Colorado TV news experiment 'The Local' launches pilot

The news behind the news in Colorado

A company behind an effort to reinvent local TV news nationwide has launched a pilot in Colorado.

Here’s how I wrote about The Local for Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab in May when the company announced it would roll out experimental test pilots in four states:

The company is envisioning — eventually — a network of news bureaus in every state with an entirely new business model to support it. The Local wants a break from the traditional format and conventions of local TV news. Those behind it believe they have a solution for the funding side that isn’t based solely on advertising but instead on content contracts with streaming platforms.

The goal is not to become another TV network or round-the-clock news channel.

“We’re not trying to retrofit the legacy model into a new funding stream,” Landfried said. “We’re building everything from scratch.”

The development is an example of the ways in which some in the news business are rethinking local broadcast TV at a time of disruption. While local TV remains a trusted medium, there is evidence of audience decline and stations are squeezed by financial pressure. Under the Trump administration, it is also not a stretch to expect waves of deregulation that could lead to massive consolidation and even more layoffs. Meanwhile, more and more American eyeballs are moving to streaming services for all sorts of content, including sports and live events.

At the time, a team of 10 volunteer board members were looking for investors to fund pilot episodes in Colorado and then roll out in California, Georgia, and Kansas with hopes of eventually landing a deal with a streaming service and going nationwide.

This week, the Colorado pilots dropped.

A YouTube channel for N2 Media Holdings, Inc. currently houses nine stories that range from nearly two minutes to more than six minutes long.

“The goal of any pilot is to see how well all of the components work together,” said Todd Landfried, co-founder and CEO of N2 Holdings. “The Colorado pilot tested our newsroom and infrastructure capacity, helped define future staffing levels, and delivered the proof-of-concept that funders and streaming platforms requested.”

As for content, here are the story headlines:

• Xcel Energy Settles Marshall Fire Lawsuit for $640 Million Ahead of Trial

• Memorial Hospital at Craig is At Risk of Closure

• Colorado Springs teachers go on strike

• The Impact of ICE raids on Aurora Small Businesses

• Teaching Quantum Science in Colorado Schools

• New CSU Rodeo Coach Upholding Proud Tradition

The Local also has a brief “Colorado Sports Scoreboard,” a “What’s Happening this Weekend” segment, and a daily statewide weather forecast from meteorologist Mike Witcher, who is based in Tennessee.

Working on the pilots for The Local are journalists Scott Stearns, Jessica Sachs, Libertad Pedraza, Angelika Albaladejo, Jessica Duran, Shelley Schlender, Zack Newman, Lana Prystynska, Morgan Raspanti, John Rose Henderson, Matan Fields, Mark Babbitt, Eric Gonon, and Carol Wood.

Landfried said the team of journalists believes in “the importance of informed communities” and wants to “report stories free from the limits of legacy TV.”

Here’s how N2 Holdings describes its pilot:

The first stories from The Local – Colorado introduce a new way to experience local news—fact-based, original reporting on the issues that matter most to Coloradans. From wildfire accountability and hospital closures to teacher strikes and immigration impacts, these are the stories everyone in the state should know. Alongside them, we highlight the people, traditions, and beauty that make Colorado unique. Each report is produced by local journalists committed to informing, connecting, and strengthening the communities they call home.

The clips are not slickly produced with flashy graphics or visual AI tools. Just narration and sources speaking over moving and still shots.

This was from the May story in Nieman Lab:

The Local would not have anchors, TV studios, satellite trucks, or do opinion journalism, those behind it say — just straight local news reporting with no national or international coverage. To provide hyperlocal content, The Local would seek to contract with community newsrooms across a state, including far-flung rural locales, and pay those newsrooms up to $1,500 per story for their work.

Read more here about The Local’s goals for reimagining local TV news and its hopes of being picked up by a big streaming service.

“Colorado was the ideal choice for the pilot,” Landfried said. “We chose it because of existing news collaboration, a distinct mix of urban centers and rural communities, and its unique geographical diversity.”

The next step for The Local, he said, is to utilize the pilot to raise funds to continue and expand it to three full months.

“This will allow us to more fully refine the reporting and production model and begin to gauge audience response to the stories we produce, and to explore partnerships with other Colorado newsrooms and journalists,” he said.

Watch all the pilots at the link above.

---

➡️ 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 Election Day fast approaching, 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.

Curious about the perspectives of adults from across the state on issues from affordable housing and hunger to mental health and child care? View the latest results of The Colorado Health Foundation’s annual Pulse poll here. ⬅️

---

Denver FOX31 meteorologist on obsessed viewer: ‘He’s repeatedly stalked me for years’

Denver TV meteorologist Kylie Bearse is speaking out about her frustration with Denver prosecutors after she says a 69-year-old man repeatedly violated a restraining order and is not behind bars.

“I’ve found different housing since he got out of jail,” she told reporter Shelly Bradbury of the Denver Post.

From the story:

Bearse … usually loves interacting with viewers outside of the TV screen. It’s wonderful when they say hello in person, and Bearse, 36, cherishes those genuine connections.

But over the last few years, one viewer crossed a line, she said, and became obsessed with her. He messaged her repeatedly, making new accounts when she blocked him. He claimed she was his wife. He showed up to events she hosted, once with an unwanted gift. He found her personal cell number. He messaged her family and friends. And he didn’t stop when she asked him to.

Bearse, who has lived in Denver since 2018 and previously worked for 9News, received a temporary restraining order in September 2023. The man quieted down for a couple months before starting up again, violating the order more than 50 times through social media posts and other online interactions.

Last month, Bearse said the man, whom she already had a permanent restraining order against, showed up at her home, and she called 911.

The local TV weathercaster said she hoped authorities would charge him with a stalking felony. But instead, prosecutors charged him with violating a protection order and he sprung from jail after a few days in the clink.

“My whole sense of safety has completely shifted, and it’s a horrible, sick-to-your-stomach feeling,” Bearse told the newspaper. “I believe this man should be in jail right now. He’s repeatedly stalked me for years.”

The story underscores an uncomfortable reality for some women TV journalists and a particular quirk in Colorado’s justice system. Here’s the nut graf from the Denver Post piece:

The Fox31 meteorologist’s experience highlights the complexities of stalking cases and shows how the criminal justice system — and prosecutors’ charging decisions — can leave victims feeling unprotected. State data shows that Denver prosecutors charge stalking cases less frequently than many neighboring jurisdictions, and advocates worry that stalking isn’t always taken seriously by those in power.

The Fox31 meteorologist told the paper that she is speaking out in hopes that it can help other women in Denver.

After the story came out, Bearse said she was grateful.

“Really appreciate Shelly Bradbury at the Denver Post taking such a detailed look at stalking numbers across Colorado,” she wrote on social media. “This has been an incredibly frustrating process and I hope the courts, especially in Denver, start taking stalking seriously so others don’t have this experience.”

Colorado and stalking have a complicated recent history.

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the stalking conviction of a Colorado man in what at least one legal analyst called a “First Amendment dispute.”

Speaking to a group of journalists at the Colorado Press Association convention this summer, Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is running for governor, spoke about the role his office plays in protecting members of the media.

Here’s an excerpt of what he said specifically regarding stalking and harassment:

“In order to protect speech … the Supreme Court has said that there has to be a level of intent. It has to be at least reckless in the case of stalking — in harassment, it’s generally intentional — so that the person doing the activity knows the recipient doesn’t want it. The hard part here is how do you establish that the victim doesn’t want this activity in a way where the victim isn’t putting him or herself at risk of the situation escalating to violence? That’s why this is such a fraught area.”

The attorney general said his advice to anyone experiencing stalking is to consult law enforcement “very early on — before the victim responds.”

Multiple times throughout the discussion, he urged journalists in Colorado to let him know about any incidents involving threats or harassment — and to let his office know if local police don’t appear to take it seriously.

“It’s possible that the law enforcement body is like ‘We’re out of our league here, we don’t know how to handle it’, in which case let us know, we’ll work with them, we’ll coach them,” Weiser said. “Because you have to take these situations seriously and then you’ve got to lay the ground work to be able to have any real accountability here.”

‘Cyber attack’ impacts the newspaper in Grand Junction

This Monday, a cyber attack hit the company that the Sentinel newspaper in Grand Junction uses to build and layout its print and e-editions.

“That attack has completely shut down that company’s capability to do its job for us,” the newspaper’s managing editor, Dale Shrull, wrote in a note to readers.

Here’s more from the Monday online note:

Because of the cyber attack on that company, we had to scramble to produce a slightly smaller e-Edition section today.

One thing you will notice is that the Plus section with national and world news is not in today’s section since it is produced by the company we outsource that task to build.

Shrull said the newspaper had concerns over how long the saga might impact it throughout the week. The Sentinel might have to produce smaller print and e-editions, he said.

---

👋 Hey, thanks for reading this far. I’m Corey Hutchins, a journalist and educator, and you’re reading “Inside the News in Colorado,” a weekly inbox newsletter. Learn more about it here. This newsletter turned (*checks notes*) 10 years old last month.

---

Youth Documentary Academy holds World Premiere in Colorado Springs Nov. 9

From “body image to black brotherhood, aging to immigration, religion to single parenthood,” Colorado student filmmakers will screen their documentaries next month.

The World Premiere of the Youth Documentary Academy takes place Nov. 9 in downtown Colorado Springs.

Here’s more about YDA, which is housed at Pikes Peak State College in Colorado Springs:

The Youth Documentary Academy provides intensive media and documentary film training to high school students in under-served and under-represented communities of Colorado Springs. For ten weeks, students between the ages of 14 and 20 learn all aspects of documentary filmmaking from pre-production, shooting, editing and distribution.

Students also learn how to mentor younger students. In addition to developing technical proficiency in digital media through lectures, exercises and workshops, students also direct and produce their own documentaries, learning how to locate themes from their lived experiences and transpose those personal and family narratives into documentary films. Students spend an additional year learning how to distribute their films to local schools, libraries, film festivals, and public television. They also help organize community screenings and engage with the public through traditional and social media.

This year, YDA will screen 11 new local student-made films. Watch more about this year’s program in the video below:

The event proudly counts the Colorado College Journalism Institute, which I manage, as a sponsor. The World Premiere will be held at CC. Tickets are on sale here. I hope to see you there.

The Pikes Peak Bulletin newspaper is ‘back, better and bolder – and bigger’

The nonprofit Pikes Peak Bulletin newspaper is back from a pause and will broaden its reach beyond Manitou Springs, the west side of Colorado Springs, and downtown.

From announcement email:

Thanks to community support from more than 100 donors and pre-paying advertisers, and the receipt of a generous grant, the Pikes Peak Bulletin is back in action, now as a digital-first news outlet serving the Pikes Peak region.

The paper, which brought on new publisher Juaquin Mobley, on Oct. 10 mailed out 5,000 copies to zip codes around southeast Colorado Springs. To do so, the paper partnered with the nonprofit Citizens Project and includes a Citizens Project voter guide alongside original reporting.

Here’s more from a story in the paper headlined “Reinventing The Pikes Peak Bulletin”:

Mobley’s vision for the Bulletin’s future is both ambitious and practical, drawing on groundswell strategies that rethink how the Bulletin connects with its audience digitally. He brings the perspective of a CEO with instincts of an entrepreneur, with the advantage of deep community roots. His plan is to meet people where they are – on the street, in local businesses, and online – by blending information and entertainment in ways that invite participation, what he refers to as “edutainment.” …

Building financial sustainability is at the forefront of Mobley’s focus. His approach will be to cultivate partnerships with chambers of commerce, school districts, and other organizations while expanding the Bulletin’s presence across TikTok, podcasts, and social media. But it’s not just about reach; it’s about accountability. He plans to utilize investigative journalism to monitor issues such as judicial decisions and municipal spending, and present information in an accessible way.

Heila Ershadi is the managing editor. New board members include Warren Epstein and Shaun Walls.

“After 107 years of publishing, the Pikes Peak Bulletin is doing what few legacy papers manage: Reinventing itself not by abandoning its roots, but by deepening them – expanding who gets to tell the story, who gets heard, and who gets to shape the community’s future,” the paper stated. “In an era of desolate news coverage and media consolidation, that might be the most radical act of all.”

---

🌿 This week’s newsletter is proudly supported by PR firm Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency™, founded by Ricardo Baca (ex-Denver Post, ex-Rocky Mountain News, and current Colorado Public Radio board of directors). We understand journalists because we were journalists — and we’re here to help. Need expert sources or compelling stories? Our diverse client roster includes beloved Colorado institutions (Naropa University and Illegal Pete’s), innovative wellness brands (Boulder County Farmers Markets, Naturally Colorado, Eden Health Club), bold natural products businesses (Wild Zora, Flatiron Food Factory, Flower Union Brands), and other purpose-driven organizations. As creators of the Colorado Journalist Meet-Up and longtime champions of quality journalism, Grasslands recognizes the essential role reporters play in our communities. Our team is ready to connect you with sources, data, and unique perspectives that elevate your reporting.

Have a story you’re working on? Email Ricardo directly: ricardo@mygrasslands.com. Together, we’re crafting better narratives — one story at a time. 🌿

---

More Colorado media odds & ends

🆕 When you join the national Society of Professional Journalists, your Colorado SPJ Pro chapter membership is now included for free. Read more here.

🤖 An “AI homeless man prank” sent 10 Fountain police officers to a home in Colorado “where they thought a burglary was happening.” Get ready for more of this. A TV reporter in another state asked people if they could tell the difference between a real photo of a local news anchor or an AI-generated fake anchor.

🤖 “At the Pueblo Chieftain, our mission is clear: Deliver trusted journalism and content that strengthens and informs our community,” Kristin Roberts, the president of Gannett Media, wrote in a column published in the paper. “That mission doesn’t change in the age of AI − it becomes even more essential.” The paper also published an item headlined “What is the Pueblo Chieftain known for?”

🐦 Watch Marco Cummings of the Denver Post interview Denver author Kurt Wagner about Wagner’s book “Battle for the Bird: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, and the $44 Billion Fight for Twitter’s Soul” as part of SPJ Colorado’s programming.

🏆 Purplish, a podcast about Colorado politics and government, “has been named the best local news podcast in the 2025 Signal Awards,” CPR News announced this week. “The podcast, produced by Colorado Public Radio (CPR) in partnership with the Colorado Capitol News Alliance, won both the Gold and Listener’s Choice awards.”

📍 Barbara “Bob” Allen is mapping student news organizations across the country. Let her know if yours in Colorado isn’t represented.

📼 “After what appears to be a successful test-run of live streaming legislative committee hearings at the state capitol, those who pushed for the added transparency are optimistic the service will continue when the Colorado legislature begins its next session in January,” reporter Sherrie Peif wrote for Complete Colorado, the news and commentary arm of the libertarian-leaning Independence Institute nonprofit.

🪦 Patti Arnold, a “reporter who spent 40 years covering Colorado Mesa University athletics,” died unexpectedly this week, the school announced. “She won several awards in journalism and served on several committees, including Hall of Fame committees for CMU and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. She was inducted into the Colorado Mesa Hall of Honor in 2013 as a friend of athletics,” Andrew Kiser wrote for WesternSlopeNow.

🙏 Thanks to Latia Henderson of the Gates Family Foundation for moderating a great panel at this year’s ComNet in Denver titled “The Power of Local Media to Shift Narratives & Create Change.” The panel included Kimberly Spencer of Colorado Media Project, Larry Ryckman of the Colorado Sun, Melissa Milios Davis of Press Forward, and me.

🛑 “13 Investigates submitted a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request asking for all complaints filed against funeral homes over the past two years, assuming that, at least, complaints would be public record,” Josh Helmuth reported for KRDO. “However, even that request was denied, citing the new confidentiality rules.”

🔥 Barbara Hardt, managing editor of the Mountain-Ear newspaper, “shared what she’s facing in the aftermath of the devastating fire in Nederland, which destroyed about a third of the town’s businesses,” Tim Regan-Porter wrote for the Colorado Press Association. “While the Mountain-Ear’s offices were spared, the music store she owns with her husband was a total loss, and the economic fallout will affect local advertisers and the paper’s bottom line just as we head into the holidays.”

📚 Seth Boster of the Gazette found a “secret bookshop” in the town of Fountain — “a vast and varied compendium of state history spanning thousands of titles.”

🏆 Heads up: Colorado’s SPJ chapter co-president Deborah Brobst wants any news organization in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico to start thinking about the upcoming 2026 Top of the Rockies Excellence in Journalism contest. (Work must have been published in 2025.) It’ll open Dec. 10 and close Jan. 26, and you don’t need to be an SPJ member to enter. If you any questions, email Deb at deb.hurley.brobst@gmail.

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.