Leisa Richardson
2022
“A passion for journalism and the rush you get from breaking news” is what drew Leisa Richardson out of early retirement to take the helm of the Springfield, Illinois, Journal-Register in late 2019.
“I believe in what we stand for; I love the written word and I love writers,” Richardson said during a break from guiding her staff’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and an Illinois primary election. “We have never been more important than we are today. People are turning to us as credible sources of information. And we are still viable. But this business is not for the faint of heart.”
Richardson understands that journalism may not look the same in five or 10 years. “How journalism is delivered and who delivers it might change,” she said. “But journalism’s core – seeking the truth, holding the powerful accountable, being fair and independent – will not die.”
Richardson’s passion today and throughout her life has deep Hoosier roots: she was raised in Anderson, Indiana, by her grandmother, Mary Frances Richardson, and great-grandmother, Hazel Wilson. She also says her mother Mary Anne Dickerson and father Robert Morgan influenced and supported her.
“My grandmother said I was always an adult, never a kid,” Richardson said. Naturally outgoing, “whatever there was to be into, I was there.”
“There” included playing sports, participating in 4-H, working on her high school yearbook staff and being a cheerleader. Whatever the activity, Richardson often was the only, or first, African American woman to pursue it. But instead of trying to stand out or call attention to that distinction, she said her goal was make connections.
“I’m always going to be Black; I’m always going to be a woman,” she said. “Sure, there were racist or sexist comments, but I couldn’t let them distract me. I did what I needed to do for my job the best way it needed to be done. I’ve always been able to work with the people different than myself.”
She has shared that philosophy with the many people she has brought into journalism. Working in newsrooms for more than 40 years, she quietly helped to diversify major metropolitan newspapers throughout the country. Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame member Eunice Trotter says Richardson “is the type of hero whose work may go unnoticed, but whose impact is wide and deep.”
Trotter, who was a Richardson hire at the Indianapolis Star, said it is hard to count the number of minorities and women hired on Richardson’s recommendation, but she knows there are at least “dozens.” Richardson persisted in her diversity hiring methods, said Trotter, even when she faced adversity from other newsroom managers.
Richardson credits Beverly Pitts, her high school journalism teacher and yearbook adviser, with spurring her to a career in journalism.
“I saw her interest, her personality and her ability,” said Pitts, who went on to teach journalism at Ball State University and become president of the University of Indianapolis. “At the time, there were not many African Americans going into journalism, and I wanted her to see it as a field. It has been a joy watching her career develop.”
Richardson’s first journalism job was at her hometown Anderson Daily Bulletin. She remembers she came to the attention of editors when a press release she wrote for the Urban League was published, word for word. She also credits the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education for teaching and encouraging her. “I didn’t know what I didn’t know,” she said. The diversity of people and backgrounds she found while working as a copyeditor at the Danville, Illinois, Commercial-News further encouraged her.
In the late 1990s, Richardson returned to her hometown as editor/publisher of what had become the Anderson Herald-Bulletin, making her the first African American woman to lead a mainstream daily newspaper in Indiana.
From 2000 to 2019, Richardson worked for the Indianapolis Star in a variety of leadership and management capacities, including metro/region editor, workplace reporter, senior assistant public service editor, bureau chief, regional planning director, recruitment and development editor, assistant metro editor and assistant managing editor.
While the bulk of Richardson’s work has been in Indiana, she spent 14 early years at the Cincinnati Enquirer in a variety of editing and management positions, including a brief assignment on the USA Today sports copydesk.
Richardson studied journalism at Ball State University, the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, Northwestern University J.L. Kellogg Graduate School for Business Management, and the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism. Among her many news leadership honors was her staff’s coverage of the Indiana State Fair pavilion collapse, named Story of the Year in 2012 by the Hoosier State Press Association.
In addition to her official roles as reporter, editor and publisher at a number of newspapers, Richardson is considered by many to be a “Newsroom Mother,” offering an empathetic ear to young journalists. She “probably saved countless careers as young journalists struggled through the rapidly changing newsroom,” Trotter said. Richardson also has two children and six grandchildren of her own.
She has served on the boards of organizations for journalists of color for decades, including the UNITY Journalists of Color, which represented the National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association and Native American Journalists Association.
As a longtime member and officer of the National Association of Black Journalists, she also has coordinated the organization’s annual conventions.
“The most gratifying part is to help young journalists come along and get better,” Richardson said. “We have the responsibility to help the country live up to what it promises, and to tell the truth and help society tell the truth to power.”