2023 Most Influential Women: Bridget Lovelle

As news director of a combined KY3 and KSPR television newsroom for the past six years, and news director of KSPR before the merger, Bridget Lovelle is the only woman to head up a Gray Media LLC newsroom in the state of Missouri.

Lovelle is direct supervisor for more than 55 staff members in Springfield in news, sports, weather, investigative reporting and digital departments. She is responsible for twice-daily newsroom editorial meetings, as well as hiring, critique, budgets, scheduling, special coverage and community civic endeavors at the station.

“I led the charge at KSPR of competing with a small staff to cover daily news and do it well,” she says. “We showed we could cover elections, big news stories, weather and breaking news as well as, if not better, than the other guys.”

After her first five years at the helm, Lovelle says KSPR’s ratings doubled. It was a period during which the station won more than 100 awards, including the regional and national Edward R. Murrow award for best newscast.

Since taking over for the merged newsroom of KY3 and KSPR, Lovelle says her aim was to grow ratings and improve local news coverage.

“We have done that by creating bureaus to better cover our 32 counties,” she says.

Lovelle says she takes pride in working with the On Your Side investigative unit. She says she is also glad to bring attention to issues that matter to the community, such as a 2022 series of Child Care Crisis stories, created in conjunction with the Springfield Daily Citizen online newspaper, that led to changes in legislation and state funding to begin to solve the problem.

“Every single month, despite the number of people ‘cutting the cable,’ I’m proud to say I lead one of the strongest NBC affiliates in the country – and we have grown over the past five years,” she says.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Lovelle arranged three weeks of daily online question-and-answer sessions to help families connect with school officials. These efforts earned Lovelle and her team a regional Edward R. Morrow award for innovation.

Lovelle was appointed by the governor to serve on the Amber Alert Oversight Commission, noting missing children are a cause that she became more outspoken about since the kidnapping and murder of local child Hailey Owens.
“If the life of one child can be saved through those efforts, it’s well worth any hours spent on this important project,” she says.

She is also a member of the Integrated Warning Team with the National Weather Service, along with other media, emergency managers and school and hospital officials. She says the team is focused on saving people’s lives during extreme weather and emergencies.

Each day, Lovelle says, she is working not only on a single issue, but dozens.

“Every day, the decisions I make can affect people’s lives, and it’s humbling to know I have a great responsibility to treat that with care, respect and ethically,” she says.