By Mark Harden / SPJ Colorado Pro Chapter communications chair

Hello, and welcome to the first edition of the newsletter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Colorado Pro Chapter.

Actually, our chapter did have a newsletter in years past, but it’s been dormant for quite a while. We thought we’d bring it back to make it easier for you to keep track of chapter news, upcoming events and more. We don’t have a particular frequency in mind; we’ll send one of these when we reach a critical mass of news to share.

Of course, you can always check our website (spjcolorado.org) for our latest news, and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Bluesky and X (Twitter). But this newsletter is intended to be an easy-to-digest roundup of our recent posts and announcements.

We toyed with giving the newsletter a snappy name – something like Rockies Roundup or Colorado Reporter. But we weren’t too impressed with the ideas we came up with, so we decided (at least for now) to keep it simple: “SPJ Colorado Pro News.” If you have a bright idea, please email me at mhardenpro@gmail.com.

Enough of the preliminaries! Here’s our latest news. (And feel free to forward this to your journalist friends.)

Free chapter dues

There’s been a change at SPJ that could save you some money. Now, when you join national SPJ, your SPJ Colorado Pro Chapter membership is included at no extra charge. Details here.

Contest time is approaching fast

As I’m sure you know, SPJ Colorado Pro organizes the annual Top of the Rockies Awards, recognizing journalistic excellence in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. And hard-working Deb Hurley Brobst, our chapter president and our contest chair, advises that we will begin accepting entries for this year’s TOR contest on Dec. 10. So, it’s time to start thinking about what your newsroom would like to enter.

Deb says that last year’s contest categories will remain unchanged this year. (If you’d like to refresh your memory on our contest categories, click here for last year’s call for entries). Also, the contest fee will still be $20 per entry. Work published in calendar year 2025 is eligible. The deadline for entries will be 10 p.m. MT on Jan. 26, 2026.

A reminder that you won’t need to send in physical clippings – that went out with the dial-up modem. Mostly, you’ll need a headline, date of publication, and an unlocked link to the entry on your website. (If your entry is paywalled, you’ll need to provide a way for judges to access it – like maybe a log-in or a PDF.)

Deb will be sending out a call for entries (including contest rules, categories and entry procedures) in early December to everyone signed up as a contest coordinator for their newsroom. If you’re not signed up, contact Deb at deb.hurley.brobst@gmail.com.

More: We have individual awards, too

Also be thinking about which outstanding Colorado journalists you’d like to nominate for our chapter’s prestigious individual awards. Each year we bestow the Keeper of the Flame Award (for career achievement), Journalist of the Year, Educator of the Year and the First Amendment Award to Colorado’s “best of the best.” The call for nominations will go out early in the coming year. (Click here for a list of past winners.)

Chapter board opening

Molly Miller is exiting the chapter board of directors to take a job out of state. We thank Molly for her service (including designing the programs for this year’s SPJ Region 9 Conference in Denver).

That means we’re looking for a new board member. If you’re a paid chapter member and you’d like to be considered, contact chapter President Deb Hurley Brobst at deb.hurley.brobst@gmail.com.

Click here to learn more about our officers and board members.

Our next event is Nov. 4

Theodore “Bubbles” Anderson has been described as “a smooth fielding, long ball hitting second baseman, and a hero to a generation of Denver’s baseball fans.” Born in 1904, Anderson played for the Denver White Elephants, Colorado’s longest-lasting black baseball team, before becoming the only Colorado-born baseball player in the Negro Leagues at the age of 17. Now, Anderson has been inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.

On Tuesday, Nov. 4, we’ll present journalist and play-by-play broadcaster Justin Adams, who will talk about Anderson and his Hall of Fame induction. The discussion will be moderated by our events chair, Marco Cummings. Please join us. Details here.

Dispatches from MediaFest25

MediaFest25, the nation’s largest news-media gathering for pros and college students, was held Oct. 15-18 in Washington, D.C. The conference was sponsored by SPJ along with the Associated Collegiate Press and the College Media Association.

Chapter board member Michael Karlik was there and filed three dispatches on the action. Click here and here and here.

Watch our past events

In case you missed our recent chapter events, you can watch them on YouTube. Click here to watch our Sept. 30 forum on citizen journalism, and click here to watch our Oct. 14 book talk with Denver’s Kurt Wagner, author of Battle for the Bird, a history of X (a.k.a. Twitter).

A tip of the hat to our programs chair, Marco Cummings, aided by board members Doug Bell and Corey Hutchins, for organizing these events. Got an idea for a future event – or better yet, would you like to help put one together? Contact Marco at marco@marcocummings.com.

Subscribe to SPJ Colorado Pro on YouTube

And speaking of videos, we invite you to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Go to www.youtube.com/@spjcoloradopro and click the Subscribe button to follow all of our great programming, including discussion panels, awards presentations, conference keynotes and more.

Free money for college

Our chapter takes very seriously our role in helping to ensure that journalism stays healthy in years to come by providing scholarships to J-students. Applications are now open for this year’s round of scholarships, our scholarships chair, Doug Bell, advises. Click here for details.

Colorado campus SPJ chapter honored

SPJ Colorado Pro congratulates Colorado State University’s SPJ student chapter, recognized as the Outstanding Campus Chapter Regional Finalist for SPJ’s Region 9 (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming). The faculty adviser is Dr. David Wolfgang. More here.

Updated guide to sunshine laws

Our friends at the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition have updated their free online guide to Colorado’s open-government laws with links to relevant 2025 statutes and recent court rulings. Click here to access it.

Contact us

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email spjcolorado@gmail.com.

… And that’s a wrap for this edition. See you next time.