🥧 This week’s newsletter was produced in holiday-week mode, so it’s in roundup form. Hopefully, it complements your hangover or food coma. Happy holidays and safe travels. 📰 Is a Colorado newspaper a “citizen?” The Colorado Supreme...

A Denver Gazette reporter is not entitled to inspect the disciplinary records of Denver school administrators because a state statute protects the confidentiality of educator evaluations and all documents “used...

The Colorado Supreme Court is examining whether a newspaper is considered a “citizen” and therefore entitled to attorney fees when prevailing in open meetings lawsuits. A year ago, in a...

Last week, Rocky Mountain Community Radio announced the hire of a full-time reporter, Caroline Llanes, who will cover issues involving rural climate around the state. The journalist will work on...

Of all the results and storylines tumbling out from the latest statewide election in Colorado, something on the Western Slope alarmed one of the state’s veteran political reporters. Charles Ashby,...

In 2018, this blog reported on a then-two-year-old process in Ohio that gives requesters of public records a low-cost way to fight denials in court. A new research paper prepared for the...

Smashed. Hammered. Completely wrecked. That was the state in which the publisher of a small rural newspaper found himself by 11 p.m. on Election Night — in full view of...

From Spanish-language publications, Asian magazines, and what one Nigerian-American publisher likens to a “community center in print,” some of the state’s ethnic media outlets are banding together. The new initiative,...

A quarter of the way into the 21st century, should Coloradans still have to write paper checks to pay for public records? The General Assembly seemingly addressed this issue in 2023, requiring Colorado...

Public bodies must not be permitted to “cure” infringements of the Colorado Open Meetings Law without being held accountable to the citizens who file lawsuits to enforce compliance, the Colorado...

One week after news that $900,000 in Press Forward grant money will flow to nine Colorado newsrooms across the state, the nonprofit Colorado Sun announced it will haul in $1.4 million from...

Nine local news outlets across Colorado will each haul in $100,000 from the national Press Forward fundraising campaign that seeks to bolster the state of local journalism. The outlets are:...

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...

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. A...

You’ve heard the saying: three’s a trend. Over roughly the past year, Denver7 has drawn three journalists away from its competitor 9NEWS and into larger roles at the Scripps ABC...

One of five newspapers on Colorado’s rural Eastern Plains that recently announced it will close has come back to life. An unlikely revival of the hedge-fund-owned-and-shuttered Burlington Record in Kit...

Comparing the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) board to the dental board and similar state licensing agencies, an attorney for two news organizations Tuesday urged the Colorado Supreme Court...

After launching the Denver Gazette digital publication four years ago, Clarity Media is seeking to expand its footprint statewide. “On Oct. 15, The Gazette will launch The Colorado Network, a...

The Elbert County commissioners should be held personally liable for unlawfully approving new contracts for the county administrator and county attorney outside of public view and ordered to reimburse Elbert’s...

Three years ago, this newsletter reported how Coloradans were, for the first time, learning what our state’s newsrooms were paying for jobs in journalism. The new transparency came as the result of...

An updated memo from the Office of Legislative Legal Services suggests that members of the Colorado General Assembly take a conservative, “risk-management” approach to managing their social media accounts following...

The Colorado Court of Appeals has stayed a judge’s order to disclose blurred body-worn camera footage of Lakewood police officers shooting and killing a 17-year-old robbery suspect, pending the outcome...

A new online outlet called the Rocky Mountain Reader launched this week, promising to “highlight the vast and varied literary landscape of Colorado.” Founded by longtime Colorado journalist Kathryn Eastburn, the nonprofit...

Members of the appointed board that oversees the broadcasting of Colorado House and Senate floor proceedings say it’s time the General Assembly joins the long list of state legislatures that...

The state’s highest court announced Tuesday it will examine the “public interest” parameters of a 2019 statute designed to protect Coloradans from meritless lawsuits that target free expression. In a...

When Rocky Mountain PBS reporter Chase McCleary recently interviewed the publisher of the Kiowa County Independent newspaper in southeast Colorado, it wasn’t particularly easy. The session was interrupted three times,...

The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition presented its Jean Otto Friend of Freedom Award to Erin McIntyre and Mike Wiggins, owners and co-publishers of the weekly Ouray County Plaindealer since...

On Thursday, inside a hotel conference ballroom in Northglenn, a packed room of journalists, funders, media advocates, and community members heard an opening salvo in what could be a major...

Earlier this year, Democratic lawmakers at the state Capitol rankled some journalists and their advocates when they chose Sunshine Week to pass a bill that exempted themselves from the state’s...

Elbert County commissioners violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law by approving new contracts for the county administrator and county attorney in private, a group of residents alleged in a letter...

The Boulder Police Department is not allowed to charge thousands of dollars in fees for body-worn camera footage requested by the public under Colorado’s 2020 Law Enforcement Integrity Act, a...

Colorado’s second-highest court Thursday ordered a judge to hold a hearing in the case of a “homeless and penniless” activist who sued a state agency that wanted to charge him...

A troubling announcement late last month that the Brush News-Tribune would be one of multiple Eastern Plains newspapers to print its final edition hit home for the executive editor of...

The Colorado Supreme Court will review an appellate court opinion that the Colorado Children’s Code doesn’t necessarily prohibit the state Department of Human Services from publicly releasing aggregate statistics about...

Despite a 2019 state statute requiring the public disclosure of police internal affairs files in Colorado, the town of Ouray for months released only heavily blacked-out copies of records concerning...

A news coverage colony collapse might be hitting the Eastern Plains. Following news last week that three newspapers out there are calling it quits — in Baca County, Kit Carson County, and...

Three newspapers with two different owners on Colorado’s Eastern Plains — the Plainsman Herald, the Burlington Record, and the Lamar Ledger — announced within days of each other that they...

The Colorado Supreme Court will examine whether a judicially created doctrine allowing public bodies to “cure” violations of the Colorado Open Meetings Law goes against the “plain meaning” of the...

The Colorado Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Wednesday about whether a Denver activist has legal standing to sue a state agency that wanted to charge him $600 for public...

This is a special early edition of Inside the News in Colorado in light of recent events… This Sunday’s front pages of the Denver Post and the Colorado Springs Gazette...

The general manager of a large Colorado TV news station, the editor of a leading statewide radio broadcaster, and an editor of a statewide powerhouse nonprofit digital news site all...

🏝 This week’s newsletter was produced in out-of-the-country mode with spotty internet — and it’s a holiday, anyway — so enjoy this in a different format. 🗞 HARD PRESSED: Amid a...

It didn’t take long for several government entities in Colorado to adopt the new, much-higher, maximum CORA fee rate that went into effect on Monday, July 1. At least 19...

Following an expert performance moderating a televised debate among six congressional candidates earlier this month, 9NEWS anchor Kyle Clark earned plenty of attention. This newsletter previously reported how some were...

The publisher of a weekly newspaper in a rural Colorado county has sued another newspaper in hopes of getting legal clarity about an obscure but important aspect of the local...

Funding for Colorado newsrooms isn’t secure, burnout and shortages are affecting staff, and keeping up with journalistic best practices while maintaining quality is a struggle. That’s the assessment from a...

KOAA-TV is entitled to unredacted records concerning employees at the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo, a judge ordered this week, rejecting a state agency’s claim that disclosure of their...

CORA’s maximum research-and-retrieval rate will jump to $41.37/hour on July 1, letting state and local government entities in Colorado charge up to 23.2 percent more to process requests for public...

Colorado seems like a bust for the Canadian-owned local news publisher that tried to replicate its success in the United States and chose the towns of Longmont and Broomfield for...

Are Colorado law enforcement agencies allowed to charge the public thousands of dollars for body-worn camera footage of incidents of alleged officer misconduct? Court briefs recently submitted in a Boulder...