Awkward! Denver Post quits paying city rent as paper covers city's budget woes

The news behind the news in Colorado

The Denver Post building downtown. Photo by the author some years ago.

Journalists at the Denver Post might have found themselves in an uncomfortable situation this week.

Amid saturated news coverage by the newspaper and other local media about Denver’s serious budget crisis — city workers laid off, vital programs cut — CBS Colorado reporter Brian Maass dropped a bombshell scoop.

Here’s the lede from his Oct. 21 story:

The city of Denver’s largest tenant, the leaseholder for the Denver Post building at 101 West Colfax Avenue, stopped making its monthly $650,000 rent payments to the city in August. And with late charges, the leaseholder is now about $2 million behind in rent, according to an exclusive CBS News Colorado investigation.

The story then went into detail about the impacts of the city’s budget problems. And the reporter quoted some city council members who appeared stunned to have learned about a media company’s major nonpayments from a reporter and not from anyone at the city itself.

“I have to say, I wish I had known by now,” one city council member, who incidentally was a reporter once himself, told CBS.

A spokesperson for the office of Mayor Mike Johnston was blunt: “Denver pays its debts on time and DP Media Network should do the same. We are working with the tenant to restart payments and intend to recover every penny we are owed.”

Yikes.

The CBS story also came with this face-palming line: “CBS News emailed four lawyers representing DP Media Network seeking an explanation of why the lease payments stopped. None of them responded.”

Now, let’s pause for a moment.

I’m told there had been no chatter in the newsroom about the paper being aware of this information and sitting on it or being blocked from reporting it. Just like everyone else in Denver media, it sounds like the Post got scooped by CBS Colorado on a major news item that just happened to be in the paper’s backyard.

Kind of.

The Denver Post followed up on the story several hours later with its own item. This was part of the coverage:

While the mostly vacant building still bears The Post’s name, the newspaper hasn’t operated out of the space at 101 W. Colfax Ave. in seven years. The last of parent company MediaNews Group’s employees moved to offices at the paper’s Adams County printing facility in 2020.

The city of Denver bought the building in 2024 and assumed The Post’s lease.

DP Media Network LLC, the newspaper’s legal name, has offered to buy out its lease with the city and hopes to reach a mutually beneficial arrangement, the company said in a statement.

“We stopped occupying this space while the building was under private ownership long before the city purchased it, so there was never any impression we would be using the space when the city made the decision to purchase the building,” said Marshall Anstandig, general counsel for The Post’s parent company, MediaNews Group.

To this day, a prominent sign on the curvaceous green-glass cruise-ship-looking building reads “The Denver Post.”

The Denver Post newspaper’s item about the payment dispute came under the byline of “The Denver Post” and not under the name of any of the paper’s journalists. The item did appear in an online section titled “business” and “news,” and I’m told it’s not a press release.

Reporter Maass of CBS Colorado followed up Wednesday with another broadside that included a blistering comment from the mayor’s office.

“We don’t care how big of a corporation they are,” a spokesperson told the reporter. “The City and County of Denver will not be bullied.”

The story also illuminated frustration with the mayor’s office by some city council members who felt left in the dark. One council member worried the newspaper building scandal will hurt efforts to pass a Vibrant Denver bond measure, which the Denver Post’s editorial page has endorsed.

Other local media followed up on the story, including the rival digital Denver Gazette, which in the past has run an advertising campaign attacking the Denver Post.

“Two years ago, Denver built its hopes – and most likely its budget – on the purchase of the former Denver Post building in downtown with plans to add office space for courts,” a Denver Gazette story on the building read.

“As it stands,” the story by reporter Deborah Grigsby went on, “not counting any additional late fees, The Denver Post owes the city close to $2 million – money the city could use to cover some of the City Council’s budget priorities.”

Here’s more:

Looking at the numbers, that $2 million could pay to restore the city’s STAR Program ($500,000), Denver Day Works ($550,000), WorkReady Program ($600,000), and Crisis Response Team positions within the Denver Sheriff’s Department ($286,000).

Alternatively, the owed cash could fund the 17 additional positions the council asked for as part of the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure’s Right of Way Enforcement Funding ($1,360,000).

Woof.

The development once again shows the kinds of headaches certain ownership can cause for local news organizations.

Hopefully, intellectually honest city leaders can separate those ownership issues from the work of the paper’s on-the-ground journalists as they continue to cover the city.

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➡️ This newsletter is proudly sponsored by The Colorado Health Foundation. As a proud funder of Colorado Media Project, the home of Press Forward Colorado, the CHF understands that healthy communities need a healthy news ecosystem.

This year, The Colorado Health Foundation will be working to combat disinformation and misinformation, and helping nonprofits build media literacy.

• Read our post this week titled “Getting in the News in a Changing Media Landscape” that includes five concrete steps that changemakers can take to build influence through local media.

With ballots now in the mail, check out The Colorado Health Foundation’s 2025 Local Ballot Measure Tracker. Your civic participation matters, so make sure you’re registered to vote and that your information is current at GoVoteColorado.com.

Just this week, the Colorado News Collaborative called our annual Pulse Poll a “trove of information useful to reporters.” The Colorado Health Foundation’s Katie Peshek recently talked to journalists across the state about the poll results, which you can watch here. We also have Pulse Poll slides here, showing how you can use what we found to guide your reporting on topics and bring facts and data to your stories. ⬅️

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Colorado journalist and author urges peers not to settle with an AI company

Colorado journalist and author Scott Carney is on a tear.

Lately, he has been crusading against a $1.5 billion settlement deal that the AI company Anthropic is trying to make with authors of books it used to train its bots.

“With six of my books in the database, I stand to make a cool $18,000 out of this settlement,” Carney said in a recent video and column he published.

But he doesn’t want to take the cash because he thinks the deal is a “sham” and the figure for authors is too low. He’s not alone, either.

Colorado Public Radio host Ryan Warner checked in with a handful of other Colorado authors and found they, too, were frustrated about an AI company snatching their work and using it to train its tools.

Laura Pritchett, who CPR reported has four books in the Anthropic database including “The Blue Hour” and “Sky Bridge,” said getting any money from the deal would be a “sad celebration.”

Here’s an excerpt from author Peter Heller:

“AI as a project right now is leading to a concentration of power in the hands of people and entities that have proven themselves time and time again not to have any moral compass. And I think it’s extremely dangerous for the world and the fact that these companies are using my art, literature that I created and copyrighted material that I own to train their chatbot to do … whatever they’re going to do, and to reap commercial benefit from that and huge power is just scary. I mean, I think it’s ‘Halloween’ scary. I really do.”

Here I should point out that I recently purchased a monthly subscription to Anthropic to test it out (before I heard the CPR story) and I pay for the AI tool Lex to copy edit this newsletter. I sometimes use other AI tools like Google’s Gemini for image creation, and I’ve experimented with NotebookLM. I have investments in publicly traded companies that make money off AI.

Here’s more from the CPR story:

In newsletters and online videos, Carney has been advocating authors to explore their options to pursue further litigation to get a bigger settlement, something they won’t be able to do if they accept the payout. “Just based on that theft, it should be trillions of dollars. It shouldn’t be billions of dollars of damages,” Carney said.

Read or listen to the whole CPR piece here.

Meet the most extra journalism job listing around — in Estes Park, Colorado

Want to make $62,000 a year to live in Estes Park, Colorado, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park? With the opportunity to bring in an extra $2,000 a month based on your earnings?

There’s a journalism job for that. Somewhat.

It’s what Prairie Mountain Media, a subsidiary of MediaNews Group, which is financially controlled by the Alden Global Capital hedge fund, calls a “unique solo-operator position.”

The job title? General Manager, editor, and sales consultant. No kidding.

According to the listing, this role requires someone to act as the chief editor of the paper as well as the primary reporter who oversees all content creation. The same person will handle production of both the print and online content, circulation, distribution, and finances, while curating newsletters and news notifications. All while (drum roll) “developing and executing all advertising sales strategies.”

Here’s the kicker: “There is not an office for this position, however, work in Estes Park is required.”

Welcome to the hedge-fund newspaper journalism job of the future.

School district bans books, gets sued, and asks the public to help fund its case

“The first thing visitors to the Elizabeth School District website see is a pop-up window with an unusual message: an invitation to help cover legal fees incurred in a lawsuit over library book removals.”

That’s the lede from a story this week by Ann Schimke of the nonprofit education news site Chalkbeat Colorado. Here’s more:

The appeal by the 2,700-student district southeast of Denver is part of a broader effort supported by at least three conservative groups, including one led by former Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, to raise money to defend the district against the lawsuit.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed suit against the district in December alleging that the Elizabeth school board’s vote to remove 19 books from school libraries violates federal and state free speech protections. The books, which are now back on shelves because of a court order, are primarily by or about LGBTQ people, people of color, or both.

While school district fundraisers for things like classroom supplies or field trips are common, asking parents and the public for money to pay lawyers is not. The heading on the donation page hosted by Ganahl’s group reads “Save Elizabeth School District,” with buttons underneath suggesting donations ranging from $250 to $10,000.

According to the story, lawyers for the district have argued that the library booted the books because of concerns that they weren’t age-appropriate, didn’t have educational value, and included sensitive content. Such content included violence, explicit sexual references, extreme drug or alcohol use, and self-harm ideation.

Schimke reported that she couldn’t tell from publicly posted district financial records how much the school district has shelled out so far on the library lawsuit. “District officials declined to answer that question,” she wrote.

Read the whole thing here. The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition has been tracking the book-ban brouhaha all year. Get caught up here.

Colorado journalist ‘headed to prison’

Julian Rubinstein, the Colorado journalist and author behind “The Holly” book and documentary, wrote in a recent email to supporters that he is headed to prison this week.

From newsletter:

This week, we are thrilled to head to San Quentin, to join a stellar lineup at the only film fest held in a prison, San Quentin Film Festival, where inmates chose the films and will be part of our discussions.

Jokes aside, Rubinstein had some words for members of the Denver media in the newsletter, which recapped his documentary’s recent national Emmy win.

Here’s that portion:

Consequences from my reporting include the removal of at least one problematic high ranking police official and a deepened public understanding of Denver’s (and other cities) street violence, policing, crime, activism, misuse of informants, and the interconnected efforts of its biggest power players. Some influential organizations in Denver, including the Denver Foundation and History Colorado, embraced lessons about their own accountability and held public events to screen and discuss the film. The Rocky Mountain NAACP endorsed the film, helping us refute the many falsehoods and attempts to undermine it made by people and groups who were exposed.

Opportunities were missed when it came to media accountability, as some of Denver’s media—whose coverage was revealed to be problematic or unethical—declined to address the problems, and in some cases helped spread falsehoods about the project. In Denver, like many cities, some media entities are part of the city’s power structure and will circle the wagons to protect it.

Read his full newsletter here.

Shay Castle launches a new Boulder podcast called ‘The Frequency’

Over the summer, the 32-year-old Boulder Weekly newspaper melted down in remarkable fashion. The newsroom, blaming ownership for the drama, left for different opportunities.

Now, the person who led the BW editorial team has announced her next step.

“Longtime Colorado journalist Shay Castle has launched a new podcast,” a news release stated this week. “Boulder Valley Frequency is a short, weekly show exploring the news, events and people of Boulder County.”

In the first episode, Castle said the alt-weekly ceasing publication left a gap in the area’s news ecosystem.

More from the announcement:

The Frequency has released five episodes so far, covering issues such as the regional minimum wage, homelessness and the Lakeview Fire in Nederland. Their next episode, dropping Wednesday, Oct. 29, will be a comprehensive vote guide to all candidates and issues on Boulder County ballots, including school board races for the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley districts.

Marketing professional Jeff Rozic and Kelly Gary, an award-winning sound editor and audio producer, are also involved. The team plans to produce originally reported hyper-local items while collaborating with other area publications.

“There is so much news and content being produced today. Trying to keep up and distinguish reliable sources can be overwhelming,” Castle, who will serve as the podcast’s primary host and reporter, said in a statement. “My hope is to offer something that cuts through the noise and brings you the local news you need to know in a way that’s sustainable and fits into your life. You should be able to consume the news without it consuming you.”

Before joining Boulder Weekly, Castle had founded the digital outlet BoulderBeat and previously reported for the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper.

Check out the new Boulder podcast The Frequency here, with episodes going back to Sept. 24 that range from about 15 to 20 minutes long.

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🌿 This week’s newsletter is proudly supported by Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency™, founded by longtime journalist Ricardo Baca (formerly of the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, now serving on the Colorado Public Radio board).

At Grasslands, we don’t just work with journalists, we work for them. Our team of former reporters and editors, together with our veteran comms colleagues, build thoughtful connections between journalists and sources while investing directly back into Colorado’s journalism community.

Next up: Grasslands Presents: The Colorado Journalist Meetup, returning Nov. 3 at the Denver Press Club with a powerful panel discussion, Mental Health for Modern Journalists: How to Process and Heal After Covering Mass Shootings, Violent Protests and Other Unimaginables. The evening will include happy hour, community conversation, and candid insights from journalists Trevor Hughes (USA Today), Kyle Harris (CPR News/Denverite), and Vicky Collins (NBC News) alongside mental health professionals from Boulder-based Naropa University, the birthplace of the modern mindfulness movement.

Our mission with these Colorado Journalist Meetups is simple: to uplift journalism, support those who practice it, and strengthen the fabric of Colorado media. (Note: These events are only open to active Colorado media members.)

RSVP to the Colorado Journalist Meetup via Grasslands SAE Jonathan Rose (ex-Denver Business Journal): jonathan@mygrasslands.com 🌿

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More Colorado media odds & ends

💳 The deadline to apply for Colorado Media Project’s 2025 #newsCOneeds Year-End Giving Challenge — “a statewide effort helping local newsrooms grow community support and compete for $176,000 in matching funds and prizes,” is Oct. 28. Apply here.

👀 Jim Rodenbush, an advisor to the Indiana University student newspaper whose firing made national news over concern about universities cracking down on student journalism, has a Colorado connection. Rodenbush previously worked at CSU Fort Collins where he won a 2016 national award from the College Media Association. (Meanwhile, Denver Press Club President Marianne Goodland sent a “stern” letter to IU, her alma mater, about the controversy.)

❌ We’re fine — wrong building! KKTV broadcast an Oct. 23 video showing the Southern Colorado Public Media Center in downtown Colorado Springs that houses my office, the KRCC newsroom, Colorado Public Radio, and Rocky Mountain PBS. The headline for the story was “Suspect accused of setting fire to downtown Colorado Springs building on the run.” But the TV station apparently showed the wrong building. The station’s news director told me KKTV removed the footage, will make a correction, and that he is looking into how the “mix-up” happened.

🎥 Former New York Times journalist Charles Blow is producing documentary-style videos for Press Forward to help “inspire investment in a local news revival.” One of them focuses on Colorado Media Project, which underwrites this newsletter.

⚽ Colorado Rapids soccer coach Chris Armas expressed his frustration with previous coverage by sports writer Matt Pollard this week during a press conference. Pollard said the coach later apologized and the sports writer accepted it.

🎙️ Michael de Yoanna, the managing editor of the Mountain West News Bureau (and my colleague on the SPJ Colorado board), made the national newsletter “Your First Byline” as a subject this week where he offered advice to emerging journalists.

🔎 A private judge has granted a request from the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition “to intervene in a divorce case in which a suppression order makes the entire court file — and the order itself — unavailable to the public,” the CFOIC’s Jeff Roberts wrote this week. Find out why this matters here.

🏆 For the “third time in three years,” the investigative team at 9NEWS in Denver won a National Edward R. Murrow Award, said the station’s reporter Chris Vanderveen.

📧 Rocky Mountain PBS is launching a newsletter called Lunch Break.

🎵 Hayley Sanchez of Colorado Public Radio produced a story headlined “How a musician preserved Colorado Springs’ underground punk scene from the 80s and 90s.”

📰 Someone is selling Gazette newspaper boxes on Facebook Marketplace for $140. You can find a Denver Post newspaper box for $80.

🎬 The World Premiere of the Youth Documentary Academy takes place Nov. 9 at Colorado College in downtown Colorado Springs. Get tickets at the link above.

I’m Corey Hutchins, manager of the Colorado College Journalism Institute, advisor to Colorado Media Project, and a board member of the state Society of Professional Journalists chapter. For nearly a decade, I reported on the U.S. local media scene for Columbia Journalism Review, and I’ve been a journalist for longer at multiple news organizations. Most recently, I’ve been contributing to Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab and The Conversation. The nonprofit Colorado Media Project is underwriting this newsletter, and my “Inside the News” column appears at COLab. (If you’d like to underwrite or sponsor this newsletter, hit me up.) Follow me on Bluesky, reply or subscribe to this weekly newsletter here, or e-mail me at CoreyHutchins [at] gmail [dot] com.