Nearly 40% of America’s local newspapers have disappeared over the past two decades, and more than 130 closed in the last year alone, according to “The State of Local News 2025,” a report released a week ago by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Another study, conducted by the Dewitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University, found that only 17% of the content in local newspapers focused on local communities, and one in five newspapers had no locally produced journalism at all.
The Estes Valley Voice – an independent, locally owned, journalism-first publication – is bucking the national trend and working hard to deliver local news that is connected to our community. And since launching in June 2024, we have published 970 local news stories.
We are also proud to have received the 2025 Community Engagement Award from LION Publishers – Local Independent Online News – in September at the annual LION conference in St. Louis.
A few weeks ago, the Estes Valley Voice was approached by a company owned by a hedge fund in New York that produces a print edition newspaper distributed in our community, asking if we would like to provide them with our local news coverage. They proposed licensing our local reporting and rolling it into their publication under their paywall system. It was an interesting offer, but we didn’t think it was a good fit with our vision and philosophy. For various reasons, we declined.
Help us through Colorado Gives
The Estes Valley Voice was again invited this year by the Colorado News Collaborative, known as CoLab, to participate in the Colorado Gives 2025 campaign to secure funding to keep reporters in the field, hold local institutions accountable, and chronicle stories about the people, businesses, and events of our community.
Last year, with the support of the Estes Valley community and the matching funds we received through CoLab, we secured $11,000 in funding, which enabled us to pay our team of journalists, maintain our publishing platform, cover our rent, and address other business expenses.
We hope the Estes Valley community will support us again this year.
Why it matters
The Estes Valley Voice is working hard to do exactly what local journalism is designed to do: ask difficult questions, demand transparency from public institutions, and keep residents informed about decisions that affect their lives.
“I appreciate the efforts of Estes Valley Voice to provide desperately needed local news,” wrote one 2024 Colorado Gives Day donor.
Another wrote, “As taxpayers, we deserve full transparency in decisions that affect us and accountability for those that intentionally or unintentionally violate Colorado open meeting laws. Keep up the great reporting!”
Other readers echoed the sentiment: “Community journalism is important for transparency and accountability. The Estes Valley Voice is filling a void!”
Mission-driven journalism
Last year, columnist Perry Bacon, Jr. of the Washington Post wrote a compelling headline, “Journalism may never again make money. So it should focus on mission.”
Before the Estes Valley Voice published its first story, we wrote a purpose, mission, and values statement for our newsroom. We believe passionately in the value of local journalism and in its role in what George Washington called the “republican model of government” in his first inaugural address and what Abraham Lincoln referred to as “the democratic experiment,” in an address to Congress.
The Estes Valley Voice values public accountability and transparency, and we believe that Colorado’s open records and open meeting laws should be followed.
A free press means an independent press, and while the Estes Valley Voice does not put our stories behind a paywall, journalism – the production and distribution of news reports, features, and commentary – is not without cost.
Our journalists sit through hours and hours of local board meetings. We review meeting packets, read reports, and pore over the budgets of taxpayer-funded organizations. We conduct interviews and prioritize fact-based reporting over bottom lines, a commitment that requires the support of readers, subscribers, advertisers, and sponsors to sustain boots-on-the-ground journalism.
How to help
If you are not already a subscriber, we invite you to consider becoming one. Subscriptions are $7 a month on a month-to-month basis or $6 a month on an annual basis. Many people have also generously supported us by becoming a “super subscriber” at a rate of $15 a month.
If you are a local business, please consider advertising with us. We will schedule a meeting with you, share our advertising rate sheet, discuss our monthly page views, and develop an advertising package tailored to your advertising needs.
Please let us know if you are interested in becoming a sponsor of one of our sections, such as our Arts & Entertainment news or our Spanish podcasts.
If you are not getting our email newsletter, which bundles our latest news reports and delivers them to your inbox at least three times a week (often more often), you can sign up here.
Please consider making a charitable contribution through our fiscal sponsor, the Colorado News Collaborative, to support our work during the Colorado Gives campaign. Your tax-deductible donation will help the Estes Valley Voice secure the financial support it needs to continue providing local news reporting.
And thank you for being a reader. Please reach out with news tips on stories we should cover, give us feedback through our 2025 Readers Survey, and let us know what you think about how we are doing. We will hold a drawing on Dec. 1 for ten $15 gift cards to local coffee shops and bakeries, available to everyone who has participated.
Again, thank you.