Two high-profile businessmen and major developers in Colorado Springs have become the new owners of the defunct Indy alternative weekly and its sister publication, the Colorado Springs Business Journal.
Kevin O’Neil and J.W. Roth are behind the effort to revive the troubled free weekly newspaper that had served the Springs for three decades until it ran out of money and shut down in December.
In a Feb. 15 news release, the newly formed Pikes Peak Media stated it would publish 30,000 copies a week “directly mailed to households and placed in traditional distribution racks across the Pikes Peak region.”
(Disclosure: The new owners had approached me about a possible advising role on the project. It didn’t — or hasn’t yet — happened, but I had a few free thoughts for them about the nature of local media ownership, which I’ll mention further below.)
Reporter Debbie Kelley wrote about it in the Gazette:
“Roth is founder, chairman and CEO of Notes Live, a Colorado Springs entertainment company that’s building the 8,000-seat, open-air Sunset Amphitheater on the city’s north side and owns Bourbon Brothers Smokehouse & Tavern restaurants and Boot Barn Hall live music venues.
“O’Neil is founder and CEO of the O’Neil Group, a business and real estate acquisition firm that developed the Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation business park on downtown’s eastern edge and is one of two developers behind a proposal to build a 36-story apartment tower near the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum.”
The revived Independent will remain “left-leaning” as many people view it, Roth said, and add “a platform for a variety of voices” to its repertoire “to foster a healthy diversity.”
The story has a few other notable quirks.
One is that O’Neil, who backed the campaign of the city’s recently elected mayor, Yemi Mobolade, owns the building that houses the Gazette newspaper in downtown Colorado Springs.
Another is that although Roth, who supported Mobolade’s opponent Wayne Williams, is indeed the brain behind the new Sunset Amphitheater in the Springs, he has also brought on the Anschutz Entertainment Group to help. Roth was quoted last summer — in the Indy no less — saying, “anytime you can do business with an Anschutz company, it’s an honor.”
Why might that be notable? A June Gazette story about the new amphitheater came with this disclosure: “AEG is controlled by the Denver-based Anschutz Corp., whose Clarity Media Group owns The Gazette.”
(On a personal note: If both our city’s print newspaper owners are behind this new development project, at least we’re getting the Beach Boys.)
So, why revive the Indy?
“As a 5th Generation Coloradan, I take great pride in providing my hometown with another trusted, civic driven, and relevant publication,” Roth said in a statement. “This opportunity offers the Independent and the Business Journal a chance to thrive under unprecedented stability.”
O’Neil said in a statement included in the same news release that, as a native of the region, he’s invested in many Springs businesses and organizations. The opportunity fits his focus on “building a stronger community where a diverse range of voices are heard,” he said.
A robust media landscape “telling all our stories makes our community better,” he added, “so I am pleased to be in a position to support this effort for Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region.
“We are excited to engage with our unique neighborhoods, industry, arts and culture, academia, nonprofits, civic organizations, and the military to showcase what makes us one of the best places to live and work.”
In a telephone conversation, O’Neil said they don’t yet know how large of a newsroom they’ll create and how much they will rely on other news feeds. He said, though, that investigative reporting would be a priority.
Since the announcement, he said he’d heard positive feedback from the community about bringing back what he described as “historic institutions” in the city.
On social media, reactions were mixed. Several noted the backgrounds of the alt-weekly’s new owners.
“So … the gazette, but smaller,” one said on Facebook. (Personally, I think they want a counterweight to the Gazette.)
“O’Neil is the guy that wants to build the way-too-tall building downtown. Will The Independent write in support of the project because of this or report the real local sentiment on the matter?” asked another.
“What does a prepared food distributor and a private equity guy have in common —apparently, an affinity for (hopefully) independent, local news,” said a third.
“Wow … capitalism at its best … no longer independent and progressive … won’t be turning to the ‘independent’ for anything now … way to ruin it,” was another assessment. Others applauded news that two locals stepped in to revive an important newspaper or opined that critics should relax until there’s a product to evaluate.
Former Indy marketing staffer Tracie Woods was one of the latter.
“There’ll be plenty of time for judging it on its merits,” she said. “We need local independent journalism.”
She added another comment: “They and their folks come from very different backgrounds and need to be given some grace (they are, after all, the folks who have stepped up; any chance we stand to move the Indy forward lies in their hands).”
Adding to the intrigue is what a former Indy staff writer Heidi Beedle, who is now at the progressive nonprofit Colorado Times Recorder site, said upon learning the news.
“Please share the story of how your new owner tormented my wife and bankrupted my family,” Beedle wrote on Twitter/X, along with an unflattering tweet thread offering details about a scenario she said led to “one of the worst years of our lives.”
Public analytics on Twitter/X showed Beedle’s post had gotten more views on Friday than the Gazette’s post about the Indy’s purchase.
Asked about it, O’Neil called the accusation “incomplete” and said it doesn’t represent all the facts. Out of a desire to avoid fanning accusatory flames, he said, “I prefer not to respond on this legal matter.”
Nationally, some recent news stories from coast to coast about wealthy local newspaper owners have highlighted the potential for scrutiny. Whether it was headlines about the billionaire owner of the L.A. Times meddling in coverage of a dog-bite story involving his rich friend, or the wealthy new local owner of the Baltimore Sun clashing with employees over “editorial influence,” it’s clear people care about who owns their local papers and why.
It’s prudent to note that the Indy in its former iteration and ownership wasn’t immune to questions about influence, either. A decade ago, members of the editorial staff were up in arms over an incident that led to a 2,500-word note to readers (and staff) from then-owner John Weiss explaining why he had secretly participated in a political group that sought to embarrass Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn.
Weiss, who founded the Indy more than 30 years ago, said in a phone conversation that he has concerns over potential conflicts involving the new owners, but is willing to give the new paper the benefit of the doubt.
For me, approaching this newsletter edition was trickier than usual.
I had learned about the interest of these potential buyers in the fall but had been in and out of the loop to certain degrees for months.
At times, I wondered if it might have fallen through. I attended a meeting in January and afterward was invited to offer a proposal for a potential advisory role; I sent a memo about the pitfalls of local media ownership and about how local news is a public good.
I’d offered to help try to set up a diverse community advisory board, among other things, but I didn’t hear much after that. The Thursday, Feb. 15, announcement came as a surprise.
So, a late-afternoon Friday, Feb. 16, phone call with O’Neil was a bit awkward on my end. When I broached that part, he said he still considered me a “valuable player” as they work out details.
We’ll see what that means moving forward, and I suppose I need to figure out what I want to do, too. I haven’t taken any money, but I did get a free breakfast.
Regardless, I’d want the ability to write about any potential involvement, whatever it is — even if it’s just breakfast.
The Indy’s former publisher Fran Zankowski, who also publishes Boulder Weekly, will oversee the latest iteration in an interim publishing role and hire the new Indy’s writers. Over the phone on Thursday, he said he hasn’t yet hired staff but planned to post an editor job for around $75,000 to $80,000 and a graphic designer job for $40,000 to $50,000.
“We’re trying to put things together,” he said.
Asked how the Indy’s coverage will handle the inevitable financial conflicts, real and perceived, involving new ownership, Zankowski said he has spoken with the owners about editorial independence and being “hands off” — and has a basic agreement about that. (Asked about editorial independence, O’Neil said, “I think it has to be that way.”)
Whoever the journalists are in the newsroom of this revived paper, Zankowski said they will write what they “need to write.” He said he expects relevant disclosures will be “standard practice” so readers can make up their own minds about coverage and editorial focus.
The proof, he said, will be in the eventual product.
Editor’s note: This column was produced for coloradomedia.substack.com.