service created specifically with radio in mind, providing indispensable content to affiliates across the state. IRN coverage is contemporary and contextual, designed for a statewide audience that is passionate about Illinois. Our journalists are accurate and ethical, providing uncommon insight into the state’s most relevant stories. Partners value IRN because our approach to news is thoughtful, complete and resonates with affiliate audiences.

IRN’s partnerships provide a unique platform to reach Illinoisans from small farm towns to large metro areas. Serving millions of listeners continuously since 1988, IRN is fiercely independent, and owned and operated in Illinois.

  • 84 affiliate radio stations
  • Covers all 102 counties in Illinois

Chalkboard News provides a non-partisan, non-political approach to news coverage of the critical issues facing education in America.

Chalkboard News fills the need of parents and all stakeholders for breaking K-12 public education news coverage. This work is infused with the belief that everyone is an education stakeholder and readers can be trusted to draw their own conclusions when they are presented with hard facts. Our journalists focus on curriculum; school funding; educational choice; the roles of parents, teachers, and administrators; the voice taxpayers have in their local schools; and the betterment of K-12 public education.

For more information, please visit ChalkboardNews.com.

America’s Talking Network is a podcast hub that fulfills the need for civil, balanced content across the United States.

Our platform focuses its efforts on identifying and developing high-quality podcasts and promoting this content as part of the platform. America’s Talking Network improves the production, distribution, and growth of existing podcasts, while also heading the development of new content by means of strategic partnerships.

For more information, please visit AmericasTalking.com.