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.
Against the headwinds of divisive national rhetoric, increasing polarization of local communities, digital overwhelm and social isolation — we believe it’s time for pragmatic, solutions-focused Coloradans to reclaim the public square from political pundits and conflict entrepreneurs. As the new documentary “Join or Die” puts it, building “community connections could hold the answers to our democracy’s present crisis.”
What happens when one of Colorado’s few remaining commercial printing presses stops? This new report, commissioned and published by Colorado Media Project (CMP), summarizes research, findings, and recommendations from an industry working group led by the Colorado Press Association (CPA) and the Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) throughout 2023.
Why should concerned citizens and residents, including state and local officials, care about what’s happening in Colorado’s local journalism industry? This 2023 white paper updates key data points on local news deserts and ownership from CMP’s 2019 report, “Local News is a Public Good”; spotlights what we know Colorado communities want, need, and expect from local news; and challenges all of us to rise to the occasion.
This fall, up to 12 Colorado newsrooms will be selected to receive training, cohort support, and coaching from Hearken to develop a winning strategy to surface and respond to their public’s critical information needs related to elections. Each participating newsroom will also receive a $1,000 stipend to support their engagement strategy. Apply by Aug. 7.
Today, Colorado Media Project is excited to announce $360,000 in new commitments to ecosystem partners who are dedicated to helping our state’s local newsrooms explore and pilot innovative solutions to wicked problems that they are facing right now, in communities across the state. And we invite you to join us.
"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.
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