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 Prowers County — two more have announced their print runs are sputtering out.

Both of them are financially controlled by the Alden Global Capital hedge fund, which is known for buying and gutting local newspapers.

The latest Colorado papers to put the kibosh on physical editions are the Fort Morgan Times and the Brush News-Tribune, both located in Morgan County. With a population of about 30,000, Morgan County is about an hour and a half from Denver and just northeast of Adams County.

The development further exacerbates what is already a spreading dearth of sources of local news and information on the Eastern Plains.

A series of phone conversations this week with people who live and work in the area illuminated some challenges and potential solutions.

🚨 This week’s newsletter will primarily focus on this issue, given the immediacy of it and also because how those in Colorado respond might be instructive for other states — or here when something like it inevitably happens again.

Colorado’s first news desert — Cheyenne County?

Last week, I reported that when the Plainsman Herald newspaper closes as expected in Baca County in December, it “could be the state’s first real news desert” — meaning a county without a print newspaper serving it.

Well, I’m glad I hedged with that weasel word could.

After doing some more reporting and closer analysis this week for the Colorado News Mapping Project, I learned Cheyenne County became a news desert around 2022 when the Range Ledger closed.

Since then, the Kiowa County Independent has become Cheyenne’s newspaper of record, though the Eads-based paper across the county line doesn’t circulate print editions in Cheyenne, which is about 45 minutes away, according to the paper’s publisher, Betsy Barnett.

Still, her paper tries to fill a news void by covering some school sports, but she has found it difficult to recruit local reporters to adequately cover public affairs in Cheyenne.

“I cannot find any news writers,” she said. “We need some local stringers … some stringers that will just go into the local school board meetings and county meetings.”

Those who she felt might have the energy to do so are already working or have children — and little time. “These meetings out here start at 9 a.m. in the morning and they might go all day long,” she said, adding that school board meetings happen at night and some people don’t particularly like driving in the dark.

Without a print newspaper, some residents consult a public Facebook page called “Cheyenne Wells, Kit Carson, and Arapahoe Memories, NEWS, ADVERTISMENTS!” that has about 1,400 members.

That page is run in part by Patty Hevner, who also serves as a deputy county clerk. She and another local, Rosemary Lengel, started it as a page to share local history, but since the Ledger closed they have expanded it as a vector for broader local information from the community.

The pair monitor and approve any post from group members, but they offer pre-approval for the local hospital, the Town of Cheyenne Wells, a local booster club, or other organizations they feel likely won’t abuse the privilege. Locals have posted about funeral announcements, job openings, planned power outages, calls to host high school foreign exchange students, and more.

“We’re just trying to help our community out as best we can and keep everybody informed,” Hevner said over the phone Tuesday.

She added that she hadn’t thought of the page as a substitute for the local newspaper and doesn’t consider it journalism, but she’s happy people find it a useful place to share local information.

Those who live in the county of fewer than 2,000 on the Kansas border about three hours southeast of Denver would “love to have a newspaper back” — and the demand is “pretty high,” said a county administrator.

Without one, in the town of Cheyenne Wells, people post flyers around town or on bulletin boards of local businesses, or at the post office. The local library uses a sandwich board in the street to publicize information, its director says. Word of mouth is strong.

Autumn Pelton, who does community collaborations for the county public health agency, said when the Ledger disappeared it forced her to keep track of multiple different organizations on Facebook to get a sense of what’s going on.

“To find anything you have to actually search like five different places,” she said.

While Pelton said she is aware of a need for some digital or physical news outlet serving the county — she has even heard talk about perhaps deploying students at one of the schools — she has also heard there is just limited capacity for it.

“We’re a whole desert out here,” she said. “There’s just not enough people.”

The Burlington Record bounces back — with a takeover

When Tom Bredehoft heard that the Alden-owned Burlington Record was shutting down, he swiftly moved in to see if he could keep it going.

The former Flagler mayor is the longtime publisher of the Mile Save Shopper and Flagler News, so he knows his way around a local news operation. He checked with a lawyer and registered the Burlington Record as a business at the Secretary of State’s office.

“I took over the Burlington Record,” he said over the phone Monday, July 29. “Burlington deserves a paper and we’re going to just try to keep it going.”

Bredehoft said he has already printed a batch of 12-page revamped editions of the Record that includes legal notices and will go out to readers this Thursday. He said he has spoken to the staff about staying on and he has hopes to grow it. When word got out that other newspapers in the area were closing last week, he said he was asked if he might try to start up another.

“I can take care of one,” he chuckled. “I can’t save the world here.”

Limon Leader could help fill some gaps — but needs writers and support

Last summer, the Eastern Colorado Plainsman newspaper in Hugo closed when Gannett abruptly shut down its printing plant in Pueblo.

These days, its sister paper, the Limon Leader, in Lincoln County just west* of Cheyenne, has picked up some of the news from its defunct sibling publication.

Now, business manager Catherine Thurston says her paper would be willing to publish coverage from Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Prowers, or elsewhere, but, like the Kiowa County Independent, it would need some serious support.

“We have trouble in the smaller towns getting anyone,” Thurston said this week, adding that currently she can pay $60 per news item.

Without reliable sources of local news and information, she said she worries older residents will turn to more national news. Internet access isn’t the best in some parts of the area. “A lot of the older generation, they want a newspaper,” she said.

For her part, Thurston has committed to keeping the Limon Leader around for the next four years until she reaches retirement age. What happens then is an open question.

Local governments aren’t streaming public meetings — and that’s a problem. Could a state law help?

If it’s true that local reporters able or willing to cover local governments on the Eastern Plains are few and far between, others closer to the Front Range could step in.

The easiest, though less ideal, way to do it would be to remotely watch the livestreams or archived recordings of important public meetings.

The problem is plenty of governments either don’t record them or don’t make them publicly available, says the Kiowa County Independent’s Barnett.

During the most recent legislative session, a proposed new law to require live-streaming of government meetings died in the Democratically controlled House Appropriations Committee. The requirement “would have been less stringent for small communities,” wrote Jeff Roberts of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition in April.

• 💡 IDEA: The sponsors had framed the failed legislation around improving access to government for people with disabilities. Might news organizations and their advocates push for something similar next session and bring in testimony about how such a law could provide more access to important information in some of Colorado’s growing news deserts?

In the absence of such a law, might an organization like Denver’s Open Media Foundation consider offering technological assistance to relevant Eastern Plains governments to get their meetings streamed, recorded, archived, and easily available online?

➡️ 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. ⬅️

Why the two Alden papers say they’re quitting print

“The newspaper industry is evolving, and in order to preserve community journalism in Morgan County, we must evolve along with it,” said Fort Morgan Times publisher Sara Waite in a statement.

The July 24 print edition of the 139-year-old Brush News-Tribune was its last, she added; the Fort Morgan Times hung on for three more days until it published its final print product on July 27.

Prairie Mountain Media, the local brand for the Alden hedge fund, said it will merge the Brush and Fort Morgan papers on Aug. 1 into “a new weekly product” called the Morgan County Times that will replace the Fort Morgan Weekly.

Notably, “local news for all Morgan County communities will publish daily through the newspaper’s website, FortMorganTimes.com, and our valued subscribers will continue to have unlimited access to the website and mobile apps,” Waite said in her statement.

The Julesburg Advocate, a weekly, is the only newspaper serving Colorado’s most northeasterly county of Sedgwick and is also controlled by Alden Global. That paper is still printing, Waite said.

The first in what ‘could become a worsening trend’

What’s happening on the Eastern Plains rippled through some broader media.

Last Friday, one of Colorado’s most-watched nightly newscasts, “Next with Kyle Clark” on 9News, highlighted the problem with a forward-looking focus on what happens … next:

“It’s the first in what could become a worsening trend because there are dozens of Colorado newspaper owners preparing to leave the business,” Clark said, citing a 2019 Colorado Media Project analysis.

“A real question is what is going to happen when they do,” I said in an interview on the show. “Is somebody going to step up from the community to keep that newspaper alive or will it just disappear and will people have to get their information somewhere else?”

Now, a message from the Colorado Press Association…

🗞 Join us for Local News Solutions 2024, a pivotal event exploring how stronger local newsrooms can build stronger communities. Held from Aug. 22-24 at Delta Hotels – Denver/Thornton, this gathering includes the Colorado Media Project Summit, the 146th Annual Colorado Press Association Convention, and a public event with Dan Harris, author of “10% Happier.” Connect with more than 1,000 attendees, including news leaders, legislators, and community figures. Enjoy dynamic Solution Roundtables, workshops, and networking opportunities. For more details and to secure your spot, click the image below. 🗞

More Colorado media odds & ends

⏭ Melissa Milios Davis, director of Colorado Media Project, which underwrites this newsletter, announced this week she will take on the role of network manager for Press Forward, the national initiative that seeks to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. “I also hope this news adds winds to everyone’s sails — as it just shows that Colorado’s unique and collaborative local news ecosystem is on the radar nationwide as a place to watch and learn from,” Davis said.

🐟 “I’m retiring,” veteran data journalist Sandra Fish, who has most recently been reporting for the nonprofit Colorado Sun, wrote this week in one of the outlet’s newsletters. “After 42 years mostly in the journalism business (less 20 months working for a statewide elected official in Florida in the mid-1980s), it seemed like the right time to go. I’ve truly appreciated working with the folks at The Colorado Sun for the past nearly six years. This is a great crew doing great journalism for this state.” It was hard to miss the accolades for her career raining down my social media feeds all week.

❌ CORRECTION: The emailed version of this newsletter mixed up east and west when referencing one county’s proximity to another.

🤖 I’ll be on a virtual panel discussion with Sreenath Sreenivasan about AI in the newsroom tomorrow hosted by Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains. Register for the 4 p.m. MT conversation here. The panel will be moderated by Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, SWARM’s programming chair and the science communicator at the JILA physics research institute at the University of Colorado Boulder.

🚫 A news story in the Sentinel newspaper in Grand Junction about the upcoming misconduct trial of an election-denying former Republican elections clerk, Tina Peters, came with this unusual editor’s note at the top: “WARNING If you have been called in for jury duty on Monday when the process for choosing a jury begins, The Daily Sentinel encourages you NOT to read this article. As in all court cases, potential jurors are told to avoid reading, viewing or discussing any stories related to a case they are to hear.”

⏮ The Colorado Springs Business Journal is “coming back this August,” staff of the Indy reported. “Pikes Peak Media Co. will publish the first issue Aug. 9. The CSBJ will be published monthly.” After the inaugural issue, the company plans to publish on the first Friday of each month. “The Colorado Springs business community is robust and growing,” Mackenzie Tamayo, publisher of Pikes Peak Media Co, said in a statement. “We’re excited to partner with the community, and we’re looking forward to keeping the legacy of the Business Journal alive with great new writers and advertisers.”

👃 What do you think a “lib” reporter smells like? Ask the publisher of the right-wing partisan Sangre de Cristo Sentinel newspaper in Westcliffe who … seems to know?

⚖️ Speaking of the Sangre de Cristo Sentinel, its publisher, George Gramlich, published in this week’s print edition an apology and retraction for printing statements in the paper about a rival publisher in town, Jordan Hedberg of the Wet Mountain Tribune, that “improperly characterized what had occurred.” The published apology and retraction noted that it was part of a settlement agreement stemming from a defamation lawsuit Hedberg had filed.

🗳 Meanwhile, Wet Mountain Tribune publisher Jordan Hedberg, a self-described conservative who says he voted for Republican Donald Trump for president, told the Denver Post that he will run as an unaffiliated candidate for Custer County Commission in November.

💨 After “47 years of more or less continuous broadcasting in Denver,” veteran weathercaster Ed Greene is retiring from 9NEWS, Michael Roberts reported for Westword. “Greene supposedly holstered his clicker in 2017, when he stepped down as lead forecaster for CBS4 after spending 34 years at the station. But 9News president and general manager Mark Cornetta lured him before the cameras again in early 2021 on what Greene thought was a short-term basis — and he wound up staying for the better part of four years. He insists that he won’t be enticed back for yet another sequel, though.” Replacing Greene is Chris Bianchi who “has been named the new 9NEWS Impact Weather Team meteorologist on 9NEWS Mornings,” reported Alexander Kirk for MSN.

🗣 The Colorado Press Association has announced more than 40 speakers for its upcoming Aug. 22-24 annual convention. “More speakers will be announced over the course of the next few weeks,” the organization states on its website.

📣 A Denver District Court judge this week “declined to dismiss a high-profile murder case over comments District Attorney Beth McCann made to the news media, finding that the prosecutor’s public comments were appropriate and ethical,” Shelly Bradbury reported for the Denver Post.

💨 Chris Perez has left Westword as its senior staff writer.

🏢 Journalists at Denver7, a.k.a The Denver Channel or KMGH-TV, have moved into their new building in the Five Points area. The new HQ has a conference room dedicated to longtime Denver TV anchor Anne Trujillo with a quote from her that reads, “A place for all voices to be heard,” reported Ryan Warner of Colorado Public Radio on Threads.

😬 A Denver TV anchor found it “wild to hear election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell platformed” on KOA 850 AM and 94.1 FM “without scrutiny or pushback.”

💨 After a year in Pueblo and four years in Colorado Springs, Kasia Kerridge of KKTV said she is “moving on up I-25 again” after taking a job with KDVR in Denver. “This is truly a dream come true to come home,” she said, “reporting for a station I grew up watching.”

I’m Corey Hutchins, co-director of Colorado College’s 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.