What Is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and What News Does It Cover?

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a daily newspaper serving St. Louis, Missouri, and the surrounding metropolitan area, with its news published online at stltoday.com. If you live in or follow the St. Louis region and want local breaking news, sports, weather, politics, crime, entertainment, and lifestyle coverage in one place, this is the primary source to check. The site describes itself as covering "St. Louis, MO and Missouri breaking news," along with events, sports, weather, entertainment, and lifestyles for the metro area.

What the Post-Dispatch covers

The paper's own description of its coverage lists these areas:

• Breaking news — fast-moving local and Missouri stories
• Weather — forecasts and conditions for the St. Louis region
• Traffic — road and commute information
• Crime — local crime reporting
• Sports — Missouri and St. Louis teams
• Politics — local and state political coverage
• Entertainment — arts, events, and culture
• Lifestyles — features and community stories
• Jobs — employment listings and related content

This is a local-first mix. National and international stories appear, but the emphasis is on the St. Louis metropolitan area and Missouri.

How the paper and the website relate

The Post-Dispatch is the newspaper; stltoday.com is where its reporting is published online. The site's stated purpose is to serve the St. Louis metropolitan area with breaking news and information across the categories above. In practice, that means the homepage is organized around those sections, and individual stories carry bylines from Post-Dispatch staff — for example, a recent item on University City's homecoming plans after a football forfeit was credited to Post-Dispatch reporter Blythe Bernhard.

How to find what you need

1. Start at the homepage — stltoday.com opens with the day's top breaking and local stories.
2. Use section navigation — move to the specific area you want (sports, weather, politics, entertainment, and so on) rather than scrolling the full front page.
3. Search for a specific team or topic — if you're following a local school or pro team, a site search or the sports section is faster than browsing.
4. Check the date and byline — local coverage updates throughout the day, so confirm a story is current before relying on it.

Subscription and access

The site's own signals include "subscribe" and "subscription" language, which indicates that some form of subscription or paid access exists. The available material does not specify prices, tiers, or exactly which articles sit behind a paywall versus which are free. Treat any assumption that all content is free — or that all of it is paid — as unverified. If cost matters to you, check the subscription options on the site directly before committing.

How it differs from national outlets

National sources cover St. Louis when a story has broad interest. The Post-Dispatch's advantage is depth on local matters that national outlets skip: school board decisions, neighborhood crime, high school sports forfeits, city politics, and regional weather. If your question is "what's happening in St. Louis or Missouri right now," the local paper is usually the more complete source; if it's a national or global story, a national outlet may cover it more fully.

Quick reference

For anyone tracking St. Louis or Missouri, the Post-Dispatch at stltoday.com is the starting point for local coverage — just confirm current subscription terms on the site itself, since the available information doesn't spell them out.