Colorado's Senate to recognize journalism on 'Local News Day' at the Capitol

The news behind the news in Colorado

The Colorado Capitol around 2016. Photo by the author

Journalists and local news organizations from across Colorado plan to swarm the state Capitol in Denver on the morning of Thursday, March 19.

Dubbed “Local News Day” by organizers, the plan is to “visibly demonstrate the strength, vitality and deep community roots of local journalism.”

That’s according to Kyle Huelsman, who is leading a statewide coalition-building movement for increased public policy to support local news in the state.

Colorado Media Project, which underwrites this newsletter and which I advise on projects, is supporting the Local News Policy Coalition; I haven’t been intimately involved in its work.

Thursday’s rallying is set to coincide with a Senate resolution on the morning of March 19 under the gold dome.

“News outlets from across the state will be at the Capitol from approximately 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., which will include the Senate’s formal resolution recognizing the importance of local journalism in Colorado,” Huelsman wrote to news organizations last week in an email. “Additional brief meetings may occur later in the morning as schedules allow.”

Here’s more from the email:

Local News Day is part of the work of the Local News Policy Coalition, a multi-year effort to strengthen the sustainability of local journalism in Colorado. The long-term goal is to ensure communities across the state continue to have access to trusted, fact-based local reporting. Your participation helps reinforce the importance of this goal and strengthens relationships that benefit newsrooms and communities across the state.

“Local News Day at the Capitol is a chance to remind lawmakers that the people producing local journalism live in their districts and serve those communities every day,” Colorado Press Association President and CEO Tim Regan-Porter said in an email.

“Legislators hear from many interests, but local news is not just another Colorado industry,” he added. “Journalism is a civic good, informing much of the work taking place at the Capitol and across Colorado. Press is the only private industry mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, via the Bill of Rights. This day helps put a spotlight on that unique role.”

Across the country, public policy proposals that could help support local news have been taking root in multiple state legislatures including Illinois, California, and elsewhere.

A proposed new law in Connecticut, for instance, would create a statewide fellowship program to place emerging journalists into local newsrooms. A bill in Maryland would “require state agencies to direct at least 50 percent of their advertising budgets to local newspapers, digital publishers and public media outlets.”

In Washington State, a proposed new law would support local reporting by “creating journalist employment grants for local newsrooms, funded through taxes on search engines and social media companies.”

Colorado’s neighbors have made some recent headlines of their own.

New Mexico recently passed the Local Journalist Employment Tax Credit, which provides a refundable tax credit to cover 30% of a journalist’s wages, capped at $15,000 per reporter each year.

And just last week, the Utah legislature passed a “historic proposal” by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox to “apply a tax on targeted advertising, especially by the largest tech platforms.”

Here in Colorado, where Democrats control state government, the editor of the largest mainstream local news organization that Republicans pay attention to has come out in favor of using more public dollars to support the state’s local news scene.

This is from a recent column by Vince Bzdek, who oversees coverage of Colorado Politics and the Denver and Colorado Springs Gazette, all of which are owned by the conservative Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz:

When is our state going to do something about its own crisis in democracy, i.e., journalism? Fifty-two local newspapers have closed in the last decade. Why doesn’t our legislature care? Why aren’t the politicians in those communities screaming their heads off in panic right now? Can you imagine the hue and cry if 52 schools suddenly shut down, yet journalism is essentially school for adults.

The Gazette editor called on Colorado’s lawmakers to work on legislation that could help.

In hopes for a good showing on Thursday, the Colorado Press Association and Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) have been spreading the word to their members.

COLab’s executive director, Laura Frank, said Local News Day at the Capitol is a “chance for journalists from every corner of Colorado to stand together and show lawmakers that strong, community-rooted local news is essential civic infrastructure for the entire state.”

---

➡️ 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 is working to combat disinformation and misinformation, and helping nonprofits build media literacy.

• There has never been a more important time than now to authentically and ethically tell stories that uplift our shared humanity, shared values, and shared emotions as people. So, The Colorado Health Foundation is hosting a two-part virtual series led by our longtime messaging research and strategy partners on the evidence-based Heartwired approach for persuasive storytelling and messaging.

Recently, the Colorado News Collaborative called our annual Pulse Poll a “trove of information useful to reporters.” The Colorado Health Foundation’s Katie Peshek 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. ⬅️

---

Axios has expanded to Colorado Springs and hired a Gazette and Indy alum to write it

👋 Happy morning: Today’s newsletter is about 3,000 words, a who-knows-how-long read. This item’s reading time is significantly less.

1 SPRINGS THING: Axios Local has expanded to Colorado Springs and hired Glenn Wallace, who previously worked for the Gazette and the Indy alt-weekly and spent several years prior at Colorado Community Media.

By the numbers: One (1). That’s how many people will write the newsletter. His name is Glenn. Stop skimming and pay attention.

• 🗣 What they’re saying: “I’ve grown up and lived up and down the Front Range, from Cañon City to Westminster,” Wallace wrote in his first newsletter March 9. “I graduated from UNC Greeley, where I met a certain Rampart High School alum. She and I married and moved back to the Springs in 2021 with our two sons, and have been loving it here.”

Why it matters: Colorado Springs, the state’s second-largest city with a metropolitan area population of around 700,000, doesn’t have much of a digital-only local news scene. Axios has made a bet that it can fill that gap while generating enough advertising dollars to pay for a writer.

• More of why it matters (but in a different format to keep you engaged): Along with four TV stations, the daily Gazette newspaper and the KRCC public radio station make up the dominant sources of daily news and information. Two large Facebook groups, “Word of Mouth Colorado Springs” and “The 411 for the 719,” have more than 180,000 members combined.

Between the lines: Axios is known for its “Smart Brevity” style, which this item is aping, but I should probably leave it to the pros. Wallace acknowledged a learning curve after his first week on the job.

• “I have to admit that, as a longtime traditional newspaper guy, there have been some lessons learned,” Wallace wrote in Friday’s edition. He called Smart Brevity a “disciplined approach that takes established journalism rules and cranks them up to 11. I had an old mentor who preached writing ‘tight and bright.’” He said he thought he knew what that meant, but, “Then I saw the condensed edits on my first story. 😳 The point is: it takes a lot of work to write this short.”

Zoom out: The Springs edition is the latest expansion of the addictive hyper-digestible daily morning newsletter after the national company Axios launched one in Denver in 2021 and expanded to Boulder last year. It is also expanding into the Denver suburbs and is partnering with an AI company.

The intrigue: The salary range for the Springs position when Axios first posted it was between $60,000 and $90,000. (The Boulder job listing last year was $65,000 to $100,000.)

What’s next: Wallace promises to put together a “smart and concise local newsletter for you each weekday.” You can sign up for it here.

How a Springs TV reporter’s web-scraper tool helped him break the Erika Kirk Air Force story

By now, news that President Donald Trump appointed Erika Kirk to the board of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is well known.

But how Springs TV journalist Brett Forrest at KOAA News5 broke the story on March 8 about this new role of the widow of assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk is also newsworthy.

The reporter has been extensively covering the Air Force Academy and its 16-member Board of Visitors for years. “My enterprise reporting is the topic of many of the board’s discussions in recent meetings,” he said in a post on social media.

To help him stay on top of when the board meets, he set up a website scraper tool using Visualping to notify him whenever there's a change to the Board of Visitors web page.

“Lo and behold, over the weekend, I got a notification that Erika Kirk’s name had been added to the list of members,” he said. “Not exactly what I expected to learn when utilizing the scraper tool, but a newsworthy development nonetheless.”

Forrest came into work on Sunday and published the story to the KOAA website, earning himself and his outlet a big scoop.

“A couple other local outlets followed suit yesterday,” he said this Tuesday, “and then, as of today, plenty of national outlets finally caught wind.”

Two Colorado TV stations dropped from Dish Network after renewal dispute

Residents in Colorado Springs and Grand Junction who use a Dish Network satellite and streaming service have lost access to TV stations owned by Gray Media after the two companies failed to come to a renewal agreement.

“DISH pulls KKTV from its service,” read a headline at the Springs TV station.

“Dish drops Gray Media’s stations over unprecedented new demand to reshape the television industry to enrich its owner,” read another at KJCT/KKCO in Grand Junction.

Dish Network, which is based in Englewood, Colorado, said in a statement this week that 226 channels in 113 markets are currently unavailable to Dish customers after Gray Media “chose to disconnect.”

KKTV in the Springs and KJCT in Grand Junction are the only two in Colorado that show up on a map of Gray-owned outlets nationwide.

Local news outlets across the country, including Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Georgia, New Jersey, and South Carolina, have reported how the fallout will affect TV news watchers there.

From Matthew Keys at The Desk, which covers the TV and streaming industries:

In a press release on Wednesday, Gray Media said Dish Network was violating its legal obligation to negotiate toward a new distribution contract in good faith by insisting on a “materially-adverse provision in the new agreement that is unlike any provision in any distribution agreement with Gray’s roughly 400 other distribution partners.”

Gray Media said the condition was “unprecedented in the several-decade history of the pay TV industry across any cable or DBS (direct broadcast satellite) operator and any broadcaster,” and that the proposal was “flatly inconsistent with marketplace conditions in clear violation of Dish Network’s federal statutory obligation to negotiate retransmission in good faith.”

Gray Media did not say what the onerous term was that Dish Network proposed. Reached for comment on Wednesday, a spokesperson said the broadcaster is “not providing the details of the asked provision.”

Dish Network said Gray was asking for more money for its local TV stations.

“The dispute between Dish Network and Gray Media comes at a time when local TV broadcasters are lobbying federal regulators for looser rules that will allow them to consolidate their operations through mergers and acquisitions,” Keys wrote.

Readers will recall how Nexstar is seeking federal regulatory approval to take over Tegna, which would see KDVR FOX31 subsume 9NEWS in Denver.

---

🌿 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

🗓 Save the date: the Top of the Rockies awards reception hosted by the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists will be April 25 at the Slate Hotel in Denver at 5:30 p.m. The SPJ board, of which I’m a member, will also present its annual individual best-of-the-best awards.

🎂 KSUT tribal radio in the Four Corners is celebrating 50 years. “As we reflect on this anniversary year, we also look back on 2025 – one of the most remarkable and challenging,” wrote the station’s executive director, Tami Graham.

🗳 The Denver Press Club has a “competitive election for a few open spots this year,” it announced this week, “so we need members to exercise their judgment and vote to determine who will be guiding the Club for the next few years.” See the candidates here. Ballots are due by 5 p.m. on March 25, said outgoing president Marianne Goodland.

🌪 On March 24, the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Professional Chapter will present “T-Storms, Trends & Trolls: Broadcast Meteorology in 2026,” a “candid conversation about how weather coverage is evolving in the current climate (no pun intended).”

🚔 Does your local newspaper publish a crime blotter? Read this thoughtful piece about why a Wyoming newspaper got rid of its crime blotter in favor of something better. “Along with the weird and wacky things that show up in a police blotter are numerous inaccuracies that follow people for life.”

🎙 Shay Castle and managing editor Jezy Gray spoke to Abby O’Brien at KGNU about the new Caribou Current, an arts and culture publication covering Boulder County and the Peak to Peak region.

➡️ “As local journalism outlets disappear in many communities, neighborhood social media platforms like Nextdoor are increasingly serving as sources of community information — a shift that may influence how people perceive crime and public safety, according to new research from the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information,” the school wrote.

⚙️ City Cast Denver is hiring a creative producer who it will pay $70,000 to $95,000, stating, “In this role, you’ll help shape the daily local conversation on the podcast, newsletter, and social.” (Peyton Garcia, who is moving on, said on LinkedIn: “I’m forever grateful for my five years there. And working with my teammates in Denver has genuinely been one of the honors of my career. And the idea of no longer working with them was easily the hardest part of this decision.)

📺 Veteran TV journalist Nicole Vap will speak with Laura Frank of COLab for a Sunshine Week event “about Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna and what it means for the Colorado and national media landscape and the information void it leaves,” according to an announcement from Colorado Press Women. The discussion will be via Zoom on March 18 at 7 p.m.

💨 Lauren Scafidi, a morning anchor and reporter for 9NEWS, has left for a new opportunity after two-and-a-half years. “9NEWS challenged me and trusted me … and helped mold me into the journalist and person I am so proud to be today,” she said in a goodbye message on Instagram.

🎙 “To do journalism, you have to care very deeply,” Denver-based journalist Ann Marie Awad, a podcast host and editorial director at the Institute for Independent Journalists, told Astra Content. “I’ve met very few people in my life for whom it’s just a job, the kind of thing where you’re clocking in from nine to five.” She compared leaving journalism to leaving a religion.

🗣 Carol Leonnig, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter who co-authored the new book “Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department,” will be at Rico’s Cafe & Wine Bar in downtown Colorado Springs on March 17 at 6 p.m. to talk about the book.

🆕 Allison Moore will be joining the Summit Daily News on March 22 as a reporter. “After working over a year and a half in Storm Lake and spending the last couple months on an investigative reporting project with the Iowa Newspaper Association,” Moore wrote on LinkedIn, “I welcome this professional and personal transition while feeling bittersweet about moving away from the place where I began my journalism career.”

🪦 Marilyn Starrett, who taught journalism, public relations, and social documentary at Metropolitan State University of Denver, has died, according to the school. “Former colleagues of Starrett remembered her thoughtfulness, professionalism, skill with the language and love for her family.”

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. I also write the twice-monthly Community Newswire newsletter for the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont. 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.