Over a million Coloradans turn to Rocky Mountain PBS to discover provocative and inspiring local, national and international programming; find diverse viewpoints; score front row center seats to world-class performances; and experience lifelong learning opportunities every month. Rocky Mountain Public Media is the parent company of Rocky Mountain PBS, KUVO Jazz, and The Drop.
Rocky Mountain PBS began in Denver in 1956 as Colorado's first public television station. It is now Colorado's only statewide television network, with stations in Denver, Pueblo/Colorado Springs, Steamboat Springs, Grand Junction and Durango. Rocky Mountain Public Media is Colorado’s largest statewide, member-supported, multimedia organization.
2023 Advancing Equity Award: $10,000 to support Rocky Mountain Public Media in completing IDEA trainings for their content teams, and to explore opportunities to lead peer-to-peer learning opportunities with Colorado newsrooms
2023 Advancing Equity Update: This summer, 70% of RMPBS’ staff have completed foundation DEI training with their Chief DEI Officer. The next phase of their work includes working with external consultants to provide 1-1 coaching and management training, and decentralizing their content strategies, with a focus on digital expansion. In managing one of the largest and most sophisticated organizational approaches to addressing DEI issues in Colorado, RMPBS highlights the value of bringing in experts and advisors from outside the news industry to support their learning and work.
SUPPORT FROM COLORADO MEDIA PROJECT
Advancing Equity 2023, 2022
2022 Advancing Equity Award: $10,000 to support internally-led DEI training for RMPM news content team.
2022 Advancing Equity Impact: The long-term impact we will create through our DEI work is the systematic reform of racism within our own organization, within the media, and within communities. This year we focused on the following attributes leading our journalism work: trust, lived experience, and empathy. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure all Coloradans feel seen and heard in our work and to dismantle white supremacy in media. The metrics above demonstrate a meaningful shift toward these ends, but this is daily work that we engage in as we strive to be accountable and in partnership with communities.
This year, our DEI team completed training for 30 staff members in our organization, 7 of which are on the content team (multi-media journalists). We also increased our content team by 8 members and diversified our staff to be more reflective of the communities we serve. We currently have 18 multimedia journalists on our content team and about half have completed foundational DEI training. Overall, 40% of our content team self-identify as QTBIPOC.
Another milestone achieved this year related to this project is expanding the reach of our storytelling by shifting our Colorado Voices program to a weekly broadcast in addition to the digital daily responsive stories and creating virtual community engagement opportunities called “Community Circle”. This year we produced 606 daily responsive stories, 25 half-hour broadcast episodes of Colorado Voices, and 3 virtual Community Circle events discussing our content.