Community journalism has been the very definition of my more than three decades in the trade. And I couldn’t love it more than in my current role as one of the many freelance correspondents for The Sopris Sun.
My very first byline, aside from student publications, came as a young journalism major in college, when I penned a story about a chainsaw sculptor in the small Central Illinois town where I grew up.
After graduating with a journalism degree from Eastern Illinois University, I could have taken things in any number of directions, including applying for a reporter position at one of the metro newspapers in my home state.
Instead, I chose to follow my heart (and love of the mountains) to Colorado, and a little town called Carbondale where several of my elder siblings had settled.
As a high schooler back in rural Illinois trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, I remember receiving a weekly copy of The Valley Journal in the mail. My sister-in-law at the time, who worked at the VJ, sent us a subscription as a Christmas present so that we could keep up on all of the funky happenings in ‘Bonedale, including the occasional snippets about our Colorado family.
It not only served as a beckoning call to go join them, it was my inspiration to go into journalism.
Once here in the Roaring Fork Valley, my first Colorado byline happened to be in the Snowmass Sun. It was a story about the annual Chinese New Year celebration at the old Mountain Dragon restaurant, one of those unique, local happenings that tend to grace the pages of the local paper.
That following spring of 1988 I got on with The Glenwood Post, and again, I had my opportunities to take it big time. I probably could have landed a job with the Rocky Mountain News or Denver Post, heck, maybe even the New York Times. But I chose to stay put, writing about the people and things that mattered in our local communities here in the Valley.
When I jumped ship in 1996 to join a veteran crew at the VJ, it was a bit like coming home. Co-founder Pat Noel was back in the editor’s chair, Lynn Burton was a reporter/editor, Carol Craven was the photographer, capturing those classic full-cover images every week that always made the VJ special.
A rag-tag group of local investors not only owned the paper, but also worked the long hours necessary to make sure it hit the street every Thursday — community journalism at its finest.
Within a couple of years, the same out-of-state corporate interests that would eventually gobble up most of the local dailies on the Western Slope also came knocking on the VJ’s door.
Too good a deal to pass up for the owners at the time and the VJ entered into a period of corporate chain ownership over the next decade. The Great Recession of 2008 was the VJ’s death knell — money-first corporate decisions being what they tend to be.
But — because stories about chainsaw sculptors and unique community events, along with the happenings at town hall, in the school board room or on the local high school ball field or gym, are the backbone of community journalism — Carbondale was not to be denied its local paper.
Less than two months after the VJ published its last issue on Christmas Day 2008, The Sopris Sun was born out of a community of dedicated people who knew Carbondale deserved to have its own newspaper.
I happened to be in on some of those early conversations about starting a nonprofit newspaper to replace the VJ. But, because I had to make my own personal financial decisions at the time, I took the offer to stay on with the chain newspapers, for better or for worse.
Truly, though, the best model for a community newspaper is for it to be “owned” by the community it serves — no outside corporate influences, or even the whims of private investors.
Coming up on its 17th birthday, The Sopris Sun continues to prove the value of community journalism, with its nonprofit model, its legion of freelance community journalists and you, the reader.
Because that’s really what makes for a great local newspaper — people.
Not only the people who make the magic happen week in and week out, but readers like you who know and understand the value of good community journalism.With that in mind, please consider supporting your community newspaper through either a one-time or recurring monthly contribution. You’ll find all the information on how to do that here.