Nine local newsrooms across Colorado have been granted $100,000 each through a grant program by Press Forward that aims to help close persistent news coverage gaps in communities nationwide, the organization announced Oct. 16.

The Colorado outlets are among 205 nationwide that will receive a share of $20 million in grant funds from Press Forward, a nationwide foundation to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. They were selected from among 931 proposals from newsrooms with annual budgets of less than $1 million to receive funds as part of Press Forward’s first Open Call on Closing Local Coverage Gaps.

“These newsrooms are proof that we are seeing a moment of transformation, where new and longstanding are stepping up to create a new story for local news,” said Dale R. Anglin, director of Press Forward, in a news release. “Each newsroom plays a vital public service role in its community – providing trustworthy local news and information in places where no other sources may exist. Independent newsrooms need community support to survive. We hope that more people will subscribe and donate to them.”

Press Forward described the grant recipients as “a bright mosaic of independent, nonpartisan sources — with a range of business models and audiences — reimagining what local news looks like across America. Some newsrooms are reporting on the vast American countryside — where they are often the only news source for hundreds of miles — while additional outlets are covering people of color and linguistically diverse communities that traditional news sources have overlooked. Each produces the everyday stories people need to make decisions about their daily lives.”

A video provided by Press Forward features Erin McIntyre and Mike Wiggins, co-publishers and editors of the Ouray County Plaindealer, one of the grant recipient newsrooms. “We are in a place in small, rural Colorado where if we don’t cover the news, no one will. So if we don’t exist, and we don’t do a good job, there’s a news desert here,” McIntyre says in the video.

Here are the Colorado newsrooms chosen to receive grants, along with information on each provided by Press Forward:

Alamosa Citizen
Alamosa Citizen is a member-supported, nonpartisan daily online newspaper that works to provide information and build civic involvement in the San Luis Valley. It reports on daily news events and happenings and develops issue-oriented enterprise journalism, community-supported daily podcasts and live-stream broadcasts, and live-event programming.

Asian Avenue Magazine, Aurora
Asian Avenue Magazine is a monthly publication that shares the stories of Colorado’s Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) residents to build bridges of awareness, knowledge, and understanding between the diverse AANHPI communities and the public.

Aurora Sentinel Community Media
Aurora Sentinel Community Media provides factual, trusted, nonpartisan news, investigations, and features about the Aurora region and its diverse community. The nonprofit corporation was created to grow a robust, thriving news organization with the capacity to cover the issues and interests of the greater community of Aurora.

El Comercio de Colorado, Denver
El Comercio de Colorado is a bilingual multimedia organization targeting the growing Hispanic/Latinx community in Colorado since 2006. El Comercio’s goal is to empower the Hispanic/Latinx community through information, engagement, and advocacy.

KVNF Mountain Grown Community Radio, Paonia
KVNF engages its communities by providing access to diverse music, news, and voices, envisioning listeners who are participating, inspired, active, and well-informed with a local and global perspective that emphasizes journalistic integrity.

Ouray County Plaindealer, Ridgway
The Ouray County Plaindealer is the only trusted source of local news in a rural Colorado mountain community of roughly 5,000 residents. The Plaindealer’s journalists seek truth and report it, with the goal of informing the community with fact-based, nonpartisan articles. While maintaining high standards for accuracy and fairness, the Plaindealer produces quality journalism for the community, which would be a news desert without it.

San Miguel Basin Forum, Nucla
San Miguel Basin Forum covers all sides of issues respectfully and gives a voice to all community members in the West End of Montrose and San Miguel counties.

Sopris Sun, Carbondale
Sopris Sun informs, inspires, and builds community by fostering diverse and independent journalism.

World Journal, Walsenberg
World Journal promotes a sense of community and cooperation among the citizens of the Rocky Mountain Southwest.

Click here for a searchable database of Press Forward grant recipients nationwide.

Corey Hutchins, board member of the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, offers more details in his Substack newsletter, Inside the News in Colorado.

SPJ Colorado Pro congratulates Colorado’s Press Forward grant recipients.