Deron Lee
Columbia Journalism Review
Kansas City, MO, United States
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Past articles by Deron:
The pleasure and pain of going nonprofit
Robert Lorton’s family owned the Tulsa World for a century before selling the newspaper to Warren Buffett’s BH Media Group in 2013. Lorton, the daily’s publisher for eight years, went to work at a bank, but he missed the family business. So in 2015 he founded The Frontier, a local news site devoted to enterprise […] → Read More
What a Kansas professor learned after interviewing a 'lost generation' of journalists
When Scott Reinardy began studying the state of morale in newspaper newsrooms more than 10 years ago, he says, he was trying to “take the temperature” on job satisfaction and burnout in the profession. He didn’t know the... → Read More
What a Kansas professor learned after interviewing a "lost generation" of journalists
When Scott Reinardy began studying the state of morale in newspaper newsrooms more than 10 years ago, he says, he was trying to “take the temperature” on job satisfaction and burnout in the profession. He didn’t know the... → Read More
What a Kansas professor learned after interviewing a ‘lost generation’ of journalists
When Scott Reinardy began studying the state of morale in newspaper newsrooms more than 10 years ago, he says, he was trying to “take the temperature” on job satisfaction and burnout in the profession. He didn’t know the industry was about to enter a traumatic period of upheaval that would deplete the ranks of journalists […] → Read More
Des Moines Register gets a win in an uphill fight for transparency
Not long after taking over as editor of the Des Moines Register in 2014, Amalie Nash told CJR that she was determined to uphold the paper’s “longstanding tradition of standing up for public records.” So now, as she... → Read More
‘Oh, here we go again’: An investigative reporter in Kansas is laid off for the third time
When Karen Dillon found out on Monday afternoon that her job at the Lawrence Journal-World was being eliminated, it was not a shock—it was déjà vu. “It was like, oh, here we go again,” she says. Dillon is... → Read More
‘Oh, here we go again’: An investigative reporter in Kansas is laid off for the third time
When Karen Dillon found out on Monday afternoon that her job at the Lawrence Journal-World was being eliminated, it was not a shock—it was déjà vu. “It was like, oh, here we go again,” she says. Dillon is a celebrated, veteran investigative journalist whose career highlights range from breaking the Pee-Wee Herman porn-theater bust in […] → Read More
A reporter's arrest is just the latest reason to worry about press freedom in Missouri
Last week, Fox 2 St. Louis reporter Chris Hayes was placed in handcuffs by police for attempting to bring a camera into a public meeting in Kinloch, Missouri—a small municipality right next door to Ferguson—just a day after Hayes had revealed stunning mismanagement... → Read More
'It's just a tough environment': Kansas sales highlight the challenges for family-owned papers
June 17 was a tumultuous day for family-owned newspapers in Kansas. Members of the Simons family, which has owned the Lawrence Journal-World for 125 years, informed employees that morning that they had agreed to sell the paper and... → Read More
As more police wear body-cams, states set new rules limiting access to footage
In the wake of widely publicized incidents of alleged police misconduct and officer-involved shootings, more and more cities around the country are equipping their police officers with body-worn cameras. But something else is happening, too: State lawmakers are... → Read More
How one reporter’s scoop helped change Kansas’ open-records law
One night in late January 2015, Bryan Lowry of the Wichita Eagle was at a Mexican restaurant in Topeka, Kansas, when he received an email forwarded from a source. He immediately knew he was onto something big. “I... → Read More
Will readers pay for local news? A digital startup in Tulsa bets that they will
About 500 subscribers over the course of eight months: If your reference point is Facebook-fueled pageviews, or even a typical newspaper’s print circulation, it might not sound like a lot. But for the leaders of The Frontier, an... → Read More
Will readers pay for local news? A digital startup in Tulsa bets that they will
About 500 subscribers over the course of eight months: If your reference point is Facebook-fueled pageviews, or even a typical newspaper’s print circulation, it might not sound like a lot. But for the leaders of The Frontier, an... → Read More
Independent local opinion writing is essential--and endangered. Can we redesign it for survival?
For some of us who grew up reading newspapers, one of the most troubling signs of the medium's decline has been the shrinking of the editorial section--in size and substance. At its best, the editorial page has been... → Read More
How the Melissa Click case highlights tensions around police body-cam footage
It was two snippets of video that ended up costing Melissa Click her job last week. Click shot from obscurity to infamy in November when, while employed as an assistant professor of communications at the University of Missouri... → Read More
Here’s what happened when a local reporter's coverage was turned into a play
Mike McGraw has witnessed a lot in 40 years of reporting. One thing he never expected to see: a stage production based on his work. But that’s exactly what’s happening this month in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, where... → Read More
A newspaper publisher joins the effort to boost Latino turnout at the Iowa caucuses
Tonight, as Iowa residents head to caucus meetings around the state to cast the first votes of the 2016 presidential race, fleets of campaign organizers, operatives, and strategists will be focused on meeting their turnout goals. So will... → Read More
Keeping reporters off the Senate floor: The latest restriction on press access in Missouri
For Missouri reporters like Jason Hancock of the Kansas City Star, covering the state Senate is becoming a more demanding job—physically. A year ago, to make room for the Senate communications staff, the press corps was booted from its first-floor offices,... → Read More
A newspaper podcast explores the history--and humor--of the Iowa caucuses
Three Tickets, the Des Moines Register’s podcast on the history and culture of the Iowa presidential caucuses, has been a yearlong labor of love for political reporter Jason Noble—with equal emphasis on the love and the labor. Noble... → Read More
After a merger, St. Louis Public Radio was 'reborn' through its coverage of Ferguson
Margaret Freivogel has seen a lot of change over more than four decades in journalism. When she first walked into the St. Louis Post-Dispatch building in 1971, says Freivogel, who is retiring at the end of the year,... → Read More