St. Louis Public Radio has been selected as a 2019 host newsroom for Report for America.
Report for America is a local news initiative whose mission is “to strengthen our communities and our democracy through local journalism that is truthful, fearless, fair and smart.” Recently, 50 news reporters were placed in news organizations across the country to fill important gaps in journalism.
As part of the program, STLPR has added Eric Schmid to our team of more than 27 journalists. Schmid has experience interning for Fox News Channel, AccuWeather and WSHU Public Radio. As a news fellow at WSHU’s Long Island Bureau, he covered governments and environmental issues as well as other general assignments. He graduated summa cum laude from Stony Brook University last May and was one of the journalism school co-valedictorians.
Schmid will cover the Metro East area in Illinois to develop strong insights and knowledge about issues specific to the area, including economics, education and politics and be based at the Belleville News-Democrat.
He will produce radio reports, web features and multimedia reports specific to Metro East issues and news. For example, while St. Louis Public Radio has developed a strong reputation for providing important information about ballot issues in Missouri, it has never been able to develop a similar depth of coverage and knowledge for Illinois constituents. This will be an area of focus.
Schmid’s impact will be immediate in expanding the current coverage of St. Louis' Metro East region. He will develop enterprise stories about issues the community holds dear but have gone overlooked. STLPR aims for him to be recognized as someone with an eye on the area and strengthen the coverage offered to community members.
Follow Eric on Twitter: @EricDSchmid
