A cluster of Colorado news organizations this week launched a new collaborative local reporting effort backed by nearly $400,000 in grant money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“The growth of local journalism is essential to the civic health of our nation,” Corporation for Public Broadcasting President and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a statement about the award.
For about the past five years, Colorado has been a hotbed of local news collaboration, which probably didn’t hurt its chances for the grant; the Centennial State was one of seven to score CPB funding across the country this year. (Florida, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, and New York were the others.)
From the CPB announcement about what the money will do in Colorado:
KUNC in Greeley will lead Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, as well as partners at the Rocky Mountain Community Radio Coalition and the non-profit news organization Colorado Sun to establish the “Colorado Capitol News Alliance.” A newly hired journalist will cover full-time the Colorado state capitol and state government entities, with partners collaborating on news reporting, editorial planning, and digital distribution.
“This is one of the most significant projects the CPB has funded in recent years and we are honored to lead in collaboration alongside other strong news outlets here in Colorado,” KUNC President and CEO Tammy Terwelp said in a statement.
“To bring together what some would call competing news entities to use our individual strengths directly for the public good in tandem is truly mission-focused on the public we’re committed to serve,” she added.
In 2017, on the 50th anniversary of former Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s landmark Public Broadcasting Act, Meg Dalton and I marked the occasion with a big piece for Columbia Journalism Review about how the federal law shaped public media in the United States.
The story also focused on how local newsrooms in particular were rethinking the way they do journalism with financial support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which the Public Broadcasting Act spawned in 1967.
The CJR article began with an anecdote in the newsroom of KRCC, which was then a “converted house on a college campus in downtown Colorado Springs,” and explored how the “CPB continues to build connections among local stations while filling gaps in community news coverage in an age of newspaper retrenchment.”
That’s still happening, as the news of KUNC’s $379,048 grant this week underscores.
Rocky Mountain Public Media President and CEO Amanda Mountain said in a statement that the organization is “thrilled” to join the Colorado Capitol News Alliance as part of its mission to create a Colorado where everyone feels seen and heard.
“This grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting empowers us to deepen our commitment to providing trusted, independent journalism that keeps all Coloradans informed about the decisions that shape our lives,” she said.
As for the Sun, Publisher Larry Ryckman said the statewide nonprofit newsroom is happy to join with its broadcast partners in the venture.
“This is a great example of the collaborative spirit among Colorado newsrooms that has made our state a national model,” he added. “When we put competition aside and work together on projects like this, readers and listeners win.”
The Colorado Capitol News Alliance joins other collaborations that include Colorado broadcasters.
After launching in 2001, the Rocky Mountain Community Radio coalition now counts more than 20 non-commercial radio stations in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming, with most of them serving rural communities. The Mountain West Bureau includes stations in Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
“Public radio and television stations, locally operated, are deeply connected to the communities they serve,” Corporation for Public Broadcasting CEO Harrison said. “Their primary mission is to provide trusted, fact-based reporting on issues of local concern so that people can make fully informed decisions. Public media’s journalism earns the trust of Americans every day as it encompasses the complexity and integrity necessary to serve our civil society amidst growing mis-and disinformation.”
New column by longtime Springs journalist is just asking questions
A new weekly column for the nonprofit Pikes Peak Bulletin newspaper that serves the Manitou Springs area of Colorado flips the script on a known axiom of journalism: Never leave more questions than answers.
Pam Zubeck, whose journalism career got swallowed up in whatever went down with the whole Indy alt-weekly self-destruction situation, has found herself back in local print.
This week, Heila Ershadi, editor of the Bulletin, introduced readers to a new regular column Zubeck will pen for the paper.
“Pam joins the Bulletin at a time when our journalistic momentum has been building rapidly,” she wrote. “We have quite the all-star team over here; in this issue alone, we have pieces from known bylines such as John Hazlehurst, Warren Epstein and Heidi Beedle.”
More from the welcome column:
If you’ve been reading local journalism over the past three decades, you know why having Pam on the Bulletin team is a big deal. She’s been doing local investigative journalism since 1993. She has insight into the issues like no other and knows how to dig deep to get to the important truths. Hers is the type of journalism that is truly crucial for democracy: it keeps public institutions transparent, the citizenry informed, and officials accountable. It is an honor to have her work in the pages of the Bulletin, and a service to our growing readership.
But Zubeck’s approach to a column comes with a twist. Typically, news organizations attempt to provide answers. Zubeck will do the opposite.
The new column, called “Pam Zubeck has a few questions,” appears to serve almost like an assignment editor for local Springs reporters — at the Bulletin and elsewhere.
In it, she just … asks questions. Here are a few from her inaugural installment:
- “What ever became of the city of Colorado Springs’ plan to build a new police training academy? A year ago, it was Mayor Yemi Mobolade’s chief mission as he sought voter approval to keep $4.75 million in Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights excess revenue. (Voters said “no.”) Last month, he failed to even mention it in his State of the City speech.”
- “What’s the true cost of the region’s homeless population? While the number of homeless has declined here, according to the latest Point in Time survey, many neighborhoods aren’t feeling it. What works and what doesn’t? There are many questions to be posed on this issue.”
- “It’s clear that a majority of Colorado Springs City Council opposes sales of recreational marijuana in Colorado Springs, with some arguing that simply banning it will keep youth consumption low. How do they know that?”
Here’s more from her first asking-questions column:
I’m clear-eyed about the challenges of being a news reporter in today’s world. The regional and state media landscape offers news from for-profit and non-profit outlets, podcasts, digital sites, social media and more. Yet all those news gatherers are far outnumbered by PR types, some of whom fled the news business, and are now charged with responding to reporters’ questions. I have no idea of the numbers, but sometimes it feels like PR flaks outnumber reporters in this region by a factor of five to one.
Which is all the more reason for journalists, and citizens as well, to ask questions.
Asked why she wouldn’t seek to answer such questions instead of just asking them, Zubeck said over email that she is now writing columns “not news stories, per se.”
The goal, she said, is to add to the community conversation by underscoring unanswered questions surrounding timely events and issues.
“This possibly could encourage citizens and/or journalists to look into these matters, should their interest be piqued,” she said. “As the Bulletin’s editor Heila Ershadi said in her editorial recently, the Bulletin will follow up as it is able.”
State Supreme Court to examine part of Colorado’s press-friendly anti-SLAPP law
The state’s highest court has announced it will look into the “public interest” parameters of a 2019 press-friendly anti-SLAPP law that is intended to clamp down on certain kinds of lawsuits.
The acronym SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press calls SLAPP suits an all-too-common tool “for intimidating and silencing critics from exercising their First Amendment rights.”
In a SLAPP suit, the subject of an unflattering news story who has enough money to sustain an expensive court battle could sue a news organization in hopes of forcing it to incur defense costs and scare it — and others — from continued reporting on the subject. To combat that, anti-SLAPP laws set up a preliminary hurdle a plaintiff must clear before those legal costs start to pile up.
For the past five years, the law has led judges to dismiss early several libel lawsuits against members of the media in Colorado. Notably, the case the State Supreme Court will hear does not involve a news organization.
From Jeff Roberts at the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition:
In a defamation case brought by a veterinary clinic, the Court of Appeals ruled last year that the anti-SLAPP law does not protect online criticisms “made primarily for the purpose of airing a private dispute.” The “vast majority” of statements made about the Tender Care Veterinary Center in Falcon did not involve “a ‘public issue” or an “issue of public interest,” a three-judge appellate panel determined, affirming a district court’s denial of the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case.
The defendants asked the Colorado Supreme Court to review the precedent-setting opinion, arguing that if it’s allowed to stand, “all trial judges in the state will be free to impose overly constrained views of what constitutes a matter of legitimate public interest. Then, few, if any, individuals will feel at liberty to alert the public to potentially unqualified practitioners and to business operators who actively try to silence their displeased customers.”
The justices will look at whether the anti-SLAPP law requires that a defendant’s speech “encourage, facilitate, or contribute to a general debate” before that speech is made “in connection with a public issue or an issue of public interest.” They’ll also decide whether courts must evaluate a speaker’s motive to determine if speech was made “in connection with a public issue or an issue of public interest.”
Read the whole thing here.
➡️ As a new board member of the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro chapter, I’d like to invite you to join the nation’s foremost organization for journalists. SPJ is a fierce national advocate for First Amendment rights, journalistic ethics, and other values important to a free and vital press. The Colorado Pro chapter offers professional training programs and events, including the four-state Top of the Rockies competition, the region’s broadest platform for honoring journalism excellence. We’re making plans for a regional conference next spring. And each year, the chapter provides thousands of dollars in scholarships to the young journalists of tomorrow. At a time when journalists are under fire from all sides, joining SPJ is your chance to make a stand for journalism. Learn more about the chapter here, and find out how to join here. ⬅️
More Colorado media odds & ends
🛩 This newsletter is in travel mode, so content might be lighter than usual and I might not be as quick to respond to emails, voicemails, or DMs.
🇻🇪 “With former President Donald Trump set to campaign in Aurora on Friday, the Denver Gazette, owned by Republican billionaire Phil Anschutz, is continuing its Facebook advertising campaign that promotes hysteria and falsehoods about Venezuelan gangs,” Jason Salzman reported for the progressive nonprofit Colorado Times Recorder site. “Neither Gazette Editor at Large Vince Bzdek nor Publisher Chris Reen returned multiple emails seeking answers to questions about why the ads are running.”
🤦♂️ Chase Woodruff of Colorado Newsline reported “how false claims of a ‘complete gang takeover’ drew Trump to Aurora.”
⛰ The annual Collaborative Journalism Summit will be held in Denver next year on May 15 and 16. The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University hosts the summit. More details about it here. “The Summit is designed to be a fast-paced event full of sharing and learning,” the organization stated. “Both days are typically packed with sessions, so prepare accordingly.”
💨 KKTV morning anchor and investigative reporter Matt Kroschel has left the Springs TV station for “a public relations gig and normal people hours” at the aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman. “Everyone always asks ‘Why does everyone leave,’” he said in an on-air goodbye. “This is our jobs. People come and go, and that’s just part of things.”
❌ Last week’s newsletter incorrectly stated Megan Jurgemeyer’s title at 9NEWS when she left for Denver7. She was a news director, not a senior weekend producer at the time.
⚖️“The Colorado Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday about whether a state law that makes educator evaluation records confidential also shields the disciplinary records of Denver Public Schools administrators,” Jeff Roberts reported for the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. “A Denver District Court judge ruled last year that four years of ‘FRISK’ summaries sought by Denver Gazette reporter David Migoya are not ‘personnel files’ exempt from disclosure under the Colorado Open Records Act. But she agreed with DPS that allowing public inspection ‘would substantially injure the public interest.’”
🎒 Pessimism was “nowhere in sight last week at the University of Colorado Boulder, which welcomed more than 1,400 high school students and advisors for a day of learning about journalism, the media and more,” Iris Serrano wrote for CU Boulder.
⛰ High Country News is looking for “informed and enthusiastic editorial fellows to report on issues of impact for the Western United States.” The magazine covers the West “through in-depth, inclusive and insightful journalism, reporting from its cities and suburbs to its rural and natural spaces.”
🎙 9NEWS investigative reporter Jeremy Jojola “dug into The Denver Foodie’s alleged scamming and even convinced the guy behind the account, Jonathan Davis, to do a phone interview. But things only got weirder from there,” Denver City Cast reported. Jojola joined the City Cast team this week to talk about the story.
🤖+🗳Political sociologist Mindy Romero and I talked recently about misinformation, AI, and the election at the Institute for Science & Policy at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The Colorado News Collaborative was a co-host of the event. Watch a video of it here.
🎙 The compelling Master Plan podcast about how the U.S. legalized corruption, by Denver-based journalist David Sirota’s investigative news site The Lever, is a finalist for two Signal Awards “for best news series and best writing,” he said this week.
🆕 “Meeting the diverse needs of an evolving customer base and ensuring that the Gazette’s marketing and advertising teams have the tools to thrive within the workplace are the twin objectives of the news organization’s newest additions, Stacey Sedbrook and Mike McKiernan,” reported O’Dell Isaac for the Gazette.
💰 A recent town-hall forum about the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport “marked a significant milestone as the first official community event made possible by the Aspen Daily News Journalism Fund,” the paper reported.
🎬 Are you tired of polarized politics? Want to learn how to have healthier discussions about complicated issues? Especially this close to a consequential election? Join Rocky Mountain PBS, Colorado College’s Journalism Institute, the Center for Public Deliberation, and The Catalyst student newspaper on Monday, Oct. 21 at 5:30 p.m. for a screening of the film “Undivide Us” followed by small-group discussions focused on how to foster healthier conversations about tough topics that can sometimes lead to tune-out or toxicity.
📲 Younger adolescents in Colorado “seem to face grown-up challenges earlier,” reported John Daley for Colorado Public Radio. “Those 12 to 13 years old are feeling less connected to friends and their school community. They’re spending more time on social media. They’re more likely to have used marijuana and vaped, according to the survey,” he wrote, citing Rise Above Colorado, “which describes itself as a statewide prevention organization which helps ‘youth make empowered, healthy choices.’’
⛪️ Colorado Times Recorder writer Logan M. Davis authored a piece this week headlined “What the Media Still Doesn’t Understand About Christian Nationalism.”
👁 “Nearly 400 cameras with artificial-intelligence capabilities are scattered across the Cheyenne Mountain School District in Colorado Springs — and they can find you,” Elizabeth Hernandez reported for the Denver Post. “AI facial-recognition functionality means school administrators or security officers can upload a photo into the system identifying someone as a ‘person of interest.’ When anyone matching that photo is caught on camera, school officials are notified and immediately given the relevant video footage.” The Springs schools aren’t alone. “A handful of Colorado school districts and higher education institutions have implemented AI surveillance technologies in a bid to keep students safe, though a statewide moratorium has prevented the majority from doing so — though that could change next summer, when the prohibition ends.”
🎂 The Estes Valley Voice, a local news public benefit corporation startup, celebrated its first 100 days this week. “We have published more 170 news stories, and more than 1,800 people in the Estes Valley are receiving our newsletter. We are a hyperlocal, independent, and journalist-led news firm,” editor Patti Brown wrote. “We’re extremely proud to have been so widely accepted and look forward to a future telling the stories of our community.”
7️⃣ “Collective Colorado has been hiring journalists to write stories, as well as sharing those stories with news outlets around the state for about 7 years,” wrote Cory Gaines for Complete Colorado, the news and commentary arm of the libertarian-leaning Independence Institute.
📒 After three years, former Colorado journalist Nic Garcia has “decided to close” his First Draft Notebooks business. “Sadly, my manufacturer can no longer source the classic goldenrod cover we use,” he said this week. “Other material was either unpractical or too expensive. Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve loved stationary and especially reporter’s notebooks. It was a dream to make them, even if just for a season.”
🆕 “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as editor and writer at Colorado Media Group,” Rhonda Van Pelt said on LinkedIn this week. She was formerly editor of the Pikes Peak Bulletin.
I’m Corey Hutchins, manager of the Colorado College Journalism Institute and a board member of the state Society of Professional Journalists chapter. For nearly a decade I’ve reported on the U.S. local media scene for Columbia Journalism Review, and I’ve been a journalist for longer at multiple news organizations. Colorado Media Project is underwriting this newsletter, and my “Inside the News” column appears at COLab, both of which I sometimes write about here. (If you’d like to underwrite or sponsor this newsletter hit me up.) Reply or subscribe to this weekly newsletter here, or e-mail me at CoreyHutchins [at] gmail [dot] com.