PLocal news outlets that fill coverage gaps with original reporting — and have a budget under $1 million — will be eligible to apply for national Press Forward funding.
New white paper by Corey Hutchins of Colorado College shares findings from a 2023 CMP-supported working group — and explores solutions. In addition to sharing ideas surfaced by newsroom and higher education leaders in the working group, the report captures takeaways from newsroom-hosted student internships supported by CMP through its Advancing Equity in Local News program in 2023, and from a cohort-based program that COLab provided for students placed in Colorado newsrooms in summer 2023. It is published to contribute to ecosystem learning and continuous improvement of Colorado’s journalism workforce pipeline.
More than two dozen Colorado newsrooms have launched an unprecedented collaboration to better cover the 2024 elections.
The Colorado Health Foundation, The Colorado Trust, Gates Family Foundation, The Gill Foundation, and Rose Community Foundation have stepped forward to lead Press Forward Colorado as a local affiliate of the nationwide initiative.
Colorado’s local and statewide newsrooms and nonpartisan community and civic groups are invited to join forces with Rocky Mountain Public Media, Colorado State University’s Center for Public Deliberation, the Colorado Press Association, Colorado News Collaborative, and the Colorado Media Project in a statewide campaign to reclaim and reimagine the public square across all of Colorado’s 64 counties.
All Colorado newsrooms are invited to participate in this project to the depth of their choosing. This could range from promoting the initiative and encouraging your audiences to participate in regional events, to asking your community the common questions (to be developed in conjunction with participating newsrooms), to reporting the results and ensuring your community is represented in the statewide reporting, to joining a cohort that will receive additional training and support for community listening and engagement, and/or joining the steering committee for the project.
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.
In partnership with Colorado News Collaborative and News Revenue Hub, our 2021 #newsCOneeds campaign and matching grant challenge is an ecosystem-wide, public awareness-building opportunity for all Colorado newsrooms to spotlight the positive impacts they are making in their communities, and to build trust in and support for their local public-service journalism.
The 2022 #newsCOneeds cohort of participating news organizations included small, locally-owned rural and urban newspapers, local public radio stations, statewide digital outlets, nonprofit newsrooms, a public benefit corporation, a big city alt-weekly, a one-person startup, and more. In the end, the effort raised more than $700,000 for newsrooms across Colorado.
While many groups and individuals are hard at work across the sector, for the past 3.5 years Colorado Media Project has attempted to serve as a center of gravity for engaging non-journalists — especially those from underserved communities — in this pivotal time for the future of local civic news. We see our role as helping to catalyze, fund, and advocate for innovations that make Colorado's local news ecosystem more sustainable, collaborative, trustworthy and accountable to the public it serves.
Newsroom leaders, publishers of color, broadcasters, nonpartisan civic groups, national thought leaders voiced support for House Bill 22-1121 at a committee hearing, where legislators voted 8-3 for the bill.
Colorado Media Project is seeking a creative, flexible, motivated individual to serve as Learning and Grants Manager for the next phase of CMP’s life cycle. This is a highly strategic but behind-the-scenes role, as we strive to keep CMP grantees and partners center stage and coalition funders actively engaged in making strategic and responsive grants in this rapidly evolving field for philanthropy.
Applications for TWO new Informed Communities grant opportunities are due Dec. 1, 2021. Learn more and RSVP for our Nov. 11 information session!
Small, community-based news outlets currently serving a core audience that, because of language, race or ethnicity, and/or geography, is not adequately served by other news outlets in the state are invited to apply for a new, three-year grant that provides support for growth and enhanced community service. The total grant amount per news organization may range between $30,000 and $60,000 per year for three years, with funding starting in January 2022.
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
In partnership with Colorado News Collaborative and News Revenue Hub, our 2021 #newsCOneeds campaign and matching grant challenge is an ecosystem-wide, public awareness-building opportunity for all Colorado newsrooms to spotlight the positive impacts they are making in their communities, and to build trust in and support for their local public-service journalism.
Participating news organizations included small, locally-owned rural and urban newspapers, local public radio stations, statewide digital outlets, nonprofit newsrooms, a public benefit corporation, a big city alt-weekly, a one-person startup, and more. In the end, the effort raised more than $578,000 for newsrooms across Colorado.
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