Cardinal News - American Journalism Project

Cardinal News reports the untold stories of Southwest and Southside Virginia and strengthens the voices of the people in its communities who have been sidelined in the commonwealth’s political, economic and cultural conversations simply because of where they live.

Cardinal News launched in September 2021 with the initial aim to tell ignored political, economic and cultural stories. It has quickly grown to have five place-based reporters covering urban centers in rural areas and five topic reporters covering politics, business, education, health and technology. Cardinal News in 2023 was named Startup of the Year by the Institute for Nonprofit News and was awarded Business of the Year in 2025 by LION Publishers.

With support from the American Journalism Project, Cardinal News will scale its capacity to grow sustainable revenue streams to more quickly expand its local news network to better serve its communities.

Leaders

Luanne Rife

Co-Founder and Executive Director

Luanne has worked in local news for four decades as a reporter, editor, editorial page editor, and commentary editor. She took an early retirement from The Roanoke Times in April 2021, after 16 years there, when she learned continued staff cutbacks meant little ability to do in-depth reporting. She then cofounded Cardinal News to create a sustainable news organization to tell the important stories of Southwest and Southside Virginia. She transitioned to the business side of news, and has led Cardinal News to be recognized nationally, including being named Startup of the Year in 2023 by the Institute for Nonprofit News and Lion Business of the Year in 2025 by LION Publishers. She has won dozens of journalism awards, including national honors, and several fellowships but is most proud of her awards from non-journalism organizations that recognize the significant role that independent reporting plays in healthy communities.
Jeff Schwaner

Executive Editor

Jeff was a storytelling coach and editor with Gannett’s Virginia papers for more than nine years before joining Cardinal in 2024. Jeff and the reporters he’s coached have won dozens of first-place awards from the Virginia Press Association for in-depth and investigative reporting, data reporting, and feature writing. Jeff won the 2017 Freedom of Information Award from the Virginia Coalition for Open Government for an investigative story about Virginia pharmacies. The 2022 Gannett project Perilous Course, in which he coached 18 reporters, was honored by the Society of Environmental Journalists. Jeff grew up in Rhode Island. He graduated from Cornell University. After traveling up and down the East Coast, he and his wife, Mary, settled in Virginia, where they’ve raised their children and lived for the last 19 years.