Community News Gets Nonprofit Backing In Colorado
May 6, 2021
A local and national partnership has put a network of 24 weekly or monthly newspapers in Colorado under a nonprofit umbrella.
Colorado Community Media (CCM), an independent, family-owned group of 24 community newspapers and websites plus two shoppers, has been acquired by the newly created Colorado News Conservancy, a public benefit corporation jointly owned and operated by The National Trust for Local News and The Colorado Sun. It is backed by a coalition of local and national impact investors and the nonprofit lender FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds (FJC).
Supporters of the purchase include the Denver-based Gates Family Foundation, The Colorado Trust, and the American Journalism Project (AJP).
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The papers, acquired from Colorado Community Media owner-publishers Jerry and Ann Healy, will be operated by the Sun under the banner of the Colorado News Conservancy, a public-benefit corporation, Ryckman’s blog post said. COLab and the Colorado Press Association will provide support.
The National Trust for Local News is supported by funding from the Denver-based Gates Family Foundation, Colorado Trust, American Journalism Project, Google News Initiative, Democracy Fund and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
“There is a growing coalition of people and institutions in Colorado who realize that trustworthy, nonpartisan local news is a public good that we all play a role in sustaining,” Melissa Milios Davis, director of the Colorado Media Project and vice president for informed communities at the Gates Family Foundation, said in a prepared statement. “Hyperlocal newsrooms are often the only ones covering what’s happening at city hall, in our public sch
The rise of online media has been devastating for community newspapers print publications that often serve as the only homegrown information source in small towns across the country, including many in Colorado. By one recent estimate, over 1,800 newspapers have closed across the United States since 2004, including about 1,700 weeklies.
The 24 newspapers and two advertising-based shoppers in the Colorado Community Media chain could have easily wound up suffering the same fate. For co-owners Jerry and Ann Healey, keeping the operation going has been a work-intensive labor of love for nearly a decade, but they ve reached a stage in their lives when they want more free time. The odds of finding a buyer for CCM seemed small, and without one, operations such as the
By JAMES ANDERSON Created: May 03, 2021 02:51 PM
DENVER (AP) - The Colorado Sun, a Denver-based online news operation created three years ago by journalists who left The Denver Post, has partnered with a national nonprofit to buy 24 community newspapers in a unique venture that seeks to preserve local journalism.
The arrangement adds to a growing number of newspapers receiving boosts from nonprofits that are devoted to protecting journalism in the United States where private equity or hedge funds buy up and consolidate financially struggling legacy newspapers. The Sun and the National Trust for Local News announced the private purchase Monday of the family-owned Colorado Community Media, which operates the papers - some of which are more than a century old - and the websites and two shoppers. Colorado Community Media, with 330,000 readers, will be supported by the new Colorado News Conservancy, a public benefit corporation created by the Sun
New Deal: Colorado-national consortium buys community papers napavalleyregister.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from napavalleyregister.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.