J-School professor April Lindgren retires

Associate professor April Lindgren is retiring from the School of Journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), after a rewarding 18-year career in the department.

Lindgren joined the faculty in 2007, fresh out of Queen’s Park where she worked as a reporter and was a natural fit for the world of academia. As a professor, Lindgren began her extensive research in the local journalism scene in Canada — a lasting legacy of her career as a journalist and academic.

“I've never worked harder in my whole life as I did taking on a tenure track faculty position,” Lindgren said. “I really liked the research part. I thought of it as doing journalism, except with more time and money.”

Soon after coming to the university, Lindgren launched the Local News Research Project (external link) , an extensive project made in collaboration with journalists and researchers across the country for more than a decade. The project combines research, content analysis and digital mapping to create a better understanding of the local news scene in Canada.

Ana Sofía Hibon, program manager at the Inspirit Foundation, who Lindgren has collaborated with on a number of projects, said the impact of Lindgren’s work cannot be understated.

“April's research is quoted in every policy conversation about journalism in Canada, in every conversation about journalism in the philanthropic sector and nonprofit sector,” she said.

In fact, Lindgren is so embedded in the research on local news journalism, that she laughs when she mentions her retirement.

“I'm a little worried it's going to be a fake retirement, to be honest because I have a long list of research-related projects that I'd like to work on,” Lindgren said.

Chris Waddell, professor emeritus at the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University contributed to Lindgren’s local news research project. He said he expects Lindgren to still be part of local news conversations after her retirement.

“People will probably still continue to come to her and tell her, have you heard about this or have you heard about that,” he said. “She's a person that people want to hear from whenever they want to have a discussion about [local news].”

Lindgren’s interest in journalism began in 10th grade when she was an editor for her school’s newspaper. After that, she only had one plan for her future: to pursue journalism. She graduated from Carleton University in 1981 and started off working at her local hometown newspaper in Thunder Bay.

She said she had wanted to be a foreign correspondent, even spending time in Mexico and Europe doing the work of one. But as she got “older and smarter,” in her words, she began to realize the human interest angle at the center of every story—and the role of local journalism in telling the stories that go on in our backyards.

The quality of executing her ideas is one that Janice Neil, associate professor at TMU’s School of Journalism, admires.

“She's very good at having a vision and plotting out all the steps to get there,” Neil said.

Neil described her as a tenacious and curious person, who she learned from over their years of working together. Hibon similarly said that Lindgren has had an impact on her.

“She makes space for joy and for having fun, which I'm sure is not always easy in academia at that level. So it's inspiring to watch as a younger woman workforce,” Hibon said. She said her collaboration with Lindgren on the journalism and philanthropy guides has been one of the most rewarding of her career. Hibon said even Lindgren’s sharp editing skills and strong writing voice have left a mark on the way she writes now.

Lindgren’s sense of humour is one that many of her colleagues cannot help but recognize.

“I think she puts people at ease,” Waddell said. “She was able to get people to talk to her. And obviously, as a journalist, that's really important.”

Neil pointed out that though some scholars can become silos who only focus on their own work, Lindgren always found it important to support colleagues and celebrate their work as well.

Lindgren, who now has has the title of adjunct professor at TMU, will continue to run her news lab with the funding she has left, while also beginning a new project: an aggregated list of research on journalism done in Canada, for students, researchers and policymakers to refer to in one place.

Outside of that, she hopes her retirement will allow her the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and to do more cross-country skiing.

“I feel immensely grateful to my friends and colleagues in the School of Journalism for their support for my research and academic career over time,” Lindgren said. “I owe them big time for both the intellectual support and the friendship I enjoyed over the years.”

The School of Journalism and Canadian journalism owes her big time, too, for all her many contributions over the years.