Ray Hartmann, the St. Louis journalist, broadcaster and political figure who helped shape local media for decades, died Thursday in a car crash. He was 73.
Attorney Andy Leonard said Hartmann was killed when a wheel came off a semi and struck his car on I-64 just west of 270. The truck driver is reportedly cooperating with the investigation.
Hartmann’s reach in St. Louis was hard to miss. He helped co-found the Nine PBS show Donnybrook in 1987, started the Riverfront Times when he was 24 and later sold that paper to Phoenix-based New Times in 1998 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 he kept writing long after he had already become a familiar on-air voice. Hartmann wrote a column for the Riverfront Times and then Substack before retiring from journalism in 2024 to run for Congress against longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner. He lost that race, then later worked as a fundraising consultant for nonprofit organizations.
Hartmann was known on Donnybrook as a staunch liberal, but he began his career in public life writing speeches for U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, a Republican. That arc captured much of what made him a durable figure in local politics and media: he moved easily across print, radio, television and campaigning, and he rarely stayed in one lane for long.
His death closes the story of a man who did not just comment on St. Louis life; he helped build the institutions that shaped it. Hartmann is survived by his widow, Kerri, and his children, Benjamin and Brielle.