Voices from the Edge of the Colorado Plateau
KSJD News and Community Radio and KSUT Four Corners Public Radio and Tribal Radio are honored to be one of six collaborative projects awarded support from Colorado Media Project’s Community News Networks program from 2022-2024.
Voice from the Edge of the Colorado Plateau is a multi-year project in which KSJD and KSUT will hire a full-time shared reporter to cover Native, Indigenous, Latinx, and other communities in southwestern Colorado through citizen-driven enterprise journalism. The project will serve underserved communities in Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma, and San Juan Counties in southwestern Colorado.
You can learn more about this project, and ways that you can contribute on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also submit story tips to news@ksjd.org with “Voices News Tip” in the subject line.
“KSUT is thrilled with this opportunity to partner with KSJD in expanding our local and regional news with a focus on elevating underheard voices in our region.” - Tami Graham, KSUT Executive Director
"Our reporting goals at KSJD have always included amplifying underrepresented voices, and we are really excited to collaborate with KSUT on this project to better achieve that goal." - Wynn Jones, KSJD Executive Director
COMMUNITY NEWS NETWORK
Community News Network grantees were selected from a competitive pool of 30 applicants representing small nonprofit and/or locally-owned civic newsrooms that serve Colorado residents who -- because of language, race or ethnicity, and/or geography -- are not adequately served by other news outlets in the state.
In making the awards, CMP prioritized news outlets that have a clear track record of service to communities of color and/or rural communities, demonstrate fiscal sustainability, and have a robust plan to use grant funds to expand or sustain their impact. Finally, we tried to balance our grantee cohort in terms of geographies and racial/ethnic communities served.
These six newsrooms will receive a total of $680,000 in CMP grants over three years (2022-2024) and participate in cohort learning opportunities, knowledge sharing, and evaluation made possible through generous support from The Colorado Trust:
KSJD News/Community Radio and KSUT Tribal/Four Corners Radio
$135,000 over three years to support "Voices from the Edge of the Colorado Plateau", a multi-year collaborative project led by these two public media outlets, with a new full-time Indigenous affairs reporter position and community engagement efforts to expand both stations’ efforts to amplify diverse voices and perspectives in rural Southwestern Colorado.
Denver Urban Spectrum
$135,000 over three years to support digital innovation, business development, and national affiliations for this respected monthly magazine serving Coloradans of color, with a focus on Black communities.
El Comercio de Colorado
$135,000 over three years to support Spanish-language coverage of a newly created congressional district in Northern Colorado, and a social media manager to strengthen digital distribution of this bi-weekly newspaper serving Latino Coloradans on the Front Range.
Entérate Latino
$80,000 over three years to support local reporting and production of this monthly newspaper, which is a vital resource for Spanish speakers in Grand Junction and surrounding cities on the Western Slope.
Rocky Mountain Community Radio
$120,000 over three years to support a new managing editor or reporter position to expand thematic story collaboration, partnerships and distribution for this network of 19 mostly-rural or mountain community radio stations, who collectively reach more than 415,000 unique listeners per week.
Southeast Express
$75,000 over three years to strengthen hyperlocal reporting and increase production for this community newspaper serving residents of Southeast Colorado Springs, in the city’s lowest-income ZIP codes, through support for diverse staff and local contributors.
About Colorado Media Project
Colorado Media Project started in Spring 2018 as a community-led response to the decline in local news across the state, and has since produced a wide body of media ecosystem research, helped launch the nonprofit Colorado News Collaborative and numerous other initiatives, catalyzed millions of dollars in new philanthropic support for the sector (including public media and newspaper acquisitions), and provides support for individual newsrooms through the annual #newsCOneeds matching challenge and the Informed Communities fund.
In January 2022, CMP named a new Executive Committee of representatives from foundations making significant, multi-year commitments to the Colorado media ecosystem through CMP: The Colorado Health Foundation (Jaclyn Lensen), The Colorado Trust (Johanna Ulloa), Democracy Fund (Teresa Gorman), Gates Family Foundation (Melissa Davis) and Rose Community Foundation (Sarah Kurz). Colorado funders interested in joining the CMP Funder Table, which will include a series of learning opportunities throughout 2022, should email Melissa Davis at mdavis@gatesfamilyfoundation.org.