The Estes Valley Voice is an award-winning, independent, locally owned, and journalist-led digital newsroom that offers the Estes Valley accurate, fact-based, and in-depth local news, features, opinions, and commentary, focusing on people, businesses, and events in the Estes Valley.

We are incorporated as a public benefit corporation, a for-profit business that aims to provide a public benefit to the community. 

News is a public good, and the media should contribute to the life of a community by prioritizing people over profits while also striving to remain a financially viable business. And that business is the news. 

The Fourth Estate plays a crucial role in the democratic process, serving as a watchdog over government and chronicling the stories of a community and its people. The Estes Valley Voice believes that a news publication should both report the news and serve as a platform for conversation about the news.

Milestones

Over the past 18  months, since beginning publication at the end of June 2024, the Estes Valley Voice has:

  • Published more than 1,110 original boots-on-the-ground news stories focusing on the people, events, businesses, arts and entertainment, and local governments in the Estes Valley.
  • Published news coverage and election guides for three elections – November 2024, May 2025, and November 2025.
  • Provided free house ads for 15 nonprofit organizations worth $10,000.
  • Filed suit and won a Colorado Open Meetings Act violation case for the release of information that the court said should have initially been made public. The court ordered that the Estes Valley Voice’s legal fees in pursuing the open meetings violation be paid by the Estes Valley Fire Protection District.
  • Filed suit and was awarded legal fees in a Colorado Open Records Act violation case. After pursuing the matter for seven months, the court ordered that Estes Park Health pay the Estes Valley Voice’s legal fees.
  • Hosted a community screening of the documentary “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink,” August 2024, at the Reel Mountain Theater.
  • Hosted a screening of the documentary “Trusted Sources” and a panel discussion about the role of the media in political news with Vanessa Ortega of the Media Bias Project, Mayor Gary Hall, Rev. Elizabeth Jameson, and Estes Valley Voice Journalist Elisabeth Sherwin, October 2024 at the Historic Park Theater.
  • Served as a media sponsor of the “Dementia Together” symposium at the Community Center, October 2024.
  • Published a series of articles about the problem of dementia, which affects 1 in 10 adults aged 65 and older. Forty percent of the population in Estes is 62 and older, making Estes the “oldest” community demographically in the state.
  • Received $11,000 in donations through ColoradoGives under the fiscal sponsorship of the Colorado Media Project in 2024 and raised more than $4,200 through ColoradoGives in 2025.
  • Sponsored a Colorado Sunshine Law symposium for local elected boards presented by Jeff Roberts of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, February 2025.
  • Sponsored an author talk with Ron Pevney on the 10th anniversary edition of his book “Conscious Living, Conscious Again,” in partnership with Good Samaritan Society – Estes Park Village, February 2025.
  • Sponsored a public forum for candidates running for the Estes Valley Fire Protection District, April 2025.
  • Hosted a panel discussion moderated by Adam Crowe, the Economic Development Manager for Larimer County Economic and Workforce Development about “Tariff$ and the Local Economy” with Scott Applegate, Bank of Estes Park; Mark Ell, Alpha Capital Management Group, LLC;  Mauree McCann, owner of The Mad Moose, and Rajiv Poudel, owner of Estes Village and several other area businesses, May 2025.
  • Received the 2025 LION Award for Community Engagement at the 2025 Independent News Sustainability Summit held in St. Louis, September 3-5.
  • Organized a Constitution Day event with a free speech “soap box” to celebrate the First Amendment in George Hix Plaza on Sept. 17.
  • Hosted “Beyond the Busy Season: A Business Resilience Summit” in partnership with the Holiday Inn of Estes Park featuring Laura Rodriguez, Chief Strategy Officer and Director of Innovation Ecosystems, OEDIT; Bryan Welker, President, CRO and Co-Founder, WDR Aspen; Scott Applegate President and CEO, Bank of Estes Park; Maureen McCann, owner of Mad Moose; and Jeff Abel, Signature Home Team), and Adam Crowe, Larimer County Economic and Workforce Development.
  • Provided internships for five journalism and communications students from the University of Colorado-Boulder.
  • Conducted three reader surveys – May 2024, December 2024, and October-November 2025- to assess the needs of readers and to gain feedback from the community about how the Estes Valley Voice is doing in its mission to provide local news coverage.
  • Held six morning editors’ coffees in the fall of 2025 to talk with and listen to readers about local news stories and our coverage.
  • Provided a Spanish translation toggle button on our stories so community members whose primary language is Spanish can read and access local news.
  • Launched a Spanish-language news podcast to recap the most important news stories of the week for community members whose primary language is Spanish.
  • Provided a decorated tree for the Quota Club’s 2025 Festival of Trees fundraiser.

Our philosophy

The Estes Valley Voice aims to earn the trust and respect of readers in the Estes Valley by being transparent and accountable to our community.

Readers may not always like or agree with the stories we publish. Still, the Estes Valley Voice believes that if we deliver a solid news product and are accountable to our readers, our readers will support us as subscribers, advertisers, and sponsors.

We also believe there is more than one side to most every story, and we are open to publishing opinions that we may disagree with editorially, but which are part of the larger community conversation.

We believe that civility is a crucial hallmark of community discourse, and that in the democratic process, we must be able to agree to disagree in a civil manner. It is unfortunate that today, many people do not know how to engage in civil dialogue when they disagree, but instead resort to casting aspersions upon others or lobbing insults anonymously behind a keyboard.

The Estes Valley Voice’s stories are not behind a paywall because we believe that the news should be accessible to everyone.

The Washington Post’s slogan is “Democracy dies in darkness.” Media research is also showing that democracy dies behind paywalls. When professionally written news is locked behind paywalls, 80% of readers will switch to another site and seek out a free option, often a social media site that may not be vetted or held to any standard or code of journalistic ethics.

Thank you for being a reader. Thank you to our paid subscribers, advertisers, and sponsors. With your support, we look forward to covering the stories of our community in the year ahead.

Happy New Year from the Estes Valley Voice writers, creatives, and editors.