Sam Stark left KXAN Austin in December 2025 to join the Austin Current as a government and communities reporter.
The Austin Current is a newsroom affiliated with The Texas Tribune that focuses on community-centered journalism in the Austin, Texas area. In his role, Stark covers issues across Travis County and Austin, focusing on how local policy decisions affect residents.
He first arrived at KXAN in May 2022 as an investigative intern with the station’s Investigations Team, one of the few interns to have his work featured on-air. After completing the internship and earning his graduate degree, he joined the newsroom full-time in September 2022 as a digital reporter.
In January 2024, Stark transitioned into a reporter and multimedia journalist role, covering a range of local stories impacting Central Texas. During his time at KXAN, he developed experience reporting on city government, community issues, and public policy affecting Austinites.
Before joining KXAN, Stark reported for the Austin Monitor as a freelance journalist, covering local government and civic issues in the Austin area.
Stark earned a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 2022. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from San Francisco State University.
