Since launching the Colorado Media Project in the summer of 2018, we have called ourselves a “community-led” organization. That’s because CMP was not started by journalists, or to save any specific news outlet — but rather as a cross-sector response to the dramatic decline in Coloradan’s access to trustworthy, independent local news and information they need to be engaged in issues most important to their lives and our state.
That first summer we spent listening to, learning from, and engaging with a wide range of community members who, like CMP, care about the future of local journalism as a public service that strengthens our democracy. We held community design sessions to envision new ways to engage more Coloradans with local news, conducted a statewide survey of news needs, developed audience-focused prototypes, hosted national thought leaders, commissioned research on the state of Colorado’s public-service newsrooms, and synthesized all of this in a report to the community — whose recommendations have helped CMP and (we hope) our partners in the news ecosystem chart a path to where we are today.
We are encouraged by the many ways we see Coloradans are taking action to envision a local-news system that will better serve local communities. Journalists have come together to launch the Colorado News Collaborative; community members have launched local campaigns and joined with CMP to explore public support for local news; community radio stations and local newspapers have started producing Spanish-language coverage; and elected officials have denounced predatory media owners and called for more investment in local reporting.
Not every community, though, is benefiting from this renaissance of media innovation.
Few journalists of color are represented among the state’s shrinking corps of reporters, editors and producers. The stories and information needs of Colorado’s Latinx residents, who comprise nearly one-quarter of the state’s population, are rarely a top priority in mainstream newsrooms. And the perspectives of Black and Indigenous people in Colorado are critical as the state attempts to address longstanding disparities that the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing racial-justice uprisings have laid bare. Yet meanwhile, news outlets are shrinking and outright shutting down in rural communities, many of which are experiencing declining populations.
Announcing News Voices: Colorado
Community leaders across the state are asking how these shifts can evolve and eventually strengthen relationships between communities and local newsrooms. And media observers nationwide are watching to see if solutions rooted in Colorado — from the Community Foundation Boulder County’s Equity Reporting Initiative to statewide media collaborations like COLab and community-media spaces like the Open Media Foundation and Longmont Public Media — could provide replicable blueprints for innovators across the country.
These are among the pressing challenges and incredible opportunities that Colorado Media Project and our partners at Free Press face as we join forces to launch News Voices: Colorado — a new initiative that will work alongside communities underserved by local media to help strengthen and re-imagine local news.
News Voices: Colorado will build on Free Press’ years of organizing and media-making within and beyond Colorado. We’ll use community-organizing tactics the News Voices team has implemented in New Jersey, North Carolina and Philadelphia to help foster trusting relationships between community members and reporters.
We are also excited to welcome News Voices: Colorado Manager Diamond Hardiman to the team — she was born in Colorado and raised here by her parents and grandparents, who have spent a majority of their lives in Colorado as well. She spent the last few years organizing around issues of housing, equity and Black dignity and hopes to use that experience to foster strong relationships across the state as we work together to transform local news.
Diamond will follow the lead of local residents and organizations, and leverage statewide research and local partnerships forged by the Colorado Media Project. Together we’ll work alongside partners within and outside of newsrooms to help journalism center the needs, voices and hopes of communities that have been historically misrepresented and excluded from mainstream news outlets.
Building on a foundation of local partnerships
News Voices and the Colorado Media Project began our partnership in 2019 through a CMP working group that produced critical research and cutting-edge policy solutions to support journalism in the state. In Longmont, we worked together with other local partners to organize a public forum where residents shared their visions for local news. Forum participants called for equity in journalism, a greater range of voices, training for citizen journalists and media that builds community.
Free Press’ history in the state goes back even farther. When the Rocky Mountain News shuttered, Free Press held an event in Denver to discuss the future of journalism. In 2013, their National Conference for Media Reform brought more than 1,500 media-makers and activists to the city.
Through News Voices: Colorado, Free Press and CMP are thrilled to expand and deepen our relationships with communities and journalists throughout Colorado, especially beyond the Denver metro area, and to work with local partners to build a better future for local news. We hope that you will join us in building momentum statewide for new models of community engagement in local news.
Want to dream, build community, and take action with us? Sign up for one of our upcoming online community conversations:
Weds., Sept. 16 at 6 p.m. MT: Reporting on Resistance: 2020 Uprisings
Thurs., Sept. 24 at 6 p.m. MT: COVID-19 News and Information for Colorado’s Immigrant Communities
Tues., Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. MT: COVID-19 News and Information for Colorado’s Immigrant Communities (Spanish)
Also, join the Free Press and CMP mailing lists to learn about future events and other ways to get involved.