The Waterloo Republic-Times in southwestern Illinois launched its email “News Flash” in 2012, just as many of the large legacy news organizations were starting theirs. In the beginning, the paper sent a simple text email to a few hundred email addresses with breaking news important to a small community such as a boil order or…
I was almost 19 during my first newspaper internship in the summer of 1990. I had a driver’s license, but I was an extremely inexperienced, fearful driver. For good reason — I was bad at it. I had actually failed my driving test once, which takes some doing. When I was assigned my first story…
It was a hell of a way to go out. In their final investigation for the Belleville News-Democrat, one of Illinois’ top investigative reporting duos found that East St. Louis was not only one of the deadliest cities in America, it also had one of the lowest rates for solving murders. Through meticulous reporting that…
The body of a small boy lies face down on the wet sand, the cold water lapping around him. In another scene, a mother runs from plumes of thick gas, her hands holding tightly to her two children. These images of three-year-old Alan Kurdi and 39-year-old Maria Lila Meza Castro are often the only representation…
In the year since the Florida Alligator issued a call to action to save college newspapers around the country, hundreds of student-run publications signed on to raise awareness about the financial cuts that threaten to shutter or significantly reduce their presence at their institutions. The campaign received national publicity in its first days and months,…