A stickler for straight-forward writing and AP style, Linda Lockhart did not pass away or transition. She died on May 4, 2025 of complications associated with cancer. She was 72. Lockhart worked in more than half a dozen newsrooms in the Midwest, from St. Louis to St. Paul to Madison to Milwaukee and back to
By Elizabeth Tharakan >> The number of full-time statehouse reporters who cover capital cities has declined 34% since 2014. To fill this gap, college students are providing a substantial amount of statehouse coverage, including in Illinois and Missouri. There are now 34 university- or college-led statehouse reporting initiatives in 30 states across the country, according
By Don Corrigan >> In an age of digital media, podcasts and streaming, the good-old-days of community radio seem to be at an end – not with a bang or even a whimper. It’s more about lawyers conversing in bankruptcy court. In St. Louis, KDHX is deep in the red and close to pulling the
By Ted Gest >> In the fast-paced media environment of 2025, how has news coverage of the courts evolved since the classic portrayal of “The Front Page”? The Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur drama in the 1920s was set in the press room of Chicago’s criminal courts building, where cigar-chomping, card-playing reporters phoned in sensational stories about
By Elizabeth Tharakan >> The Marshall Project opened a local nonprofit newsroom in St. Louis to support local media with investigative and data journalism about the criminal justice system. St. Louis is the third city in the New York-based Marshall Project’s local network. The other two are Clevaland and Jackson, Mississippi. “This newsroom is several
