This was the hardest and best thing we’ve ever done
The First Year: April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2023
In March 2023, a small group of people from Manitou Springs, Old Colorado City and the lower Ute Pass communities banded together for the sole purpose of reviving the 100-plus-year-old Pikes Peak Bulletin by April. This interim board of directors led the way as the Bulletin was reborn as a nonprofit community newspaper.
Though this is a fairly new model for community and hyperlocal newspapers, Colorado has been leading the charge as this trend takes hold nationally. This approach has been transformative for small newspapers, allowing them to avoid being subsumed by conglomerate publishers.
The nonprofit model approach is not without its trials and obstacles. For the Pikes Peak Bulletin’s board of directors, it’s been a year of learning, exploring and being open to innovation, creative thinking and a fresh approach. Through this annual report of our first year of operation, we want to share our successes and challenges with you — our readers, subscribers, donors, supporters and neighbors.
We also hope that this annual report and the information it provides will be of use beyond this application, as we will be using the data for grants and other funding opportunities.
Successes and Milestones: We got a lot done, thanks to you!
The first few weeks: Scope, Leadership, Planning
Newspaper reporting is all about telling the stories and there are so many good stories in our first year!
When the interim board of directors made the commitment to expand the Bulletin’s coverage area, it opened up a great opportunity to fill the gap that was left when other hyperlocal newspapers folded, such as the Westside Pioneer in Old Colorado City.
That stake in the ground, that new direction, was the jumpstart the board needed to make the revival of the Pikes Peak Bulletin truly impactful. We worked to build momentum through community engagement, inviting the readers from those three communities to be a part of making this a successful endeavor.
We negotiated the transfer of assets from the previous publisher and board, and made critical connections with other nonprofit community newspapers, as well as the Colorado News Collaborative (COLAB), the Colorado Press Association, Colorado Media Project, the Journalism Trust Initiative and the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN).
These organizations are invaluable for the expertise and assistance they provide to hyperlocal newspapers.
We were gathering steam and forging ahead, but there was still so much to be done in those first weeks and months if we were going to collectively create a great community news source.
The first two months: Trailblazing a New Path
At the heart of all the excitement of starting this new venture are the nuts and bolts of setting up a nonprofit organization. Securing our 501(c)(3) designation, setting up our accounting system to begin tracking our finances, creating our website and gaining access to the Bulletin’s social media pages. Pretty standard stuff.
That’s when the fun began — when we truly saw that momentum and community support and engagement start to take hold. We held three town halls in the communities that we cover (Old Colorado City, Manitou Springs and Lower Ute Pass). We also approached a Colorado College journalism class to gather their thoughts and feedback.
These town halls were well attended and the students were incredibly committed with their input. We asked everyone the same three questions:
1. Where have we not been serving the community? Where’s the gap?
2. How can we make the Pikes Peak Bulletin more relevant to your community?
3. How can we help to build better community?
Not surprisingly, a few common themes came out of those meetings. Our readers and supporters wanted:
1. Information about sustainability and environmental stewardship;
2. More local interest features and stories;
3. More arts and entertainment;
4. More human-interest stories;
5. Student and guest writers;
6. Efforts to engage younger readers through arts and entertainment and by reporting on subjects of interest to them; and
7. For us to keep listening and asking questions.
As it all began to come together (this was really going to happen!), we turned our attention to funding this audacious idea.
Founding board member and longtime Manitou Springs resident Annie Schmitt led the board in a grassroots fundraising campaign that engaged neighbors, friends and the business community for seed money investment in this startup. And, everyone showed up and supported their community newspaper!
Additionally, we began pursuing grant opportunities.
All of the time, dedication and sheer determination culminated in our first milestone when we published the first issue of the new Pikes Peak Bulletin in May 2023. We couldn’t stop now.
The first year: Keeping the Presses Running
The Pikes Peak Bulletin was off and running, and we continued to engage you, our readers, advertisers, donors and subscribers. And we were amazed and encouraged by your support!
We began publishing weekly in July 2023, which was a huge accomplishment.
Our fundraising efforts included participating in the Give! campaign and COLAB’s Colorado Needs Philanthropy program. We successfully applied for small grants from the Manitou Arts, Culture, and Heritage program and the Manitou Springs Community Foundation.
Attending the Colorado Press Association conference provided us with important connections in the industry and we learned so much that we could apply to the Bulletin’s operations.
REPORTING ON APRIL 2023 – MARCH 2024
Challenges: We Learned a Lot!
According to a recent report on local news in the United States, 2,627 weekly publications closed or merged with other papers between 2004 and 2023, with the number of non-daily papers falling from more than 7,400 to less than 4,800 in that period.
Additionally, newspapers are increasingly being sold back to family-owned newspaper chains, if they aren’t shuttered.
The nonprofit newspaper model is relatively new, and is constantly evolving in response to shifts in the industry. As well, deciding which technology best serves the newspaper is challenging — what is cost effective and best streamlines our processes?
There are many options as technologies designed specifically for nonprofit news publication/marketing/administration continue to emerge.
Also, how will the publisher and board of directors strike the balance between publishing a physical iteration of the PPB while satisfying the demand for online content?
As we look back on this first year, reviving a much-valued publication and using a new approach to do so was not without its challenges. While this interim volunteer board of directors took on the task of setting up a fledgling nonprofit for success, we faced more than a few tests along the way.
There was a definite learning curve for certain aspects of running a newspaper. For example, the publisher discovered that the Bulletin’s periodical mailing permit was suspended because an annual report had not been submitted. The post office’s notices had gone to a previous employee’s email, which was inactive.
When the mailing house notified the publisher that it was unable to mail to subscribers, the publisher had to navigate the circuitous route to correctly administer this heretofore unknown responsibility. In effect, we “didn’t know what we didn’t know.”
Although three directors on the PPB board have experience in journalism and publishing, the interim board members are not industry experts. We are constantly learning.
Funding Transparency: Looking at the Numbers
Everyone on the board of directors had nonprofit experience, and we took a managerially conservative approach, wanting to waste neither time nor money.
Many tools and platforms have been specifically designed for newspapers, and we tried a few of them. If they didn’t work, we discontinued them. Having a volunteer publisher helped to defray operating costs.
For the first year of operation for the newly revived Pikes Peak Bulletin, we showed a net operating loss of $28,000. The board had budgeted for a loss of $26,000.
We expected a much bigger loss than what we ultimately ended up with at the end of our first year. We knew it would be hard, and it was, but not as much as it could have been, because of our supporters.
There were contributing factors: in the first month of going to weekly issues, we had to switch printers in mid-stream when Gannett Co. shut down our printer in Pueblo. We had to quickly pivot.
Because of the loss of the Pueblo printing press, dozens of local newspapers had to compete for the services of the Denver Post’s printing facility. We were fortunate to be able to partner with the Post.
Because of our new printer’s parameters, we had to quickly redesign the paper to fit their printing press requirements. This redesign and a new set of logistics as they related to our new printer definitely increased costs.
Our board, as well as COLAB, stepped up. Publisher Lyn Ettinger-Harwell, a founding donor, spent a lot of time on the phone and in video conferences, making connections and gathering information from representatives of other local newspapers who had been through the same experience.
As board treasurer Gaye Bosley-Mitchell noted, “This was a year of navigating uncharted territory. It’s hard to be fiscally conservative when you are working toward a dream, and it’s hard to work toward a dream when you are being fiscally conservative!
“We fully expected a significant loss in our first year, but tried to be both conservative in our management and look upward and onward in our efforts, and we were greatly relieved our loss was as small as it was! I attribute it to very close financial management and never letting up on the promise of what we knew the paper could be.”
Of course, we continued to fundraise and work to increase the number of our subscribers and advertisers.
LOCAL NEWS BY THE NUMBERS
April 1, 2023-May 31, 2024 Pikes Peak Bulletin factoids
What Comes Next: the Path Forward
As we reflect on this first year of the revived Pikes Peak Bulletin, we’re looking forward to exciting new challenges, possibilities and opportunities. This second year is about making improvements and building on our momentum — streamlining operational processes, finding economies of scale and convincing potential advertisers that we are a worthy investment.
We want to continue to build on our commitment to telling the stories of the Westside and lower Ute Pass, not just Manitou Springs. We have ample room for growth in terms of those subscribers.
We acknowledge that we still have work to do to make the Bulletin sustainable. We believe that the recipe for creating sustainability is pursuing more grants and acquiring more subscribers, donors and advertisers. The work continues.
This is an exciting time for the Pikes Peak Bulletin, and we want you with us every step of the way. It is our goal to always engage our readers, subscribers, donors and supporters.
You can be a part of making the Pikes Peak Bulletin successful and sustainable, and there are so many ways to be involved: become a subscriber, help us get the word out, advertise! Join us and help us build an even stronger board.
We can’t do it without you.
