Kaitlin Lange will take over as IndyStar’s news director after more than two years of leading the media outlet’s award-winning Statehouse and politics team.
Lange has been at the forefront of several efforts to expand IndyStar’s reach and serve more people. These include reinvigorating the paper’s newsletters, expanding the news team’s live coverage on issues that matter to our community and launching video initiatives, including political shows and a meet-the-candidates video series.
“I’m excited for Kaitlin to lead our news team. Kaitlin has always set an aggressive pace inside our newsroom as both a reporter and news editor, and she’s set the highest standard for fact-based, watchdog journalism on behalf of our community and state,” IndyStar Executive Editor Ryan Martin said. “This is a great day for IndyStar.”
As politics editor, she edited some of the paper’s most ambitious and award-winning investigative work, including a project that explored the prominence of Christian nationalism in Indiana politics, and the Mr. Clean series, an investigation into the various conflicts of interest within Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration. She also led the politics team’s nationally recognized redistricting coverage and launched a statewide reporting tour.
Lange, a graduate of Ball State University, started at IndyStar as a Pulliam Fellowship intern and quickly distinguished herself as a smart and dogged reporter with a passion for state politics. She went on to cover the Statehouse for IndyStar, its sister paper in Evansville and State Affairs, an online news site. Among her most notable investigative work was her coverage of public health issues and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. She also covered some of Indiana’s most influential political figures, including former House Speaker Brian Bosma, and wrote about statewide issues, such as the I-69 construction debacle and the controversies surrounding former Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill.
As news director, Lange will now oversee the news department, including politics and government, breaking news, entertainment and investigations.
Lange will replace Cindi Andrews, who will take on a regional role within USA TODAY Co. as the director of grants and fellowships. Andrews will support multiple newsrooms in the Midwest, including IndyStar, the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Columbus Dispatch.
Andrews has been IndyStar’s news director for the past four years, strengthening the paper’s Statehouse team and coverage and recruiting some of the paper’s most talented reporters, including Hayleigh Colombo and Cate Charron. In 2024, she was instrumental in bringing on Lange as politics editor.
Andrews graduated from the University of Cincinnati. As she put it, she has spent her career “in the trenches of local journalism.” She has worked as an editor at The Denver Post, the Greensboro News & Record and The Cincinnati Enquirer, where she supervised a team of investigative and enterprise reporters. Before joining IndyStar in 2022, she was executive editor of the Evansville Courier & Press.
Andrews said her new role – finding the financial support to bring more coverage to more communities – is different but just as vital to advancing local journalism.
“We need more watchdog coverage of local governments. We need to be connecting more in neighborhoods. We need to be telling parents what’s going on in schools, and everyone who breathes what’s going on with the environment,” Andrews said. “There are individuals and institutions throughout our communities who care about this work, we just need to give them the opportunity to support it.”
IndyStar has already partnered with several nonprofits to enhance our coverage. Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust has been supporting IndyStar’s coverage of environmental issues. And Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners have successfully funded coverage of First Amendment issues at IndyStar and several sister outlets.
“I look forward to deepening these relationships and growing new ones,” Andrews said.
Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyStar names Kaitlin Lange as news director
Reporting by Kristine Phillips, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kristine Phillips, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
