Laura Frank Named Inaugural Executive Director
of the Colorado News Collaborative
DENVER, Colo. — The Colorado Media Project (CMP) and the Colorado Press Association (CPA) are proud to announce and welcome Laura Frank as the inaugural executive director of COLab, the Colorado News Collaborative.
COLab launched this year as a project of CMP with underwriting support from CPA, in partnership with newsrooms across Colorado. By January 2021 it will become an independent 501(c)(3) media resource hub and statewide coalition dedicated to helping journalism transform and thrive, to fulfill its democratic function in the digital age. The organization will serve as an ideas lab to support collaborative reporting projects, entrepreneurship in media business models, and innovations in community engagement, revenue and product development, and partnerships that strengthen the local news ecosystem in ways that better serve all Coloradans.
“The future of journalism is uncertain. The old economic model is collapsing and there is a pressing question of how the industry itself will survive. We believe that Laura is the right leader at the right time to lead this effort here in Colorado. She exemplifies the values of COLab, and is uniquely attuned to its mission to build capacity, improve sustainability, and foster innovation,” said COLab Board Chair Damian Thorman. “Under her leadership, COLab will be the force Colorado needs to navigate the future of accountability and public-service journalism in our state.”
Emerging from a competitive national field, Frank has roots in collaborative journalism and Colorado that run deep. She comes to the role with proven success in building new organizations, networks and coalitions in both commercial and nonprofit media. As executive director, Frank will lead a journalist network that spans all delivery formats, business models, and geographies in navigating the future of the industry in Colorado. She’ll also oversee operations at the COLab News Hub, a shared space housing 10 media organizations at Rocky Mountain Public Media’s new Buell Public Media Center, which opens this fall at Arapahoe and 19th in Downtown Denver.
“Our nation’s founders understood the importance of a free press,” Frank said. “I’m honored to work with the dedicated journalists of Colorado to strengthen journalism and serve the public in ways that live up to that expectation.”
Frank joins COLab after seven years as Vice President of Journalism for Rocky Mountain Public Media, where she led a seven-member duPont-winning investigative team. She also helped conceive the idea of COLab while at RMPM, and was instrumental in launching the COLab network this spring. COLab currently hosts a number of statewide initiatives with support from CMP, including Misinformation Watch Colorado, Follow the Money Colorado (tracking money in politics and the 2020 election), and the COVID Coverage Network, which involves nearly 120 journalists from 47 Colorado newsrooms who freely share and cross-publish public-service journalism on the evolving public health and economic crises.
“We’re excited to have Laura’s energy, expertise, and public-service commitment to launch COLab in this critical moment for the future of local news,” said Melissa Milios Davis, Vice President of Informed Communities for the Denver-based Gates Family Foundation, and a COLab Board Member. “Now more than ever, journalism’s role in our democracy is at a flashpoint. We see COLab as an opportunity to shape a new future for local news by supporting journalists to come together, test new ideas, showcase the value and impact of their work, and redefine their unique role within our communities.”
Prior to her time at RMPBS, Frank was founder and executive director of I-News: the Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network, a nonprofit start-up she founded after the 2009 closure of the Rocky Mountain News, where she had been an investigative reporter. Through I-News, Frank banded a network of more than 100 media partners from across Colorado, overseeing its production of multimedia reports, and the formation of partnerships with existing media for distribution, fundraising and growth through innovative revenue streams. When I-News merged with Rocky Mountain PBS in 2013, Frank served as vice president of journalism, where she was instrumental in restructuring the RMPBS production unit into a duPont-winning investigative documentary team, collaborating with state and national media.
“Laura is a savvy reporter and respected amongst her peers,” said Jill Farschman, CEO of Colorado Press Association, and a COLab Board Member. “Her commitment to civic initiatives, open government, and sustainable business models make her the right person for the job.”
Frank began her journalism career in 1990 as a business reporter for Commercial News in Danville, Illinois, later moving into investigative reporting for The Herald-Dispatch, in Huntington, W.V., Gannett News Service and USA Today in Washington, D.C.,The Tennessean, and the shuttered Rocky Mountain News. Her 25+ years of work in data and investigative journalism — tackling issues of criminal justice, occupational health, academic fraud, and immigration — are a testament to her commitment to holding power accountable.