CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – States Newsroom has announced the hiring of veteran Kentucky reporter and editor Linda Blackford as editor in chief of Kentucky Lantern, the state’s leading government-focused nonprofit news outlet. Blackford fills the editor role as the Lantern’s founding editor, Jamie Lucke, retires after a distinguished career in journalism that has spanned more than 40 years and four states.
Blackford starts at the Lantern today, April 20. Lucke’s last day is Friday, April 24.
“I’m proud of what the Lantern has built in three years and thrilled that Linda will be its second editor,” Lucke said. “I’m going to miss our Lantern community, the readers and the donors. I’m so grateful to them for all the appreciation they’ve shown. Kentucky will never be boring and never run short of stories that need a good reporter to do some digging. I’m more enthusiastic than ever about the possibilities — really, the necessity — of nonprofit journalism to find those stories that need to be told.”
Kentucky Lantern is a part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, with reporters in all 50 capitals plus Washington, D.C. States Newsroom’s headquarters are in Chapel Hill, N.C., and Washington, D.C.
Blackford has spent most of her career at the Lexington Herald-Leader, where she has held reporting and editing positions since 1997. Most recently, Blackford was an opinion writer and columnist. Previously, she covered education extensively and was an investigative reporter. She has won four McClatchy Presidents’ Awards and numerous Kentucky Press Association awards.
“I’m incredibly excited to come to the Kentucky Lantern, both to continue the great work of Jamie and the staff, and to further the great cause of nonprofit journalism,” Blackford said.
Blackford has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia. She lives in Lexington with her husband and three sons.
About States Newsroom:
States Newsroom is the nation’s largest nonprofit state-focused news organization. We shine a light on policy and politics in state capitals around the nation and we provide that coverage for free, no pop-ups, paywalls or ads. In an era of rampant disinformation and news deserts, we provide nonpartisan coverage of the state issues that most affect people’s daily lives.
Leading studies cite States Newsroom as key to filling the void in coverage left by staffing cuts at legacy media outlets. According to one study, the overall percentage of reporters working for nonprofit newsrooms in the statehouse press corps has more than tripled since 2014 and now makes up the largest portion of statehouse reporters in 10 states and the second largest in 17 states.
States Newsroom runs — or partners with — news outlets in all 50 state capitals.
We fully fund newsrooms in 39 states, each with its own website. They are:
Alabama Reflector – alabamareflector.com
Alaska Beacon – alaskabeacon.com
Arizona Mirror – azmirror.com
Arkansas Advocate – arkansasadvocate.com
Colorado Newsline – coloradonewsline.com
Florida Phoenix – floridaphoenix.com
Georgia Recorder – georgiarecorder.com
Idaho Capital Sun – idahocapitalsun.com
Indiana Capital Chronicle – indianacapitalchronicle.com
Iowa Capital Dispatch – iowacapitaldispatch.com
Kansas Reflector – kansasreflector.com
Kentucky Lantern – kentuckylantern.com
Louisiana Illuminator – lailluminator.com
Maine Morning Star – mainemorningstar.com
Maryland Matters – marylandmatters.org
Michigan Advance – michiganadvance.com
Minnesota Reformer – minnesotareformer.com
Missouri Independent – missouriindependent.com
Daily Montanan – dailymontanan.com
Nebraska Examiner – nebraskaexaminer.com
Nevada Current – nevadacurrent.com
New Hampshire Bulletin – newhampshirebulletin.com
New Jersey Monitor – newjerseymonitor.com
Source New Mexico – sourcenm.com
NC Newsline – ncnewsline.com
North Dakota Monitor – northdakotamonitor.com
Ohio Capital Journal – ohiocapitaljournal.com
Oklahoma Voice – oklahomavoice.com
Oregon Capital Chronicle – oregoncapitalchronicle.com
Pennsylvania Capital-Star – penncapital-star.com
Rhode Island Current – rhodeislandcurrent.com
South Carolina Daily Gazette – scdailygazette.com
South Dakota Searchlight – southdakotasearchlight.com
Stateline – stateline.org
Tennessee Lookout – tennesseelookout.com
Utah News Dispatch – utahnewsdispatch.com
Virginia Mercury – virginiamercury.com
Washington State Standard – washingtonstatestandard.com
West Virginia Watch – westvirginiawatch.com
Wisconsin Examiner – wisconsinexaminer.com
States Newsroom also has content-sharing agreements with 11 leading nonprofit newsrooms: CalMatters (California), Connecticut Mirror, Spotlight Delaware, Honolulu Civil Beat, Capitol News Illinois, CommonWealth Beacon (Massachusetts), Mississippi Today, New York Focus, The Texas Tribune, VTDigger (Vermont) and WyoFile (Wyoming).
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here