COLab - The Colorado Independent

Colorado News Collaborative (COLab)

Strengthening journalism in Colorado through collaboration

1927 map of Colorado (Published by the National Map Company, shared via the David Rumsey Map Collection — Cartography Associates)

We know there are stories out there newsrooms don't have the resources to cover alone as well as stories in increasingly wide swaths of Colorado that have become news deserts — meaning communities have no local news source. Veteran award-winning Colorado journalists Susan Greene and Tina Griego, in their new role with the Colorado News Collaborative (COLab), a nonprofit supporting journalism excellence, can help your newsroom produce in-depth narrative, explanatory and investigative reporting. They are offering reporting, editing and mentoring help to ensure important stories are reported with the depth they deserve, offering hands-on training in the process.

Thank you for joining this movement in Colorado collaborative journalism. Together, we can do great things.

First, what kind of story are we talking about?

A million stories are waiting to be told, so we'll need to prioritize. Some criteria we'll be considering:

Does it address an issue the community wants examined more closely?
Does it expose an un- or under-reported issue or problem?
Does it scrutinize institutions or power-structures that have gone unchecked?
Does it explore challenges affecting vulnerable communities, especially underrepresented racial groups or people in geographic news deserts?
Does it focus on solutions, not just problems?
Is it of statewide interest (and likely to be carried for free by other outlets)?
Can it be localized by others?

Does your story idea check any of these boxes? Great. Please fill out this form to help us figure out your needs and how we might help. What you write stays between us, so please be as detailed as possible.

Our primary goal is to help Colorado Press Association members, who represent communities large, small, urban, rural and suburban across the state.

COLLABORATION IN ACTION

Greene: On longing

COLab Susan Greene, Colorado News Collaborative - August 7, 2020

Dear reader, Tina and I have spent much of the last month knee-deep in documents for a difficult investigative project we’re still piecing together. So instead of a newsy newsletter, I offer a more personal...

Griego: No local news is bad news

COLab Tina Griego - August 3, 2020

“Tell me a bit about the broader consequences that we found happen to a community when they lose their sources of local news.” “Well, there’s a lot of things that happen and none of them...

Lobbyists gather in the room immediately outside the doors to the state House chamber at the Colorado Capitol early in the 2020 legislative session. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)

Coronavirus bills push lobbying to record total in Colorado. Here’s a look at the...

COLab Sandra Fish, Special to The Colorado Sun - July 28, 2020

The total spent on lobbying at the Colorado Capitol topped $40 million this session — a record driven in part because of contentious last-minute legislation introduced in response to the coronavirus. The spending to lobby...

One of 8 journalists to receive the 2020-2021 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship, Susan Greene is the inaugural recipient of the Benjamin von Sternenfels Rosenthal Grant for Mental Health Investigative Journalism — a partnership between The Carter Center’s Mental Health Program and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR).

“Bright lights in dark times”

COLab Tina Griego, Colorado News Collaborative - July 16, 2020

Dear reader, Our apologies for our recent radio silence. Our new project launch with COLab (the Colorado News Collaborative) has us gathering string and casting nets and mining veins, basically all the metaphors for digging into...

The pressroom at the Alamosa Valley Courier Friday night as it printed our collaboration on a protest-related shooting. (Photo by Stephen Jiron)

What news collaboration looks – and smells – like

COLab Susan Greene, Colorado News Collaborative - June 29, 2020

Dear readers, It had been too long since I smelled a newspaper. By that, I don’t mean the thing tossed on our front stoops each morning. I mean the building with pressrooms and loud gizmos that...