WPLN’s Paige Pfleger becomes newsroom’s criminal justice reporter

Courtesy of Ray Di Pietro

Paige Pfleger has been named the criminal justice reporter at WPLN News.

Pfleger has been at WPLN News since February 2021, previously serving as WPLN’s arts and culture reporter. Before her time in Nashville, she worked in Central Ohio at WOSU News, covering criminal justice and the addiction crisis, and was named Ohio’s reporter of the year by the Associated Press.

“Paige is both incredibly tenacious and compassionate as a reporter, which is a great combination to have on this beat,” said news director Emily Siner. “We have no doubt she’ll be able to push the conversation forward about criminal justice in Nashville and Tennessee.”

Pfleger’s work has appeared nationally on NPR, ProPublica, The Washington Post, Marketplace, and PRI’s The World, and she has worked in the newsrooms of the Tennessean, Michigan Radio, WHYY, Vox and NPR headquarters in D.C.

Some of Pfleger’s most notable work from her time at WPLN includes:

• His mother and sister were murdered. He’s focused his grief on exposing loopholes that endanger domestic violence victims.
• Nashville teens are ‘car hopping’ – trying unlocked car doors to see what they can find. Often, it’s guns.
• Two sisters got pregnant young. The choices they made — and the secrets they kept — shaped their lives.

And she recently won a first place Public Media Journalist Association Award for her coverage of domestic violence and gun laws.

“I got my start on the criminal justice beat working in Ohio, where I covered the spread of COVID-19 behind bars, and calls for police reform,” Pfleger says. “The justice system is full of inequities, but there are just as many passionate people working to change that. I’m looking forward to earning their trust, telling their stories and holding institutions in Tennessee accountable.”

The WPLN newsroom wants to make sure the stories we tell are serving you, our community. That’s why we’re asking for your input; it will help shape what future coverage looks like.

WPLN News is grateful to the listeners and sponsors who support criminal justice reporting and other work that is so vital to our community.