Laura Frank, head of the Colorado News Collaborative (COLab), shares insights into sustaining local journalism through collaboration, innovation, and addressing critical challenges. She highlights COLab’s role in supporting over 180 Colorado newsrooms with reporting, engagement, revenue models, and resource sharing, while addressing the “fried and frozen” state many journalists face today.

Laura discusses the evolution of Colorado’s journalism ecosystem, noting how trust, partnerships, and years of groundwork have made the state a hub for innovation and collaborative media initiatives. We also discuss how to foster deeper connections between newsrooms and communities and share strategies for addressing polarization and misinformation at the local level.

From revitalizing rural news to pioneering shared services and experimenting with new audience engagement tools, Laura explores the systemic solutions needed to sustain local news. She also dives into the power of community partnerships and the vital role philanthropy must play in ensuring that newsrooms not only survive but thrive.

 

Episode chapters:

(00:04:21) - What is COLab and why was it founded?

(00:07:46) - The formation of Colorado’s innovative journalism ecosystem

(00:10:18) - The “fried and frozen” phenomenon in newsrooms

(00:14:22) - Shared services to address newsroom challenges

(00:19:58) - Reconnecting news organizations and communities

(00:29:31) - Tackling news avoidance

(00:37:22) - Partnering with community organizations

(00:40:52) - On being responsive to community needs

(00:49:40) - Local news in the national landscape

(01:02:06) - Funding and tapping into existing resources

(01:10:35) - Success in the Press Forward era of journalism

(01:19:19) - Rapid-fire questions

(01:32:10) - Media and local recommendations

  Links:

• Show notes

• Laura Frank: LinkedIn, Twitter 

• Colorado News Collaborative

• Amplify Colorado

• Voter Voices

• Mentioned

• Rocky Mountain PBS 

• Institute for Nonprofit News (INN)

• University of Denver

• Associated Press

• Colorado Media Project 

• Press Forward

• Knight Foundation 

• Dick Tofel and Second Rough Draft

• News Revenue Hub

• Hearken

• Above the Noise

• Colorado State University Center for Public Deliberation 

• Rebuild Local News

• SCORE

• Small Business Administration (SBA) 

• Colorado Workforce Development Council

• Macon365: Macon Arts Alliance Calendar

• Local recommendations

• Alluvial Fan at Rocky Mountain National Park

• Denver Museum of Nature and Science

• Strawberry Park Hot Springs

• Big Bill's Pizza

• Media recommendations

• Reviving Rural News by Teri Finneman, Nick Mathews, Patrick Ferrucci

• Avoiding the News by Benjamin Toff, Ruth Palmer, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

• Find Your News 

• Colorado Trust for Local News 

• Local News Matters: web, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

• Pirate Audio

• Colorado Press Association: web, Twitter, Facebook

• Tim Regan-Porter: bio, Twitter 

 

For show notes, transcripts, newsletter sign-up and past guests on the Local News Matters podcast, please visit localnewsmatterspodcast.com or lnmpod.com.

Past guests on the Local News Matters podcast include: Jennifer Larino (Lede New Orleans), Katherine Ann Rowlands (Bay City News), Jim O’Rourke (O’Rourke Media Group), Teri Finneman, Nick Mathews and Pat Ferrucci (Reviving Local News), Nic Dawes (THE CITY), Allison Taylor Levine (Local News Initiative Delaware), Crystal Good (Black by God),  Lisa Snowden (Baltimore Beat), Karen Rundlet (INN), Jim Brady (Knight Foundation), Candice Fortman (Exit interview, Outlier Media), Jean Friedman-Rudovsky (Resolve Philly), Jay Rosen (NYU), Sue Cross (Exit interview, INN), Mary Margaret White (Mississippi Today), Amy Kovac-Ashley (Tiny News Collective), Michael Shapiro (TAPinto), Kenny Katzgrau (redbankgreen and Broadstreet), John Garrett (Community Impact), Shannon Kinney (Dream Local Digital), Larry Ryckman (The Colorado Sun),  Frank Mungeam (Local Media Association), Kelly Ann Scott (Alabama Media Group), Sara Lomax and S. Mitra Kalita (URL Media), Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro (National Trust for Local News), Mike Rispoli and Richard Young (via When the People Decide), Sarabeth Berman (American Journalism Project), Rabbi Hillel Goldberg and Shana Goldberg (Intermountain Jewish News),  Lyndsay C. Green (via The Journalism Salute), Rashad Mahmood and Mark Glaser (New Mexico Local News Fund), Christian Vanek and Barbara Hardt (The Mountain-Ear), Dan Grech (BizHack), Zack Richner (Easy Tax Credits), Tracie Powell (Pivot Fund), Dan Oshinsky (Inbox Collective), Linda Shapley (via What Works), Yehong Zhu and Jake Seaton (Zette, Column), Charity Huff (January Spring), Joaquin Alvarado and Dave Perry (Aurora Sentinel), Steve Waldman (Rebuild Local News), Maritza Félix (Conecta Arizona), Michael Bolden (American Press Institute), Jeff Roberts and Corey Hutchins (CFOIC, Colorado College), Eve Pearlman and Erica Anderson (Spaceship Media), Jennifer Brandel (Hearken, Democracy SOS), Corey Hutchins with Bay Edwards, Todd Chamberlain and Raleigh Burleigh (Sopris Sun).