DENVER—When the lively Rocky Mountain town of Carbondale lost its weekly newspaper to what its owner blamed on the economy, former town Trustee Russ Criswell said he “missed out on a couple of things.”
There was a film festival in the town of 6,000 people about 30 miles northwest of Aspen at the base of Mount Sopris. Then there was a planning and zoning commission meeting he wanted to attend that wasn’t listed in Aspen’s two free daily newspapers or the daily in nearby Glenwood Springs.
“A bunch of us decided we needed a newspaper in our town, just to keep up on the issues,” Criswell said. “So that’s what we did.”
Community activists launched The Sopris Sun less than two months after Colorado Mountain News Media suspended publication of The Valley Journal on Dec. 25. The Sun’s debut on Feb. 12 came as The E.W. Scripps Co. was mulling the future of the nearly 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News in Denver. As losses mounted, the News shut down last week.
Thursday’s edition of The Sopris Sun is the fourth issue of a free weekly started largely by volunteers and run as a nonprofit organization. Issues are typically 16 pages, in color, with a run of 3,000 copies.
“It’s kind of a strange time to start a newspaper, especially with the Rocky Mountain News just shutting down last Friday,” said Criswell, one of seven people on the Sun’s managing board of directors.
Yet he and other directors believe there are enough people who missed reading about each other to support the new publication. The Sun also plans to help readers track development planned for the Roaring Fork Valley, which is popular for sports from biking to fishing and kayaking.
“Like every other crazy, creative idea birthed in this delightful community, its fate rests with your support. May it live long and prosper,” the board wrote in the Sun’s first edition.
Editor Trina Ortega, a former reporter and photographer at the Journal, said response from readers and advertisers has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
Ortega, who puts in 40 to 50 hours a week on each issue, said she is now paid for 40 hours a week instead of 20, as she was in the beginning. The Sun has a part-time reporter and soon will be able to pay for a production person to help out a few hours every week, Ortega said.
Besides an advertising salesperson who earns commissions, the rest of the work is done by volunteers.
The Internet has claimed readers and advertisers from print editions of newspapers around the country. But the founders of The Sun said readers in Carbondale want a printed newspaper.
They obtained a $4,500 loan and a $250 donation to help launch the first edition, Criswell said. About $2,600 in extra donations helped the newspaper scrape by until advertisers started paying their bills, he said.
“I think we’re going to make it now,” Criswell said.
Ortega said the new weekly is a bit of an experiment but could succeed because of its intensely local focus.
The market has other niches too. A new Spanish-language weekly, El Montanes, arrived last month. About one-third of Carbondale residents identified themselves as Hispanic in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“The small-town, independently owned newspaper may be the only viable route for newspapers now,” Ortega said. “We are fortunate to have community access radio, but no one else is going to come in and cover our stories, from small high school athletics to solar energy advancements we’re making in this town.”
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