📡 'Not top down': Rocky Mountain Community Radio on the rise

The news behind the news in Colorado

Nov 22, 2024

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Last week, Rocky Mountain Community Radio announced the hire of a full-time reporter, Caroline Llanes, who will cover issues involving rural climate around the state.

The journalist will work on behalf of a sprawling coalition of stations that dot Colorado — from some of its biggest cities to the smallest towns.

A one-year grant from the Rural Climate Partnership in collaboration with Colorado Media Project, which underwrites this newsletter, is funding the position.

Based out of Glenwood Springs with a generous travel budget, Llanes will serve as a roving reporter, Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s board president, Breeze Richardson, said this week.

“She’s got to be able to travel throughout the region — not just on traditional reporting trips as we would think about them, but on collaboration trips,” she said. “What does it look like to go sit in someone else’s newsroom for a week?”

Llanes' first story, which examined potential implications of Republican President Donald Trump’s appointments on public lands management, ran on Tuesday. At the end of a published version of it on the website of Aspen Public Radio appeared this:

This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico…

That award-winning network, totaling 20 stations, has been operating in some capacity for four decades.

Last month, during its board meeting held in Ignacio, the group — known as RMCR and pronounced “rim-core” by its members — passed its largest operating budget in the coalition’s 40-year history.

Around the same time, RMCR announced it was a key partner on a nearly $400,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to help create a “Capitol News Alliance.” As part of the grant, RMCR brought a network of rural stations into the mix, many of them in the western part of the state, which was likely attractive, especially as media and funders seek to pay more attention to rural issues.

While the trifecta of recent developments for RMCR fit neatly into a new orthodoxy of coordination and collaboration in Colorado’s local news scene, the group has been an early leader on that front.

First called High Country Community Radio (pronounced hick-rick) in the 1980s, the organization once created a CPB-funded 30-minute monthly broadcast news feature called “Thin Air” that it distributed via cassette tapes, and later on compact discs. In the early 2000s, it started a “Capitol Coverage” project with shared daily news items during the legislative session. Philanthropic support came from the Bohemian Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, and the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado.

As its network grew, in 2006 the organization hired a full-time reporter for year-round Capitol Coverage, or what it calls “Cap-Cov.” (Lucas Brady Woods is currently doing that; well-known reporters including Bente Birkland, Sam Fuqua, and Scott Franz previously served in the role.)

It was in 2007 when the group formally organized as a nonprofit with a board of directors. They changed the name to Rocky Mountain Community Radio. In the ensuing years, RMCR launched grant-funded collaborative projects about water issues, fossil fuels, affordable housing, and more.

In 2022, the coalition hired Maeve Conran as its first-ever managing editor with grant support from the Gill Foundation and Colorado Media Project.

In that role, Conran regionalizes content, serves as an editor for reporters at stations that might not have a news director, helps stations with their digital products, connects member station reporters who might be working on similar stories, and more. Importantly, she also creates 30-minute regional roundup packages that some local community music stations that don’t have news teams and previously did not carry news are now broadcasting.

Now, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has once again recognized RMCR and put the coalition front and center with some of the big Front Range players that are involved in public media. They include Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and KUNC. The nonprofit digital Colorado Sun is involved as well.

The development is also significant in that some of those players haven’t always gotten along. “Two decades ago, Colorado Public Radio attempted to buy KUNC, then a friends group raised $2 million to acquire the license itself,” the public media publication Current recently reported. “It’s a great example of showing where public media needs to go,” KUNC’s Michael Arnold, who oversees audience and content, said in the story. “We need to stop fighting each other.”

These days, RMCR is “the most robust it’s ever been,” says Gavin Dahl, the coalition’s former volunteer board president who is now executive director of KRCL in Salt Lake City, which became the network’s 20th member station.

In a phone conversation this week, I spoke with RMCR’s current board president, Breeze Richardson, about the coalition’s recent glow-up. Here were some highlights from our conversation, edited for length and clarity:

About the makeup of the 20 stations in multiple states: “What we all have in common is that we are supporting our communities in the production of radio, but how that shows up — how we live this RMCR mission — there’s a real gamut, and I think that diversity really strengthens us.”
How a grassroots coalition operates: “It’s not top down. It’s not a CPB-funded initiative with six positions to then create a regional collaboration. This is fully volunteer. There’s no communications staff, there’s no executive director.”
On the new rural climate reporter position: “It was pitched to us … climate is something that is already part of our portfolios, we had already done some dedicated series on climate-related issues, which I think had caught the funder’s attention, but we knew this was something that had a lot of content available regionally to cover. I survey my audience annually, so I know they want the content. We felt like it was a place that we could really lean in to how we collaboratively report. We’re really excited about the opportunity especially to stitch different parts of this region together.”
How the new reporter role differs from other models: “This is not a carriage model. This isn’t about one person in Denver making something and sending it all to us to carry. It’s different and it’s a lot more work, but I think it on so many levels has the potential to bear so much fruit. This is collaboratively producing content, and in stations where the infrastructure is slim to none. So, we’re testing new waters, but we feel really good about it.”
On the new Capitol News Alliance, which counts RMCR, KUNC, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and the Colorado Sun as partners: “This is all being built off the back of what we used to call ‘Cap-Cov.’ The decades of collaborative statehouse reporting that has been funded by RMCR — we paid for half of that position, through this year. Next year, with the adoption of this larger vision, is the first year that we won’t be financially contributing to that. We’re really excited for these heavy hitters in the media ecosystem to join the party, and we want to see what it’s going to look like.”
About whether she’s worried about Trump blowing up the CPB: “We have had so many moments of concern about federal funding (for decades) and at the end of the day public media is respected for what the Broadcasting Act set out to achieve. People should have free access to independent journalism, and I strongly stand behind CPB’s work to date and how those funds show up in local PBS and NPR stations today. There have been numerous webinars and white papers and I think we would be remiss if we weren’t doing that work, but I do not think pulling federal funding is going to happen tomorrow.”
And if it does? “It will be that much more important for our local ecosystems to understand what local journalism is and how it contributes not just to government accountability but quality of life. So much of our budget is funded philanthropically now with members and local municipalities and foundation support — we would have to rely on that kind of support more. But I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”

Keep your eye on RMCR, and check here to see if your local station is a member.

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Fort Collins Report launching as a nonprofit newsroom: ‘We’re bootstrapping it’

The latest nonprofit local news site to launch in Colorado has roots in a thread on Reddit.

Like others in places where a paywalled chain-owned newspaper has shrunk over the years, Tory Drake, a local writer and construction project manager, wondered if he might be able to help create something to fill the gaps.

A few weeks ago, he posted in the Fort Collins Reddit community about the idea, and responses poured in. The post led him to Chris Crenshaw, a nonprofit grant administrator for a Texas university who recently moved to Fort Collins and had a similar idea.

“We’re two guys who feel like we can serve the community,” Drake said over the phone Thursday, noting that the project is in a very early stage. “We’re bootstrapping it.”

The Fort Collins Report is up and running with some un-bylined news items already appearing on the home page. The launch was soft — no press release or big announcement to media.

In the late-October Reddit thread, some users said they would support a new local outlet in town and offered advice on what kind of coverage they’d like to see, particularly investigative journalism. “I’d hope this would have a website, and if so a newsletter option, and possibly include an rss feed,” one user said.

Others were skeptical.

“Is some guy who does market research on Reddit going to be the one who cracks the code and solves the local newspaper crisis where thousands of journalism academics and publishers have failed for the past 30+ years?” asked another Redditor.

On its site, the Fort Collins Report promises nonpartisan in-depth journalism with a mission to “earn the trust and time of our readers by delivering insightful and valuable news and perspectives that can’t be found elsewhere.”

Crenshaw said that he expects funding for the outlet to come from the community and individuals with hopes to wrangle grants from national organizations.

“Among other offerings, we will provide digital products including lists of new business leads and classified listing opportunities,” he said via text. “We are not hiding behind paywalls and subscriptions like others in the FC media sphere.”

He added the pair are looking for a third co-founding director. They will all contribute content, he said, while seeking guest writers for lifestyle and opinion pieces and recruiting interns from local colleges.

Watch this space to follow its journey.

Gazette formally launches its statewide freelance ‘Colorado Network’

Clarity Media, which owns the Gazette in Colorado Springs and Denver, along with the publication Colorado Politics, has formally launched its statewide freelancer initiative.

Vince Bzdek, the executive editor of those outlets, had floated the project in a September column. Clarity Media recently began taking applications for freelancers.

This week, it became official.

“Clarity Media today announces the launch of the Colorado Network, a new cooperative of freelance journalists focused on covering news from all corners of Colorado, particularly in areas that are undercovered now,” reads a news release.

‘Our own worst enemy’: The case against publishing press releases as ‘news’

As the ranks of reporters dwindle and some local newspapers find themselves strapped for content, particularly smaller ones in rural areas, they might be tempted to run “stories” sent to them by government agencies in order to fill their news hole.

They ought rethink that, says one Colorado newspaper publisher.

These state and local governments know about the decline of local news and they can take advantage of it to puff up their image in credible news outlets. One local newspaper on the Western Slope has been “increasingly” receiving such “canned ‘stories’” for publication.

“Some newspapers print them — particularly the ones from Colorado Parks and Wildlife,” says Erin McIntyre, a trained and respected journalist who co-owns the Ouray County Plaindealer. “We don’t, and we’ve maintained that we need to act independently.”

In the first few years after purchasing the newspaper, McIntyre and her husband Mike Wiggins got fierce blowback for refusing to run such content.

“We still occasionally have challenges converting public relations to advertising, due to this mindset that newspapers need to ‘fill space’ or it’s a ‘public service,’” McIntyre said via email.

The argument for not publishing government-created content in a local newspaper is twofold, she says.

The issue is — these agencies don't give us much access and then they use their resources to create and push out what they think of as journalism but it’s really public relations. And I think we are one of the few papers that refuse to indulge them.
Meanwhile, agencies like CPW, the USFS and CDOT have marketing budgets they spend on pushing their own messages but they never advertise with newspapers. I see why — they are getting free milk without buying the cow ... And why would they, if papers just cut and paste their propaganda to fill space? I mean, we’re getting “press releases” that are job ads for CDOT. They refuse to spend money on advertisements but they want to reach our audience.

McIntyre is advocating for the industry to present a “united front against the practice of cutting and pasting press releases,” and also trying to get such agencies to invest in advertising.

Four years ago, this newsletter reported how some of the state’s smallest newspapers had published publicity content about the people running our elections. Some papers that ran the content in their news sections defended the practice with one publisher calling it “nitpicking” to even point it out.

Acknowledging a market failure in the local news industry, policymakers in some places have created rules that direct government agencies to spend portions of their advertising budgets in local news outlets.

Here in Colorado, lawmakers recently floated legislation that would provide tax breaks to small businesses that advertise with local newspapers, but it faced resistance. An earlier version had carried a sweeping mandate that would have required all Colorado agencies and departments to spend at least half of their advertising budgets with local news organizations.

In the absence of something like that, “We are our own worst enemy here,” McIntyre says. “As resources have dwindled and papers are just trying to survive, editors have been more likely to fill space with these ‘free stories’ and cut their operations off at the knees.”

🔎 Sponsored | Spotlight: Colorado | Colorado Media Project 🔍

Colorado Media Project believes our democracy works best when the public has transparency into powerful institutions. That’s why accountability journalism is so important to our civic infrastructure. We chose to sponsor this section of Corey’s newsletter to showcase some of the important watchdog work Colorado journalists and their news organizations have been producing recently. Corey chose which ones to spotlight.

Recent Colorado accountability coverage

Investigative reporter Jenny Deam of the Denver Gazette reported that “new details” are raising questions about DNA evidence in a Boulder murder case as she bird-dogs a scandal at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. “The full breadth of the scandal may take years to untangle,” she reported, as an “unknown number of past convictions” that relied on the findings of a particular individual might be in limbo. “Obviously everyone’s biggest fear,” Deam quotes the assistant director in the investigations unit at CBI saying in an interview transcript the newspaper obtained, “is that we have somebody in prison that shouldn’t be there.”
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has “revoked a testing certification” for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s water quality lab, “after an investigation found a chemist intentionally disregarded protocol in a method that tests for traces of metals,” reported 9NEWS Investigates journalists Steve Staeger and Aaron Adelson. “The investigation into the chemist’s actions began in February, according to the state health department, but wasn’t made public until 9NEWS Investigates started asking questions about it last week. State health officials said the data problems may impact as many as 3% of the state’s 2,000 public water systems.”

💰 Spotlight: Colorado Fund: Colorado Media Project is offering a grant opportunity to support smaller, Colorado-based local news organizations in producing high-quality, nonpartisan investigative or accountability journalism and/or in-depth reporting focused on a single topic. Applications for up to $10,000 are due by Dec. 2, for reporting projects that raise public awareness about critical issues facing our state and to catalyze positive change in our institutions and communities. Learn more here.

To submit a local accountability story for consideration in the future, send me an email. If you or your organization would like to sponsor a recurring newsletter section like this, hit me up.

➡️ As a new board member of the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro chapter, I’d like to invite you to join the nation’s foremost organization for journalists. SPJ is a fierce national advocate for First Amendment rights, journalistic ethics, and other values important to a free and vital press. The Colorado Pro chapter offers professional training programs and events, including the four-state Top of the Rockies competition, the region’s broadest platform for honoring journalism excellence. We’re making plans for a regional conference next spring. And each year, the chapter provides thousands of dollars in scholarships to the young journalists of tomorrow. At a time when journalists are under fire from all sides, joining SPJ is your chance to make a stand for journalism. Learn more about the chapter here, and find out how to join here. ⬅️

More Colorado media odds & ends

🛡 “In Trumpian times like these, consider the alternative,” wrote Westword editor Patty Calhoun in a Nov. 18 column.* NOTE: The emailed newsletter version of this post incorrectly attributed a quote from Sentinel editor Dave Perry about Trump to Calhoun. The correctly attributed quote is now in the item below regarding Perry’s column.

📢 “Credible news media are crucial as Trump rolls out another term,” wrote Aurora Sentinel Editor Dave Perry. “Tragically,” he wrote, “the news media must not only take on the Herculean task of shining a bright and antiseptic light on Trump’s presidency, it must do so hobbled by incessant propaganda purposely targeting media credibility.”

❌ The emailed version of this newsletter incorrectly referred to Erin McIntyre as Eric McIntyre and Breeze Richardson as Bree Richardson. (Someone fund or sponsor me an editor.)

😬 The Boulder Daily Camera newspaper staff moved out of the Boulder office this week, Deputy City Editor Mitchell Byars said on social media. “We’ll be in a shared office space in Longmont starting in December,” he said. “A far cry from a building on Pearl Street.”

💨 Kate Perdoni has left Rocky Mountain PBS after 10 years at the station where she covered southern Colorado. “I do have a new job,” she said on social media, calling it “a role I truly could not cherish more, and look forward to sharing more soon.”

🗣 University of Colorado Boulder student Oliver Hayes, who covers sports, responded publicly and humbly to a reader who pointed out the racist roots of the term “cakewalk,” which Hayes had used in a story about his college’s football team beating Cal State Fullerton. “Ignoring and failing to learn from my mistake would be as dangerous as intentionally using the term,” Hayes wrote on social media. “Ignoring mistakes gets them repeated and those who intentionally commit horrible acts ‘ignore’ them to keep them hidden. I feel it is my obligation to share my mistake so that others can stop using a term with an ugly, disgusting background.”

🦅 The Crestone Eagle nonprofit monthly newspaper marked what it called “a sign of recovery” with a print edition this Friday after weeks of turmoil. Its “near-collapse,” wrote new board member Anya Kaats in a front page piece, “appears to have been caused by disagreement over who was ultimately responsible for maintaining its overall financial health and for making the necessary budgetary and structural decisions needed to sustain it.”

📻 Marilyn Gleason, a “familiar voice,” is the new news director at KDNK community radio in Carbondale, Myki Jones wrote for the Sopris Sun. “I’d like to attract more freelancers, and develop people who are already involved with the station who may have an interest in doing more news,” Gleason told the Sun.

📰 “A critical factor in ensuring that the press is not silenced is public support. The audience for news plays a vital role in sustaining journalism,” Jim Martin wrote in a guest column for the Denver Post. “When we all demand high-quality, unbiased news, we create a market for it. By subscribing to reputable news outlets, sharing credible information, and supporting journalistic endeavors, the public can directly influence the strength of the press.”

📈 The Lever, a digital news site founded by Denver journalist David Sirota that holds power to account, is expanding. Among other positions, the site is looking for a remote “political newsletter writer” it will pay $70,000 to $90,000.

💨 Kelly Reinke said this week she will be leaving Denver’s 9NEWS TV station. “Making this decision wasn’t easy,” she said on social media. “I went to college for journalism.” Reinke met her husband, fellow 9NEWS journalist Marc Sallinger, at a high-school journalism camp. “I’m leaving my career with so much gratitude for the memories I’ve made and every mentor who helped me get to this point,” she said. “As hard as it is to leave a job I’ve felt so passionate about, I know deep down this is the best decision for me and my family … As they say in TV, stay tuned.”

🎂 The nonprofit Boulder Reporting Lab celebrated its third birthday this week. “This milestone is remarkable because 60% of digital news startups like BRL don’t make it to year five,” founder Stacy Feldman said. “Yet here we are — three years in, well-positioned to keep going and growing. We’re beating the odds, and that’s thanks to you. While there’s still a long road ahead, together we’ve tackled the hardest part.”

👍 Gary Community Ventures says it looks forward to “continue learning alongside our partners about the social change that can occur when local journalism is supported in our communities.”

🎬 The 47th annual Denver Film Festival “honors the power of story in a shifting world,” Clarke Reader reported for Colorado Community Media.

🗞 The twice-weekly Sky-Hi News in Grand County is looking for an editor it will pay $60,000 to $65,000. They’re seeking someone “with a digital-first mindset who understands that if the website is strong, the print product will be, too.”

🥳 Congratulations to the 13 young filmmakers who debuted their short docs for the annual world premiere of the Youth Documentary Academy to a packed house in Colorado Springs this week. (Note: bring boxes of Kleenex next year.)

I’m Corey Hutchins, manager of the Colorado College Journalism Institute and a board member of the state Society of Professional Journalists chapter. 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. (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.

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