Election guides from Columbia Missourian and KOMU help local community prepare for April 8 elections
COLUMBIA, Mo. (April 4, 2025) — The Columbia Missourian and KOMU-TV have published comprehensive election guides on their websites, allowing community members to read about the candidates and issues in the upcoming municipal elections.
The guides each offer different emphases, in keeping with the collaborative, community-focused ethic that guides the Missouri News Network — the Missouri School of Journalism’s five professional newsrooms.
The Columbia Missourian, the School’s digital-first community newsroom, has included in its guide a record of issues-related statements made by candidates for mayor, school board and city council at community forums. The sortable, searchable layout allows readers to easily compare and contrast statements about issues such as safety and education.
KOMU, an NBC affiliate TV station also based at the School, includes broader information about a wider swathe of elections across nine counties in mid-Missouri.
Together, the guides complement each other and offer a more complete picture of local elections for their audiences.
Elizabeth Stephens, executive editor of the Missourian, said the inspiration for including the issues statements came from the newspaper’s community advisory board, which was formed thanks to a $20,000 grant last year from LION Publishers. The board called attention to a need for more specific statements from the candidates about campaign issues in addition to existing coverage.
In response, Missourian reporters attended around a dozen community forums to record the candidates’ comments. Junior Genevieve Smith, an education reporter at the Missourian, compiled the comments from the school board candidates, while senior and Assistant City Editor Lucy Valeski handled those from the city council and mayoral races. For each race, the comments are available in a convenient grid at the bottom of the respective page.
“Doing it this way gives a more in-depth look at what candidates are actually saying on the issues,” Stephens said. “It also allowed us to check against the statements and say, okay, all the issues have been addressed and nobody has changed their answers.”
The KOMU guide, too, prioritizes organization and navigability, allowing audiences to click on the county they wish to read about and providing background information on candidates and ballot propositions. Jacob Richey, BJ ’24, digital content editor at KOMU, put the station’s guide together.
Both guides also offer smooth navigation to election-related coverage, making it simple to seek out more details on a given topic.
Updated: April 11, 2025