Ray Hartmann, the St. Louis journalist who founded the Riverfront Times and later ran for Congress, died Thursday in a car crash after a wheel came off a semi and struck his vehicle on I-64 just west of 270. He was 73.
Andy Leonard, who said he represents Hartmann's family, said the truck driver is cooperating with the investigation. Hartmann is survived by his widow, Kerri, and their children, Benjamin and Brielle, both college students.
Hartmann built a long and influential career in St. Louis media. He helped co-found Donnybrook on Nine PBS in 1987, started the Riverfront Times at 24 and sold it in 1998 to Phoenix-based New Times for a reported $15 million. After that, he resurrected St. Louis Magazine and served as its publisher and columnist before selling it in 2019. He also spent four years hosting a radio show on KTRS and later wrote a column for the Riverfront Times and then Substack before retiring from journalism.
His public path was not always lined up with the politics he later embraced. Hartmann was known as a staunch liberal on Donnybrook, but he began his career writing speeches for Republican U.S. Sen. Kit Bond. He ran for Congress in 2024, retired from journalism, and lost to longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner before starting work as a fundraising consultant for nonprofit organizations.
Leonard said the family hopes to have a funeral scheduled sometime in the next week. For a figure who spent decades shaping St. Louis politics, media and debate, Hartmann's death closes a career that reached from the newsroom to the campaign trail and back again.