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What sets local news apart from the mass-information digital wormhole? Trust. This was one takeaway from the keynote speaker of the 147th Annual Colorado Press Association (CPA) Convention, Garry Pierre-Pierre, founder of the New York-based Haitian Times. As many of you know, and at the risk of starting out this column sounding like a broken record, I couldn’t agree more.
Ironically, mistakes provide that opportunity. Every correction, letter to the editor, public apology should be an assurance that, “If they don’t get it right the first time, they’ll let us know.”
Trust has always been critical for local news, and is as imperative today as it ever was.
During the convention, I had the opportunity to sit in on a roundtable with a few Latino publishers from across the state. Hector Morales, the editor and publisher of Enterate Latino in Grand Junction, brought something up that resonated: People who recently felt free to express themselves, now wish to be “invisible,” to be left alone in order to remain safe.
America has dipped back into old patterns, when people feel judged because of the color of their skin, not just by factions of society, but by the government. Through this regression, Latino and Anglo journalists are working together, the former nurturing trust and the latter using the luxury of access to dig deeper for information. Both complementary efforts take courage.
Members of our own community are tinged with the notion of not belonging, a discomfort challenged by Sol del Valle through Spanish-language news and storytelling. The CoWest Noticias Collaborative, made up of several news agencies in the Valley sharing content for translation in Sol, including Latino-based outlets, provides a weekly portfolio of investigative articles. Together, we keep the whole community informed and in the fold as best we can.
And we have something to show for it. The Sopris Sun, Sol del Valle and The Sopris Stars Youth News Bureau brought home an astonishing 38 awards after CPA’s Better News Contest Awards Banquet for work done in 2025, nearly doubling our previous record from last year of 20. Two were for Sol del Valle stories, by Felipe Perez and Jacqueline Flores Alvarez, which says a lot because each week only one of Sol’s many original stories is translated in The Sun. Fifteen were earned by our shining Sopris Stars, who launched their own paper last October. This was the first year a student category was included in the contest, and The Stars set a high bar.
Such an achievement wouldn’t be possible without each member of the team, from our pool of correspondents filling the pages of The Sun with 100% original content, to Sol’s Latino news team bridging the information gap, to every Sopris Star rising to meet new challenges.
And for the sake of truthfulness, since taking over as editor in April, playing catch up seems to be a regular part of the job. But I am consistently brought back to the present thanks to this talented group I have the privilege to work with.
This reliance on one another rings true for the collective media climate in the Valley, too.
I have to give credit to Megan Tackett, the associate publisher of Aspen Daily News, for planting this seed a few years ago, when she won CPA’s First Amendment Award as editor. Historically, newspapers have competed to get the scoop, which is true still and crucial to lighting a fire under our asses, but partnerships between local newsrooms have created a culture of mutual respect and a mission to fulfill our shared responsibility.
As has become a tradition over the past five years, fellow newsies from the Valley spend one evening during the convention together at the Denver Press Club, which has been harboring journalists for more than 150 years, convening for the first time in 1867. And during the CPA awards banquet, members of these newsrooms sit together and cheer for one another, year after year.
It’s not a stretch to say that the journalists of yesteryear, from as far back as the incorporation of the State of Colorado and beyond, would be proud. Because we are all carrying on this important work together.
And that includes you. The efficacy of the paper depends on readers holding us accountable. So write a letter to the editor when you see something was missed or wrong. When you tell yourself you don’t want to be that person, be that person. Because the truth of this moment relies on all of us to preserve it.
