Samuel Shaw covers rural-to-urban transformation in East Texas for the Longview News-Journal. Previously, Shaw was one of two applicants selected for the High Country News editorial internship, where he reported on infrastructure, housing and landscape across the West, with articles syndicated in The Atlantic and Mother Jones. Shaw also contributed to open-source investigations for the award-winning Airwars investigations team based in London, UK, focusing on civilian harm monitoring in Iraqi Kurdistan. He got his start penning stories after college when he founded The Speer, an independent online magazine exploring underreported topics on the Colorado Front Range, where he grew up. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from Goldsmiths University in London and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from University of California Santa Cruz. Shaw’s photography has won awards with C.LAB in London, while his photojournalism has been featured in High Country News, 5280 Magazine, The Land Desk, Boulder Weekly, East London Lines and Rat Park Magazine. As a prototypical Colorado-California kid, he’s frequently spotted on two wheels, two skis or a surfboard.
Beat: Rural to urban transformation
Our coverage area is considered isolated, but is actually only 150-250 miles in different directions from Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. The largest cities in East Texas are smaller than many of the suburban towns that surround these “megametro” areas. This journalist dives into how our larger cities are expanding, what that means for residents and how the changes affect the business sectors that have historically supported the communities.