From competition to collaboration: How an evolving media landscape influences teamwork in the newsroom, classroom

Five local reporters crowd into a large tent to listen to the Rockford mayor announce the city’s newest low-income housing development; three work for TV stations, one for the local daily newspaper and one for the alt-weekly across town. We each return to our respective newsrooms and file daily stories, including this one I wrote…

St. Louis start-up that funds news sites is financing and profiting from the alt-right

A much-heralded Washington Avenue startup led by some of the top names in St. Louis tech and venture capital is far more extensively tied to the alt-right than previously reported..    Last spring the Gateway Journalism Review reported that LockerDome, now known as Decide Technologies, had maintained a long business relationship with the Gateway Pundit, a…

Journalism educators need to up their game to stay relevant in their own changing industry

For a decade now, I have been teaching journalism without officially having left the business. I keep one foot in journalism because I cannot imagine life without it, which sounds admittedly old-fashioned and also is something I cannot teach. Nor is it necessarily practical. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts journalism jobs will decline by…

New democracy editor position at Associated Press should be model for all newsrooms

The Associated Press recently announced that it was creating a new position for a “democracy editor.” It tapped a long-time AP veteran and state government editor for the position. When Tom Verdin, who is in Sacramento, steps into the new role, he will oversee coverage of stories about voting rights and election processes.  In making…

Sally Defty: Heralded journalist and first woman executive city editor at Post-Dispatch dies

Sally Bixby Defty, a heralded journalist known internationally for the depth and beauty of her writing and editing, as well as her ability to take on a variety of subjects, died Wednesday. June 29, In a nursing facility at Ticonderoga. NY., of the infirmities of age. She was 89 years old , just a month…