St. Louis Magazine launches Economic Mobility Lab with $900,000 grant

Fueled by philanthropic support from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, St. Louis Magazine is launching a new effort to bring sustained scrutiny to one of the most important issues facing the region. Our new Economic Mobility Lab, which we plan to launch this winter, will be focused on deepening public understanding of the issues surrounding economic mobility and opportunities to grow the region’s economy by investing in its people.

What does that mean for you? You’ll get an additional source of reporting that doesn’t chase clicks or get distracted by the political squabbles of the day, but instead focuses on the issues underlying the region’s biggest challenges. You’ll see these stories in our newsletters, on our website, on social media platforms, and in our print magazine. You’ll also hear us go deeper on our podcasts, on video, and at community-focused public events.

What does it mean for us? In short, it’s huge. Thanks to JSMF’s three-year, $900,000 funding commitment, we’ll be able to devote two reporters to focus full-time on these stories, and in addition to the writers and editors on our staff who will work with them, we also intend to bring in freelance writers and photographers to cover economic mobility more intensively. Our goal is to raise public awareness and urgency around building an economy of opportunity for everyone. 

In the last year and a half, St. Louis Magazine has made a major investment in news coverage, bringing on three journalists focused on civic and business coverage. Now we’ll be adding to that team in a way that allows our work to go deeper and our coverage of these issues to become much more frequent. 

“St. Louis Magazine has built a reputation for thoughtful, in-depth storytelling that helps us all better understand the region we share,” said JSMF President Dr. Jason Q. Purnell. “Our ability to invest in solutions for St. Louis depends on the public’s access to information that explains what is at stake. By adding more resources to St. Louis Magazine’s proven journalism, we can help ensure that more people are part of the conversation about the future of our region.”

St. Louis Magazine owner Matt Coen expressed gratitude to JSMF and the McDonnell family for their investment in St. Louis and independent journalism. 

“This investment allows us to deepen our journalism on one of the most pressing challenges facing our region: economic mobility. I’m proud of our 60-year tradition of award-winning reporting and that today our newsroom is the largest in our history. But most of all, I’m proud of the impact we’re making. Thanks to JSMF’s generous support, we can now accelerate that impact at a defining moment for St. Louis.”

To stay on top of the work being done by the Economic Mobility Lab, we encourage you to subscribe to the St. Louis Daily, which will feature this work on a regular basis beginning this winter. Our Solutions newsletter will also focus on these stories each month. 

To suggest ideas for future coverage for our team, please reach out to me at [email protected]. And if you know a good journalist eager to dig into these issues, please share our job posting.