Denver, October 16 - Press Forward Colorado today announced that nine local media outlets have been awarded $900,000 in grants as part of the Press Forward national foundation’s first open call for funding.
These nine Colorado newsrooms - Alamosa Citizen, Asian Avenue Magazine, Aurora Sentinel Community Media, El Comercio de Colorado, KVNF Mountain Grown Community Radio, Ouray County Plaindealer, San Miguel Basin Forum, Sopris Sun, and World Journal - will each receive $50,000 per year for the next two years to support their work serving their communities, and closing coverage gaps for communities of color, rural communities, and linguistically diverse communities.
In this pivotal time for the future of local civic news, CMP seeks candidates and nominations for its next Director. The Director will play a crucial role in advancing CMP’s mission to support sustainable, equitable, and community-centered journalism in Colorado. Reporting to CMP’s Executive Committee, and employed by CMP’s fiscal sponsor, the Rose Community Foundation, this leadership position requires a dynamic and strategic individual with a passion for public service and accessible civic information, exceptional relationship-building skills, and deep expertise in fundraising, strategic communications, coalition building, and organizational management.
Locally owned and non-profit newsrooms serving communities across Colorado are invited to apply to join the 2024 #newsCOneeds Year-End Giving Challenge, and apply for matching grant funding from CMP.
The Spotlight: Colorado Fund aims to empower local Colorado-based news organizations to produce high-quality, in-depth, nonpartisan investigative reporting focused on a single topic. The guiding purpose of this fund (and the projects it supports) is to raise public awareness about critical issues facing our state and to catalyze positive change in our institutions and communities.
Across Colorado from Greeley to Pueblo -- through partnerships with print, digital, radio, and television stations -- Rocky Mountain Public Media's Above the Noise initiative aims to set the table for civil conversations that build trust among neighbors and empower communities to cope with the rise of artificial intelligence, deep fakes and widespread misinformation.
"Frente a Frente con los candidatos" — or “Face to face with the candidates” — is a special section published in Spanish and English in print and online by CMP grantees El Comercio de Colorado (an award-winning publication covering the Front Range, including the newly created 8th Congressional District) and Enterate Latino (which serves Western Slope communities from Grand Junction to Parachute).
CMP has opened the second round of Advancing Equity in Local News grants for applications. The purpose is to build newsroom and community capacity to address inequities, and to harness a wider array of partners and community assets to create a healthier, more inclusive public square in Colorado, and the application deadline to receive funding for 2023 projects is December 1, 2022. Learn more and apply here!
These locally owned and nonprofit Colorado newsrooms are set to earn dollar-for-dollar matches from CMP this giving season in the 2022 #newsCOneeds campaign — aimed at inspiring more Coloradans to support locally created, public-service journalism that informs and engages communities and strengthens civic engagement statewide.
Where do Coloradans get their local news — and how? Who do they trust, what are they paying for — and why? What roles do Coloradans think local journalists should be playing in our democracy — and how well do they think they are doing? A new 2022 survey of more than 1,800 Coloradans provides 10 key takeaways that reflect current views of local news outlets and journalists — and trends that are shaping their future.
These grants will support projects that address one or more of these three priorities: Support internal diversity, equity and inclusion capacity-building efforts in Colorado newsrooms; strengthen connections and build trust between Colorado newsrooms and the diverse communities they serve; and/or support more diverse and inclusive civic news leadership, entrepreneurship, ownership and narratives. A total of at least $250,000 is expected to be available for 2022; the total grant amount per project for most projects will range between $5,000 and $25,000, with potential for more funding for projects that involve multiple partners and/or deliver more impact
These trusted Colorado news sources will receive a total of $85,000 in grants to support local journalism and community listening and reporting projects that address critical information needs, questions, and concerns about uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among communities of color and other marginalized groups.
In the summer of 2020, two surveys — one conducted by University of Denver (DU) with support from The Colorado Trust and the other one by Colorado Press Association (CPA) and Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) of their members and partners — assessed Colorado journalists’ views of their own news outlets and coverage, and of the state of the broader news ecosystem in Colorado. In their answers, journalists highlight strengths, identify weaknesses, and propose solutions for improving local journalism in Colorado.
Sen. Bennet’s co-sponsored legislation would create a 13-member commission to examine new pathways to public funding for local news that meets information needs and addresses inequities in coverage and representation. Journalists from outlets large and small and offered insights into how they're faring, prodded Bennet about what his bill might accomplish, and urged him to examine certain aspects he might not have considered.
This fall, we’re working with partners to help build a diverse, community-minded governing board and working committees to help guide the Colorado News Collaborative, or COLab. Innovative thinkers — particularly those from outside of the journalism field, outside of the Front Range, and from historically marginalized communities — let us know you’re interested!
Colorado Media Project and Free Press are joining 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.
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