Dear readers,
In a year when far too many dark clouds have loomed over Colorado’s news landscape, there’s some good news on the horizon with this week’s announcement about The Colorado Sun, the cryptocurrency-funded, online news service soon to be launched by the national Civil project.
My inbox was full yesterday with questions about how the creation of The Sun might affect our work at The Independent. My answer is that it will make us better, and make Colorado better, too.
Journalists thrive on competition. We at The Indy know from our experience covering Colorado for The Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, The Boulder Daily Camera and other publications that we’re at our best when other reporters are also on our beats. More importantly, the people and communities we cover benefit from having as many credible news outlets as possible helping tell their stories, explain their challenges, and shine light on the darkest corners of money and power. We all gain from news produced by professional reporters trained in this craft and adherent to journalistic ethics. The folks at The Sun are journalists we know and respect. All of us at The Indy congratulate them on their new venture and look forward to reading their work and collaborating, when appropriate.
We, meanwhile, remain focused on what we do best – providing smart, in-depth coverage of public policy, government, politics, the environment, social and criminal justice, and other issues in a nonprofit setting. Our reporting is free online here at www.coloradoindependent.com and free to about two dozen newspapers statewide that run it. We remain committed to offering our work without cost and to keeping our nonprofit newsroom answerable to no one but our readers.
If you haven’t read our profiles of Colorado’s major-party candidates for governor, check them out. We’ll be publishing our final two, on Walker Stapleton and Cary Kennedy, later today. If you haven’t read Mike Littwin’s analysis of how we arrived at the pack of four high-profile Democrats on the primary ballot, take a look. While you’re at it, read the back story about Colorado’s recent redistricting compromise, our exposé on safety risks alleged against oil and gas giant Anadarko, and the latest about efforts by District Attorney George Brauchler, who’s running for attorney general, to shroud in secrecy court documents alleging prosecutorial misconduct by his office in a death penalty case. Even if it takes an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, we at The Indy will fight for government transparency and access to public records.
Read us for unflinching investigative and explanatory news about Colorado. And, by all means, read The Sun, which we understand will launch later this summer, as well as Chalkbeat Colorado, Denverite, The Denver Post, The Denver Business Journal, coloradopolitics.com, and whatever source you can find producing quality journalism at a time when Colorado sorely needs it. Our state is growing and changing crazy fast. There’s more than enough news about which each of these outlets, without duplicating efforts, should be digging deep and shining much-needed light.
In that spirit, I wish you all a happy almost-summer solstice.
Susan Greene
Editor, The Colorado Independent
