Donna Ladd, CEO and editor of the Mississippi Free Press, has published a column titled “Real Talk: Lessons I’ve Learned as Free Press CEO & Editor for 24 Years.” The list covers funding, hiring, reporting and how newsrooms should treat each other.
The column comes as the Free Press journey approaches a quarter-century next year. Ladd writes that she has affirmed many pre-2002 beliefs and learned many lessons, “often the hard way.”
A Paper Launched on Her Mother’s Birthday
Ladd and a group of native and transplant Mississippians started the Jackson Free Press on September 22, 2002. That date was her mother’s birthday, a condition Ladd set for the launch.
The founders sought some financial backing in advance. According to Ladd, the man they were referred to told them, “You can’t get Black and white people in Mississippi to read the same newspaper.” The team disagreed and set out to prove otherwise.
In 2020, the Jackson Free Press team and its ethos moved into the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press. Ladd writes that the name honors a multiracial, civil-rights era paper of the same name from the 1960s. Jackson Free Press content since 2002 now lives on the Mississippi Free Press website.
Donna Ladd on Power and Patience
Ladd writes that ventures challenging the status quo “have a tough row to hoe.” She adds that even people who say they want change do not always want what it takes to bring it.
Her partner Todd Stauffer coined a phrase for tough financial times and for moments when the paper upset people: “Do the right thing and wait.” Ladd calls it the organization’s core mantra.
She also warns that de-centering the powerful does not often please the powerful, even friends. The same is true of being truly nonpartisan in pursuit of the truth.
Solutions Circles Instead of Panels
One of Ladd’s firmest rules is to skip panel discussions. She writes that panels usually feature powerful people posturing for the same kind of audience.
When the Mississippi Free Press launched in 2020, it promised “no panels.” It rolled out “Solutions Circles” instead, which center a mix of people while journalists listen. The outlet held its first Solutions Circle in Clarksdale on June 30, 2026.
Ladd also argues that it is not a journalist’s job to lobby for candidates or legislation. The job, she writes, is to give people enough facts to demand needed changes from their public servants. That view of the press sits apart from officials who have called critical news coverage treasonous.
Ecosystems Over Winner-Take-All Media
Another lesson concerns competition. Donna Ladd rejects a return to dominant “winner” media companies such as chain newspapers. She says newsrooms should build strong, ethical “journalism ecosystems,” collaborate where possible and avoid old-school toxic competition.
She advises crediting other outlets’ reporting even when they do not return the favor. “Scoop culture is toxic, and our readers know it,” she writes.
The outlet’s approach, which Ladd calls systemic journalism, interrogates systems such as shifting voting precincts. She cites reporting on how 170 foster students almost lost their scholarships as one example.
Hiring, Training and Letting Go
On staffing, Ladd writes that leaders should not hold on to people too tightly. People will leave, she says, and no one ends up happy in what Stauffer calls “job jail.”
She urges leaders to hire and retain people they can trust with absolute honesty and to have the hard meetings. Other programs now try to prepare founders for leadership of that kind.
Her reporting rules are blunt. She tells her team: “Never characterize guilt. That’s not our job.” She also tells reporters never to ask yes-or-no questions and to drop the passive voice.
Ladd writes that a strong team comes from training people and creating a collective-mentoring environment where staff teach each other. Other founders also build leadership beyond profit through their teams.
A Pipeline That Starts With Teenagers
Donna Ladd started the Mississippi Youth Media Project as a W.K. Kellogg fellow, and it recently turned 10 years old. She writes that none of the outlet’s journalists makes her prouder than those award-winning students.
The outlet is also pursuing an eight-bureau strategy aimed at Mississippi’s growing news deserts, where Ladd says many stories go untold. As the Free Press nears a quarter-century next year, co-founder Todd Stauffer is doubling reader gifts in honor of its 24th anniversary, according to Ladd’s full column.