The St. Louis American focuses on the future by building on its past

The St. Louis American has grown its digital solutions exponentially to better serve our audience and the entire community.  Founded in 1928, The St. Louis American was on the vanguard of Black legacy newspapers that ventured into the digital terrain over two decades ago. 

We know our future is tied inextricably with our ability to tell our stories effectively and share critical and pertinent information with Black St. Louisans. This involves utilizing constantly evolving technologies to increase accessibility and purview of The St. Louis American’s unique content.

The American reached a Facebook audience of more than 50,000 subscribers around the time of the Ferguson Uprising in 2014.  Today, our content is available across numerous platforms, including, LinkedIn, TikTok, Meta, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

The synergy between The St. Louis American and its audience is dynamic and is revealed in the thoughtful commentary and engagement on our platforms from a wide swath of the community: experts-in-the-field, activists, politicians, head-of-house decision makers, cultural institutions, artists, musicians, spiritual leaders and your next door neighbor.  

We want to thank our audience for growing with The St. Louis American in our ongoing digital transformation.  We’ll continue to develop initiatives that provide solutions specifically curated to the interests, needs, desires for news and information, entertainment and uplift of our local African-American community.  Anyone interested in learning about news from a Black perspective will appreciate our strong coverage and original bylines on articles about St. Louis arts and culture, business, technology, start-ups, sports, religion, healthcare and politics.  Moreover, The St. Louis American continues to report local and national news that mirrors and impacts us.

The St. Louis American looks forward to launching new programs this year that will propel forward our partnerships with our audience and institutions. We will continue to develop and grow our repertoire of videos, live-streams, audio presentations, as well as AI. The objective continues to be learning and employing solutions to best communicate with and service our local audiences and to best engage, and interact with Black communities using ever-changing technologies, to ensure they are heard, seen, and provided with voice and agency by The St. Louis American.  We look forward with exhilaration and great anticipation to a bold digital future with you.

Dawn Suggs is The St. Louis American's digital director.

See the entire St. Louis American’s 95th Anniversary Special section.