Madeleine Doubek - Journalist Profile | Connect with top journalists

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Biography

Madeleine Doubek is Chief Operating Officer of Reboot Illinois. She was the former Assistant Vice President/Executive Editor of the suburban Daily Herald. There, she oversaw the day-to-day operation of the newsroom, ran daily news meetings to organize coverage plans for both the website and print editions and oversaw the editing and reporting staffs. She also served on the editorial board. An award-winning journalist, Doubek served as the Daily Herald’s Political Writer and Editor for 10 years and also led the paper’s project and investigative work. She led a team of reporters and editors who wrote an Associated Press-award winning 5-part series, “44 Minutes in January,” that told in unprecedented detail the story of the Palatine Brown’s Chicken murders. Her work on series examining homeland security spending, foster care, chronic drunken driving and burgeoning suburban hard-core drug use has been honored with regional and national awards. Prior to her project work, Doubek covered politics for the paper for 10 years and wrote a weekly editorial page analysis column. In her role as the paper’s political editor, Doubek instituted election coverage that was citizen-focused. Doubek graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a journalism major and political science minor. A native of Chicago’s South Side, she now lives in Des Plaines. ACHIEVEMENTS • The Daily Herald won four, first-place awards in the 2012 national Inland Press Association Contest for community leadership, investigative work, front-page design and personality profiles. • Editor & Publisher named the Daily Herald one of its’ 2012 “Ten That Do It Right” for efficient digital production • Doubek named to Time Out Chicago Media Critic Robert Feder’s list of Ten Most Powerful Women in Chicago media • The Daily Herald has won several general excellence, public service and investigative awards in annual Chicago Headline Club and Illinois Associated Press awards competitions since 2008, and four national awards from the Inland Press Association in 2008. • Named 2008 Journalist of the Year by the Eastern Illinois University journalism department. • As projects editor, Doubek won four consecutive Chicago Headline Club Peter Lisagor Public Service Awards, as well as one for a joint media investigation, and several Illinois AP awards. • Panelist during several televised Senate and gubernatorial debates and frequent guest on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” and various radio programs.

Content

Total articles 356

• Available on paid plans

  Opinion: How the Madigan takedown can — and should — change Illinois politics

  By Madeleine Doubek

  Feb. 13, 2025

• Available on paid plans

  Opinion: How the Madigan takedown can — and should — change Illinois politics

  By Madeleine Doubek

  Feb. 13, 2025

• Available on paid plans

  'It was like finding gold for a girl who barely knew her dad': A Father's Day story

  By Madeleine Doubek

  Jun. 14, 2024

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Company Info

changeil.org

CHANGE Illinois is a coalition leading systemic political and government reform. CHANGE (the Coalition for Honest and New Government Ethics) includes a diverse group of civic, business, labor, professional, non-profit, and philanthropic organizations that represent more than 2 million members. The coalition addresses issues that undermine our democracy, including ballot access, competitive elections, increased citizen participation, government transparency, unethical lobbying, and redistricting. CHANGE launched in February 2009 as an informal, broad-based coalition intent on changing Illinois' culture of corruption. Our initiative resulted in the state's first-ever law limiting campaign contributions. Since then, CHANGE has matured into a stand-alone, non-partisan organization that amplifies the efforts of our coalition members and brings more innovative ideas into the reform movement. Through public education, coalition building, and policy development efforts, CHANGE engages Illinois residents in creating a government more transparent, accountable, and responsive to their needs.