Colorado media odds & ends — medicated roundup edition
The news behind the news in Colorado this week
💊 This week’s newsletter was produced in recovery mode, sidelined by an unfun medical issue — so it’s just a roundup.
🍽 Local Colorado Springs independent Substack journalist Matthew Schniper, who covers the city’s culinary scene for his Side Dish newsletter, wrote this week about how he has come up with creative sponsorships in order to “be able to pay myself a real salary this year instead of working full-time-plus hours for barely part-time pay.” The development is notable as more entrepreneurial independent journalists seek to monetize their work outside of traditional advertising or subscriptions. In telling his readers about the details of his new Side Dish Dozen “sponsorship club,” Schniper writes about “transparency and tightrope walking … related to potential conflict of interest.”
🌿 This week’s newsletter is proudly supported in part by Grasslands, a journalist’s best friend for sourcing reporting on cannabis, psychedelics, and our ever-changing relationship with drug policy. Founded in 2016 by 24-year newspaper veteran Ricardo Baca — who in 2013 served as the world’s first Cannabis Editor at The Denver Post and a decade later was appointed by Colorado’s governor to the Natural Medicine Advisory Board to contribute to the state's psychedelics policy development — Grasslands brings a unique Journalism-Minded™ ethos to its suite of public relations, content marketing, and thought leadership products. Together with its partners, Grasslands is rewriting the broken narratives around cannabis, psychedelics, and global drug policy. Learn more at mygrasslands.com, and email Ricardo directly with any sourcing or interview requests for cannabis or psychedelics researchers, entrepreneurs, nonprofits and beyond: ricardo@mygrasslands.com. 🌿
📺 Prominent Denver 9NEWS anchor Kyle Clark, who is growing a well-deserved reputation as a local journalist unafraid to call out bigotry and political extremism, appeared on the liberal Get More Smarter podcast for an insightful talk about that. “I think that the apprehensions about covering extremism are probably multifaceted because you have so many different journalists in so many different newsrooms making the choice to ignore extremism,” he said. “I think it’s important to note that there is great work being done covering extremism in Colorado by some digital outlets. The Post has done some good work on it, the Sun has done some good work on it. (He also noted Colorado Community Media and the Ark Valley Voice.) There are ideologically-oriented outlets on the left that have also done very good work on extremism in Colorado — Colorado Newsline, Colorado Times Recorder. But it’s baffling to me in a time when journalists know that a lot of people get their news and information from local TV news — a ton of people do — that that can just be a space where extremism is not discussed in any significant way.” Clark also talked about “whether or not journalists are allowed to be pro-democracy,” and said he believes some journalists might retreat from it because they feel democracy has become a partisan issue. “My goodness,” he said of such a take. “What do those folks think is going to happen if America takes a turn toward authoritarianism? Do you think that there’s going to be some safe place carved out for journalists who just never challenged the rise of authoritarianism? So you can cover what? And do what? The things that the government tells you are OK to cover?”
🦠 A legislative committee this week “narrowly endorsed a proposed $150,000 study by the Colorado Attorney General on ways to prevent and combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation after proponents tried to allay concerns the measure threatens First Amendment free speech rights,” reported Jeff Roberts for the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. “I want to be clear, no one is trying to curtail free speech — on the contrary,” Sen. Lisa Cutter, D-Jefferson County, who sponsors Senate Bill 24-084, told Roberts. “And I want to remind people this is a study, not legislation allowing the AG to determine anything.”
🤖 Learn how some Colorado newsrooms are using artificial intelligence. Newsroom managers “discussed how they are integrating [the tools] into their workflow — whether inside or outside of their journalistic endeavors.”
🛢 Devin Farmiloe profiled visual journalist Kara Fox who is a Ted Scripps fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism. “My research is focused on three broad categories so far,” Fox said. “How climate change affects maternal mortality, reproductive justice and how it affects gender-based violence. I’m also looking into how extractive industries fuel gender based violence, and querying whether the green transition will also present those same problems.”
🌱 “After almost a year recovering from a relative’s crime-involved death and reassessing my goals and capacity, I’m marching forward with Moodfuel,” wrote publisher Renata Hill. “Our focus has shifted a bit – more storytelling, less straight journalism – signified by the removal of ‘news’ from our title and additional community engagement to help neighbors navigate their mental health journeys in Colorado.”
📻 Writing for Westword, Michael Roberts reports why serial Republican candidate George Brauchler left the conservative KNUS talk radio station “in favor of a run for district attorney in the brand-new 23rd Judicial District, which encompasses a significant, and notably right-wing, part of his previous stamping grounds.” Brauchler, a former Denver Post columnist, had replaced former longtime KNUS host Peter Boyles.
⬆️ Speaking of Westword, Thomas Mitchell has become the Denver alt-weekly newspaper’s *news editor. “My journalism career began in Denver almost ten years ago, much of it taking place with Westword. I love this city, and I can't wait to cover it with all of the talented people in this newsroom,” Mitchell, who previously served as the paper’s cannabis editor, said. (*The emailed version of this newsletter stated he would be the “new editor,” but he will be the “news editor.” The new news editor.)
📈 “When I took this job, I was told we could add as many pages as we wanted into the [Colorado Springs Gazette] e-edition. My editor, [John Boogert], told me his only condition was that they aren't ‘filled with crap,’” Gazette e-edition editor Jon Mitchell wrote on social media this week. “So I’m proud to say that over the past four days, we’ve had an extra 32 pages of quality local and national news and sports content in our e-edition. That's like getting an extra newspaper free of charge. No other news source in Colorado is doing what we're doing. I truly believe we're setting the pace for local and national content.”
📡 Student Development programming at Colorado Public Radio “includes our career exploration events, and internship and fellowship programs managed by our People and Culture department,” the station wrote this week. “Through Student Development programming, CPR offers learning opportunities to students and recent graduates that are tied to mentoring, networking and developmental experiences. The goal of the program is to positively impact career growth and exploration, and support our commitment to serving diverse communities in Colorado.”
🚰 Writing in Civil Eats, author and journalist Bill Lascher took a deep dive into how a “wash of Walton family funding to news media is creating echo chambers in environmental journalism, and beyond,” and he asked whether “editorial firewalls” are “up to the task.” (Walmart money has flowed to Colorado journalists and newsrooms for coverage of the Colorado River Basin.) Former Boulder Weekly Editor Joel Dyer “said reporting on the Waltons’ influence on the future of the Colorado River is the most important story in the region,” Lascher reported. “He said Walton philanthropy supports efforts to convert water rights into a market-based system and he believes Walton funding in journalism chills reporting on their initiatives. The effect is that it’s compromising newsrooms and journalists in the same manner that agribusiness dollars, such as from Monsanto, have compromised ag science and undermined academic research, he said.” Another excerpt: “While Walton money flows to journalism, ‘the journalists who say it’s not influencing their work aren’t lying in a sense. It’s not influencing the good work they’re doing on whatever tiny part of the Colorado River problem they’re doing,” Dyer said. ‘I have friends who are getting money from the Water Desk. Good lord, they are doing great work and they wouldn’t be surviving if they weren’t getting it. But none of them can do the story on the Waltons.’”
🗞 “Effective local reporting counters rumors and equips citizens with the knowledge to broaden their horizons, enhancing their grassroots influence on democracy,” wrote former Ute Pass Elementary School Principal Chris Briggs-Hale in the Pikes Peak Bulletin.
⚾️ Jenny Cavnar is “tired of firsts for women in sports,” reported Denver Gazette Rockies beat writer Luke Zahlmann. “Like Cavnar being the first woman primary play-by-play voice for a Major League Baseball team. Or fellow Coloradan Lauren Gardner being part of the first all-women broadcast crew in MLB. Cavnar dreams of a broadcast landscape without those milestones, because they have already been crossed off the list. She, and Colorado’s spectacular cast of women in sports media, are banding together as a group to accomplish each item on the list and inspire the next generation to strive for their dreams too, with a role model already in place to guide them.”
🆕 Claudia Perez Rivas is the new editor of the Glenwood Springs Post Independent and the Citizen Telegram, “arriving in Colorado from years of newsroom roles in Texas.” As a Spanish-language reporter in the Rio Grande Valley, Rivas said she “learned that it’s not just translating a story into Spanish but to look at the Spanish-speaking community in order to find those stories that affect and interest them, which are oftentimes not only those dealing with immigration. I hope to bring this experience to the communities in Garfield County.”
💸 Perelandra Bookshop in Fort Collins “is paying people to sit down and read quietly,” Parker Yamasaki wrote for the Colorado Sun. A “reader-in-residence commits to reading at the store for two hours per week in exchange for a small coffee and book stipend.”
🗳 A Durango Herald editorial this week explained to readers how the southwestern Colorado newspaper plans to cover the upcoming elections differently. “Although Opinion coverage differs from news, our approach remains inspired by New York University journalism professor and media critic Jay Rosen’s work in The Citizens Agenda, public-powered journalism applied to elections coverage. Basic idea: Campaign coverage should be grounded in what voters want candidates to discuss as they compete for votes. Not what candidates want to talk about.”
📉 Denver7’s parent company Scripps “saw its stock drop below $4 this week, setting yet another 52-week low. Meanwhile, 9NEWS parent company Tegna also hit a 52-week low after it reported a 21% drop in Q4 year-over-year revenue,” wrote PR pro Jeremy Story at his Denver Public Relations Blog for his recurring item “Who Had the Worst Week?”
🤺 The Colorado Republican Party “sent out a pro-Trump mailer this week attacking a congressional primary opponent of party chairman Dave Williams, as well as The Gazette newspaper in Colorado Springs, in the latest example of Williams using his party leadership position to benefit or defend himself and his allies,” Sandra Fish reported for the Colorado Sun. She further reported: “‘The Gazette has become the corrupt political arm of anti-Trump billionaire Phil Anschutz,’ the mailer said.” Also in the piece: “Anschutz, a major Republican donor, owns The Gazette. The publication’s editorial board has been critical of Williams’ leadership of the state party. Gazette Editor Vince Bzdek didn’t respond to a voicemail or email seeking comment.”
⏩ ICYMI: Colorado has joined a handful of other states in a cohort linking with Press Forward, a $1 billion national fundraising campaign to “catalyze a local news renaissance.” Colorado Media Project, which underwrites this newsletter, is taking a lead on the local initiative here.
⚙️ Tayler Shaw has left Colorado Community Media — “an amazing local news organization where I grew so much and met such incredible people” — for a job as a writer for the CU Anschutz Department of Medicine.
📺 Asked why 9NEWS hadn’t covered the recent arrest of one of Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s sons, ‘Next’ anchor Kyle Clark said: “I wrestle with whether the actions of an adult son of a public figure are newsworthy, particularly the level of coverage I’ve seen. And especially because the adult son didn’t invoke the public figure to avoid consequences nor did the public figure make any excuses for the son.” 9NEWS journalist Chris Vanderveen said: “I love that I work in a newsroom where we can have conversations about journalism every day. Debate inside a newsroom is critical to the health of that newsroom. I also love when we lead instead of follow.” (Incidentally, 9NEWS has not followed Denverite’s lead in dropping the word “migrant” from coverage.)
🎧 Check out this list of roughly 80 Colorado-based podcasts. (The Denver Post’s John Wenzel recently rounded up 10 “great” ones to listen to, and 5280 magazine earlier rounded up 26 podcasts by Coloradans, or podcasts that focus on the West.)
📖 University of Colorado Boulder media studies professor Nathan Schneider has a new book out titled “Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life.” The book is “about democracy in our everyday internet-lives,” he said on social media.
💰 Since 2016, Democracy Fund has “invested more than $15 million in 10 geographic areas across the U.S. to support vibrant ecosystems that reimagine news and information as civic infrastructure,” the national organization wrote this week, adding, “In Colorado, funders have utilized national resources and models for local use, like creating a statewide NewsMatch campaign called #newsCONeeds that has raised over $2.3M for Coloradan nonprofit and for profit newsrooms.”
🗣 “Local reporters will be offering tips next week on how to wade through the misinformation and vitriol that infect politics to get to what really matters this election season. The four-person panel of journalists will be at the Westminster campus of Front Range Community College on Tuesday, March 5,” Monte Whaley reported for Colorado Community Media. (I’m afraid I’ve had to cancel.)
I’m Corey Hutchins, co-director of Colorado College’s Journalism Institute. 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.) Follow me on Threads, reply or subscribe to this weekly newsletter here, or e-mail me at CoreyHutchins [at] gmail [dot] com.
Thanks. Good to know that journalism still valued at some colleges. Please stick with water stories. CC students were involved with right ending to Two Forks if I remember correctly.