π π Rocky Mountain Media Review
Local media news in the Rocky Mountain West (and adjacent states) for April 2022
This is a special, expanded edition of the βInside the News in Coloradoβ newsletter. Occasionally, Iβll try to take a look at the local media scene outside Colorado to offer a more regional perspective. (Are these the Rocky Mountain states? Is it the Mountain West? Beats me. In this one weβll check in from Idaho to Oklahoma, so maybe the region is unclassifiable.)
Digital media startups shoot up in Nebraska
Earlier this year, States Newsroom announced it was launching Nebraska Examiner, marking the national nonprofit news networkβs entree into its 26th state.
In other, words: more than half the country now has a States Newsroom digital news site. Here in the Rocky Mountain region and adjacent states, those sister sites are Colorado Newsline, Kansas Reflector, Source New Mexico, Arizona Mirror, Nevada Current, Idaho Capital Sun, and Daily Montanan. Nevadaβs was the networkβs first new newsroom to launch, and States Newsroom has an agreement with WyoFile in Wyoming to feature that independent siteβs work on the national site.
The States Newsroom received its first big national story about what itβs doing with all these sites when The Washington Post wrote about the network at the end of last year. βThe troubling new void in local journalism β and the nonprofits trying to fill it,β was the headline.
About four months prior to the Nebraska Examiner coming on the scene, though, The FlatWater Free Press launched, calling itself βthe first independent, nonprofit, collaborative, purely investigative and enterprise news outlet serving the entire state of Nebraska.β
That two nonprofit news sites launched in the Cornhusker State within six months is notable.
βI view it as a national trend that reached Nebraska as all trends do...a couple years after Colorado & the coasts,β Flatwater Free Press Editor Matthew Hansen said on social media. βWeβre excited to be able to bolster the good local journalism that does still take place round Nebraska even as the number of reporters here does go down.β
This week, Tim McMahan at The Reader, which calls itself Nebraskaβs βonly nationally-recognized alternative newsmonthly,β relied on the development to say a βnewsroom warβ might be brewing in Nebraska.
McMahan also added the digital news site Nebraska Sunrise News into the mix, a site he noted βdoesnβt have a traditional staff box (the first sign somethingβs wrong here).β Sunrise News, the Nebraska Examiner reports, βemploys a number of conservative reporters and editorsβ and, according to the Omaha World Herald, counts a Republican state senator as part of its leadership. (A professional photographer said she photographed the staff at the Omaha Press Club in January.) When the Sunrise site launched it described its editorial content as center-right and positioned itself as an alternative to other political news sources while taking advantage of a Trump-era you-just-canβt-believe-the-news-anymore mentality.
All three of these new Nebraska sites seem to have grafted onto the stateβs established news and information ecosystem, either by partnering directly with legacy outlets, sharing content, or citing each other as first to report something.
πΏΒ This weekβs newsletter is proudly supported in part byΒ Grasslands, Denverβs Indigenous-owned PR, marketing, and ad agency that is thankful for the tireless work reporters do to bring our communities the stories that matter. Founded by veteran Denver Post journalist Ricardo Baca, Grasslands β the recipient of a 2020 Denver Business Journal Small Business Award β is a Journalism-Minded Agencyβ’Β working with brands in highly regulated industries including cannabis, technology, and real estate. Operating from its new offices in Denverβs Art District on Santa Fe, the firmβs 20-person team of communications professionals is focused on a single mission: βWe tell stories, build brands and amplify value.β EmailΒ hello@mygrasslands.comΒ to see how Grasslands can supercharge your brandβs marketing program (and read some of ourΒ cannabis journalist Q&As here).Β Β πΏ
Conservative investors bought New Mexicoβs Rio Grande Sun
Some of those who are interested in the way people get news and information in a certain part of New Mexico were surprised earlier this month when the Trapp family sold their storied newspaper.
The Rio Grande Sun, featured in the 2012 documentary The Sun Never Sets: The Story of a Small Town Newspaper, will now be owned by investors that include two former chairmen of the state Republican Party.
The paper is located in Rio Arriba County, one of the most Democratic counties in New Mexico; voters there went for Biden over Trump by roughly two to one in 2020.
From Daniel J. ChacΓ³n in the Santa Fe New Mexican:
The sale was front-page news in the weekly publication, for years considered a staple in and near EspaΓ±ola, a place where news and controversies are constant and hard-edged. The Sun has long been known for investigative journalism, often publishing stories and series that enlightened community members and enraged politicians. β¦
Richard L. Connor, the new editor and publisher, said the owners have agreed to be βhands offβ in news coverage and that he would be in charge of day-to-day operations.
βThey do not have any newspaper experience, and they were looking for someone to help them get started,β said Connor, who has been in the newspaper business for more than 50 years and owns a company that buys and sells newspapers.
Publisher Robert Trapp penned a sunset column headlined βWeβre done afflicting the comfortable.β It came with this nice splash of piss and vinegar:
I sincerely wish them good luck and good fortune. The newspaper business has become a brutal place to inform people who donβt want to be informed, tell a communityβs story, give readers what they want (and donβt want, but need) and hire competent people whom you cannot afford to pay a living wage.
Read the entire thing here.
Some Salt Lake Tribune journalists are βconcernedβ about their chairman
Not long ago, close media watchers were looking at The Salt Lake Tribune as a potential success story in a crisis facing the future and sustainability of local news.
The IRS in 2019 approved the newspaper for nonprofit status. The paper itself called it a βhistoricβ shift. βThe move from a for-profit model was spurred by Tribune owner Paul Huntsman, who, in agreeing to turn Utahβs largest paper into a nonprofit, is giving up his sole ownership,β the paper wrote.
Two years later, the paper is getting national attention for a different reason.
According to The Washington Post, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Huntsman started a company and worked with lawyers to investigate βhow tens of millions of dollarsβ worth of contracts were awarded under Utahβs then-lieutenant governor and now-governor, Spencer Cox.β
From the WaPo story, under the headline βPaul Huntsman saved a newspaper β then launched an investigation of his brotherβs rivalβ:
As it happened, Huntsmanβs brother β prominent politician and businessman Jon Huntsman β had unsuccessfully challenged Cox the previous year for the Republican nomination for governor.
Paul Huntsmanβs continuing efforts to investigate the man who defeated his brother have unsettled many in the Tribuneβs newsroom. Several journalists β who asked not to be named, to avoid running afoul of Huntsman β are concerned the chairmanβs actions are an outgrowth of a purported rivalry between Cox and Huntsmanβs family, one of the wealthiest and most prominent in the state. Some believe the newsroomβs independence is compromised by the very existence of Huntsmanβs investigative company, which he named Jittai, using a Japanese word that can mean βtrue stateβ or βactual condition.β
βA whole lot of political-media-family intrigue here,β said WaPoβs Paul Farhi, who wrote the story.
βJust imagining the good this βseveral hundred thousand dollarsβ could have done for Utah if Paul Huntsman had chosen to invest the money back into the newsroom he trashes in this piece,β said former Salt Lake Tribune reporter Taylor Stevens who is now in Arizona.
Bethany Rodgers, a former Trib reporter, mentioned the situation this week in her departure announcement on social media:
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Nevada journalist highlighted as a military vet
Despite βsaturation-coverageβ of war in Ukraine and some citizens looking to βjournalists with military backgrounds for context grounded in experience,β the ranks of military vets in the U.S. media βare thin.β
Thatβs from a recent feature in Editor & Publisher that spotlights the careers of military vet journalists from around the country. One of them works in Nevada.
From E&P:
Lucretia Cunningham is among those who long dreamt of a journalism career. Cunningham was an Air Force medic for 10 years and trained as an allergy and immunology technician. But she found it hard to make rank in that specialty, heavily reliant on the flu season as the βbig show.β In 2016 she got an ultimatum from the Air Force: either get out or train for flight medicine. She got out of active duty and went into the Air National Guard, lingering in the medical field. βI figured βI'll go to nursing school,β even though I didnβt even want to work in a hospital. I think I was watching a documentary or something about a reporter. And I was like, what would it take for me to just do that?β β¦
On Facebook, she found Military Veterans in Journalism and the group connected her with mentor Alex Sanz, deputy director of newsgathering at The Associated Press. They trained remotely, with phone calls once or twice a month. βTo talk about what I was doing, what I was working on. How I could make my stories better or the goals that I had.β
After being featured in an MVJ event, βCunningham landed a job in 2021 as a reporter with KUNR public radio in Reno, Nevada,β E&P reports. βSheβs also working as a public affairs specialist for the 926th Wing, an Air Force Reserve unit.β
Learn more about Cunningham and her reporting for KUNR here.
Wyoming bucks a trend in a new Pew reporter survey
The Pew Research Centerβs latest report shows how the press corps are faring in statehouses across the country. In most states they have grown in recent years.
Colorado, for instance, saw an increase, as Axios Denver pointed out. (Thanks for quoting me!) Wyoming? Not so much. From the Pew report, emphasis mine:
Trends in the number of statehouse reporters vary from state to state. In more than half of states β 31 β the number of statehouse reporters increased between 2014 and 2022, following the national pattern of growth in the total number of reporters covering statehouses. But about one-third of states β 16 in total β experienced decreases in their total numbers of statehouse reporters, including highly populous states such as Florida and Texas and less populated states like Wyoming and Alaska. Three states β Connecticut, South Carolina and South Dakota β retained the same overall numbers of statehouse reporters.
See how your own stateβs capitol press corps shaped up in the survey here. Also, a question:
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Montana newspapers change hands
Four Montana newspapers are under new ownership.
From Editor & Publisher:
Brian and LeAnne Kavanagh have sold the Shelby Promoter, as well as the Cut Bank Pioneer Press, Browning Glacier Reporter and The Valierian to Jesse Mullen and Lloyd Mullen of Ponderosa Publications, LLC according to John Cribb, Cribb, Cope & Potts who represented the Kavanagh family. The sale was effective March 1. β¦
Ponderosa Publications is affiliated with Mullen Newspaper Company based in Deer Lodge. Mullen Newspaper Company manages three other Montana newspapers, the Silver State Post in Deer Lodge, Philipsburg Mail and Bitterroot Star in Stevensville.
βThe Kavanaghs recently opened Tee to Green, an indoor golf simulator business in Cut Bank and are looking forward to making that another successful β and fun β business venture,β E&P reported.
Arizonaβs Cronkite School will study βjournalistic objectivityβ
Good on them.
The Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State snagged a $150,000 grant βto study the evolving concept of journalistic objectivity in the countryβs newsrooms.β The Stanton Foundation is providing the grant money.
From Media Post:
The project will examine how the concept of objectivity has evolved and how to reconcile the core principles of fact-based journalism with the values of younger journalists and modern newsrooms. It will produce a research paper to serve as a resource for print, digital and broadcast news organizations, along with a series of workshops tailored to support individual news organizations.
Researchers will handle the work in phases, beginning with a historical analysis and including βnew insights from news practitioners and thought leaders, representing a broad spectrum of views.β
More from Media Post:
Such a study is timely. Debate is raging among journalistic thinkers about how the traditional, third-party, disinterested style is no longer sufficient, and what role the horse-race approach to political coverage and the emphasis on giving equal voice to both sides should play. But thereβs disagreement on how to proceed. When one side engages in lying, or propagandizing, or misinformation, then journalismβs role canβt be to present both sides equally β if it does, itβs doing a disservice to its readers and to society.
Could be useful to learn what they find.
As Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel write in their latest edition of The Elements of Journalism, the original meaning of objectivity βis now thoroughly misunderstoodβ β and close to being lost. βObjectivity as a method of gathering, weighing, and understanding evidence does not mean both-sidesism, political stenography, false equivalency, or the denial of self,β they write. βNor does it mean that the journalist, after conducting sufficient reporting, has no point of view.β
More Rocky Mountain media odds & ends
π¦ A former Idaho Statesman reporter was bit by a rabid fox while covering the U.S Capitol. βShe swung her backpack at the fox to get it to go away,β her former paper reported. βBut she viewed what came next as a bigger challenge.β
βοΈ Denver KUSA 9News anchor Kyle Clark and the company that owns the local NBC affiliate are suing a county school districtβs records custodian βfor refusing to disclose a Colorado Open Records Act request that sought the names of teachers who called in sick Feb. 3 to protest actions by majority members of the school board,β the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition reported.
π These journalists with Arizona ties were βinducted into the Hall of Fame at the University of Arizona School of Journalism.β
π‘ Last weekβs newsletter said a managing editor job for 18 Rocky Mountain Community Radio stations would be based in Aspen, but should have said it could also be remote βwithin the region served by RMCR stations.β
π¦ Editor & Publisher spotlighted two Nevada journalists for how they are covering homelessness.
π» Here are the Top 10 radio stations in Arizona, βbased on public voting for the 2022 edition of Ranking Arizona, the stateβs biggest and most comprehensive business opinion poll.β
β‘οΈ The application window is now open βfor a new internship that aims to ensure Latino students have a place in Idaho newsrooms.β (Deadline April 24)
πΊ Arizona PBS General Manager Adrienne Fairwell has been βelected to serve on the board of the National Educational Telecommunications Association.β
π¨ After seven years, Kris Pickel, the award-winning anchor and reporter for Arizonaβs FamilyΒ TV news stations in Phoenix, is out of the company. βIt was called a business decision,β she told The Arizona Republic. βThey let me go.β (The Republic has more context about changes at the TV company.)
π³ Voters in a Colorado town seem to have sided with their local government over their local newspaper.
π Police nabbed a Phoenix, Arizona writer for the Gateway Pundit, βan alt-right fake news website based in St. Louis,β on βcharges of assault and criminal damage,β the Phoenix New Times alt-weekly reported.
π The Utah Statesman published a guest column that accused it of βbiased journalismβ along with an editorβs note stating the news organization βstands behind the reporter of the original article and their adherence to the SPJ Code of Ethics.β
π KOCO 5 President and General Manager Brent Hensley in Oklahoma congratulated OUβs Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication βon a recent honor and highlight the impact local universities are making on journalism.β
π± The California-based national local news app NewsBreak is expanding its contributor network to focus on news deserts, starting in Colorado and Arizona, among other states.
π‘ The Idaho News Guild wants the CEO of the McClatchy newspaper chain and its VP of news to attend local contract bargaining talks. (A union member sent postcards from Idaho to the company honchos, inviting them to the guildβs April 21 bargaining session.)
π ProPublica has announced the addition of three new partner newsrooms and local reporters to its Local Reporting Network. βThe selected journalists are Margaret Coker of The Current, Marcus Baram for Documented and Madison Hopkins of The Kansas City Beacon.β
π βIn January it was announced that CherryRoad Media added to the stable of 40 titles it acquired in 2021 with the purchase of 17 more newspapers in Texas and Oklahoma from Gannett Co., Inc,β reported media broker firm Dirks, Van Essen & April in its April report.
π Joan von Kampen, managing editor of the North Platte Telegraph, is now the western Nebraska editor for the Lee newspaper chain.
π A new newspaper, The Queen Creek Tribune, will launch April 24 βfeaturing a local focus on current events in the town of about 68,500 residents,β per a news release this week that came with this subhed: βNewspaper Group Continues to Expand While Industry Shrinks; Will Offer Local Community Coverage of One of Stateβs Fastest-Growing Towns.β
π The William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications at the University of Kansas is βmatching its students with community partners to deliver news via βGood Morning Indian Country,β a morning talk show and information program for Indigenous audiences.β
π In Idaho, House Bill 666, introduced in early March, βwould criminally charge librarians if a minor obtained a book that is considered to be harmful,β Idaho Press reported. The outlet obtained a βsecret folderβ it reported was βfull of materials deemed βharmfulβ that provided context to a controversial bill.β
π‘ Nevada Public Radio marked 42 years on the airwaves. (It βstarted in a janitorβs closet in the Las Vegas Silver Bowl.β)
Iβm Corey Hutchins, interim directorΒ of Colorado CollegeβsΒ Journalism Institute in Colorado Springs. For nearly a decade Iβve reported on the U.S. local media scene for Columbia Journalism Review, and Iβve been a journalist for longer at multiple news organizations. TheΒ Colorado Media Project, where I write case studies,Β is underwriting my weekly newsletter βInside the News in Colorado.β Follow meΒ onΒ Twitter, reply or subscribe to this monthly newsletter rounding up local news issues in the Rocky Mountain regionΒ here,Β or e-mail me at CoreyHutchinsΒ [at] gmail [dot] com. Get in touch if youβd like to underwrite this project.