WASHINGTON — Veteran Pennsylvania journalist Tim Lambert has joined States Newsroom as editor of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. He starts today.

The Capital-Star, based in Harrisburg and covering politics and policy across the commonwealth, is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, with reporters in all 50 capitals plus Washington, D.C.

Lambert joins the nonprofit online newsroom after more than 23 years at public media station WITF in Harrisburg, where he worked as a host, reporter, multimedia news director and most recently as the special projects editor. 

Under his leadership, which included oversight of the state Capitol bureau, the newsroom won 13 Radio Television Digital News Association National Edward R. Murrow awards, four Pennsylvania Associated Press Association Joe Snyder awards for outstanding news service and other honors. He also oversaw the implementation of a nationally-recognized election accountability policy in 2021 and Trusting News strategies that aim to build better relationships between news organizations and the communities they cover. 

“Covering politics and policy is very different in 2025 than it was a dozen or so years ago. So, it’s important to me, as a lifelong Pennsylvanian, to help people understand how decisions within state government impact their lives,” Lambert said. 

Lambert replaces Kim Lyons, who left the position in January. 

The Capital-Star, which launched in 2019, has an award-winning staff of reporters who regularly punch above their weight in covering Pennsylvania – especially as the state played a pivotal role in the 2024 presidential election.

“With his deep knowledge of Pennsylvania politics and a creative and fearless approach to news coverage, Tim is the perfect editor to lead our Capital-Star newsroom through these challenging times,” Chris Fitzsimon, publisher of States Newsroom, said. “We’re excited to welcome Tim into our network.”

Lambert grew up in Hopewell Township in Beaver County, near Pittsburgh, and graduated with a communications degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He also worked as an anchor and reporter at WGET-AM/WGTY-FM in Gettysburg and as a sports reporter at the Gettysburg Times.

About States Newsroom

States Newsroom is the nation’s largest nonprofit news organization. We shine a light on policy and politics in state capitals around the nation and we provide that coverage for free, no pop-ups, paywalls or ads. In an era of rampant disinformation and news deserts, we provide nonpartisan coverage of the state issues that most affect people’s daily lives.

Leading studies cite States Newsroom as key to filling the void in coverage left by staffing cuts at legacy media outlets. According to one study, the overall percentage of reporters working for nonprofit newsrooms in the statehouse press corps has more than tripled since 2014 and now makes up the largest portion of statehouse reporters in 10 states and the second largest in 17 states.

We run — or partner with — news outlets in all 50 state capitals.

We fully fund newsrooms in 39 states, each with its own website. They are:

Alabama Reflector – alabamareflector.com
Alaska Beacon – alaskabeacon.com
Arizona Mirror – azmirror.com
Arkansas Advocate – arkansasadvocate.com
Colorado Newsline – coloradonewsline.com
Florida Phoenix – floridaphoenix.com
Georgia Recorder – georgiarecorder.com
Idaho Capital Sun – idahocapitalsun.com
Indiana Capital Chronicle – indianacapitalchronicle.com
Iowa Capital Dispatch – iowacapitaldispatch.com
Kansas Reflector – kansasreflector.com
Kentucky Lantern – kentuckylantern.com
Louisiana Illuminator – lailluminator.com
Maine Morning Star – mainemorningstar.com
Maryland Matters – marylandmatters.org
Michigan Advance – michiganadvance.com
Minnesota Reformer – minnesotareformer.com
Missouri Independent – missouriindependent.com
Daily Montanan – dailymontanan.com
Nebraska Examiner – nebraskaexaminer.com
Nevada Current – nevadacurrent.com
New Hampshire Bulletin – newhampshirebulletin.com
New Jersey Monitor – newjerseymonitor.com
Source New Mexico – sourcenm.com
NC Newsline – ncnewsline.com
North Dakota Monitor – northdakotamonitor.com
Ohio Capital Journal – ohiocapitaljournal.com
Oklahoma Voice – oklahomavoice.com
Oregon Capital Chronicle – oregoncapitalchronicle.com
Pennsylvania Capital-Star – penncapital-star.com
Rhode Island Current – rhodeislandcurrent.com
South Carolina Daily Gazette – scdailygazette.com
South Dakota Searchlight – southdakotasearchlight.com
Stateline – stateline.org
Tennessee Lookout – tennesseelookout.com
Utah News Dispatch – utahnewsdispatch.com
Virginia Mercury – virginiamercury.com
Washington State Standard – washingtonstatestandard.com
West Virginia Watch – westvirginiawatch.com
Wisconsin Examiner – wisconsinexaminer.com

States Newsroom also has content-sharing agreements with 11 leading nonprofit newsrooms: CalMatters (California), Connecticut Mirror, Spotlight Delaware, Honolulu Civil Beat, Capitol News Illinois, CommonWealth Beacon (Massachusetts), Mississippi Today, New York Focus, The Texas Tribune, VTDigger (Vermont), and WyoFile (Wyoming).

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