KCUR is pleased to announce that longtime journalist and editor Holly Edgell will become the first managing editor of the Midwest Newsroom—a public radio collaboration among stations in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.
Edgell will help define the editorial vision for this four-state collaboration that’s focused on investigative reporting, and will develop a strategy for executing it, according to Sarah Morris, general manager of KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri.
KCUR is the lead station for the collaboration, which includes managing partners Nebraska Public Media, Iowa Public Radio, St. Louis Public Radio and NPR.
Prior to joining the Midwest Newsroom, Holly was project manager and assistant editor for Side Effects Public Media and WFYI in Indianapolis. She managed health and education community engagement efforts, acted as supervising producer of the popular podcast “Sick,” and participated in editing, recruiting and hiring.
She also served as editor for the Sharing America project, a collaboration that covered the intersection of race, identity and culture. Edgell has extensive experience in digital media, editing, and producing for both broadcast and digital news outlets, as well as training journalists and teaching journalism at the college level.
She will join the Midwest Newsroom team on July 6, 2021.
“We are thrilled to have had such a strong pool of candidates, and delighted that Holly will be joining the Midwest Newsroom as a KCUR employee,” Morris said. “Holly has extensive leadership in working with newsrooms across the Midwest and beyond, and will help to form and create a highly functional and collaborative team for the hub.”
The Midwest Newsroom is the fourth regional news “hub” created by NPR and Member stations, joining counterparts in Texas, California and the Gulf States of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
“We’re excited to see Holly join our team of stellar managing editors leading the hub newsrooms across the country,” said NPR Managing Editor for Collaborative Journalism Kenya Young. “The addition of the Midwest Newsroom to the collective with Holly at the helm ensures our mission to plan shared coverage and create stories that reach local, regional, and national audiences. Holly will be an agent of change in the Midwest region and I look forward to seeing how she shapes collaborative journalism within our network.”
With its focus on in-depth reporting, the new Midwest team will include a three-person investigative unit and two editors. The team will bring public service reporting to a region dominated by rural news deserts as local publications have fewer resources for extensive projects.
To support Edgell, KCUR and its collaboration partners will play a major role in bringing the regional newsroom to life, ensuring the region will be well-served by the investigative reporting produced through this new collaboration.
