From 2023 until recently, Lyn Ettinger-Harwell (he/they) was the publisher of the Pikes Peak Bulletin. And the board chair. And they did weekly distribution of the print newspaper serving Manitou Springs, Ute Pass, the Westside of Colorado Springs and downtown Colorado Springs. Now, as the Bulletin relaunches as a digital-first news outlet for the region, Lyn still juggles multiple roles as the vice-chair and treasurer, and advisor to the new leadership.
I joined the Bulletin last year and can attest that keeping a small news operation going depends on multiple people being able and willing to jump in and get things done where needed. But no one has put in more time and effort, or been more key to the Bulletin’s revitalization, than Lyn.
On a recent evening, Lyn and I spent some time sitting in their front yard, listening to the chirp of late-summer crickets and talking over their journey with the Bulletin.
In the beginning, Lyn was an avid Bulletin reader.
“It was important to the community,” they said, adding that between the Bulletin and the Colorado Springs Independent (aka the Indy) they could “stay up on what was happening in the area.”
Lyn recalled a few conversations in the summer of 2022 with the Bulletin’s then-publisher Ralph Routon on funding challenges and potential changes at the Bulletin. Then there was a late-2022 public meeting announcing the Bulletin would be folded into a new nonprofit media outlet called Sixty35 Media along with the Indy and several other local publications.
The Bulletin, Lyn learned, would get as many pages of text as it got in advertising – which, Lyn calculated, would equal approximately nothing. There in fact was not much of the Bulletin in the new Sixty35 product. And then in the spring of 2023, Sixty35 rebranded back to the Independent and the Bulletin went dark.
At another meeting shortly after, Lyn looked around the room at the others who had gathered in hopes of finding a way to bring the Bulletin back.
“It was ‘deer in the headlights,’ like, how do you bring a newspaper back?” Lyn remembered.
“And I thought, ‘oh, crap, I probably know how to do that, because I … knew all the players,” Lyn said.
Lyn said they “went to bat” for the Bulletin, negotiated the rights to it and took ownership. They started doing research – lots and lots of research – to figure out the best course of action.
Lyn and their wife Laura put not only time but money into the Bulletin. Then, on Good Friday of 2023, Lyn called Laura, who was out of town, and said, “I’m considering becoming the publisher.”
“And she said ‘you’re crazy,’” Lyn remembered with a chuckle. “And I said ‘probably so.’”
After thoughts, prayers and conversations over the holiday weekend, Lyn stepped into the role of publisher the following week.
“I had no idea what publishing a newspaper was about,” they said. But they were determined to figure it out.
An interim board turned into a nonprofit interim board and Lyn started reaching out to other newspapers, people and institutions around the country who could advise them on running the Bulletin.
Lyn said the new Bulletin put out its first issue in May 2023 “just to let people know we could really print a newspaper,” followed by a second issue in June. The Bulletin started printing weekly in July.
Between being board chair, publisher, and doing distribution, Lyn said they were working 60 hours a week or more. Much of that time was spent fundraising or interfacing with state and national organizations dedicated to strengthening local journalism.
The Bulletin, which had served Manitou since early in the twentieth century, expanded to cover the Westside of Colorado Springs and Ute Pass, as hyperlocal news outlets in those areas (like so many across the nation and world since the rise of the internet) folded.
“I’m on team democracy and team local journalism.” – Lyn Ettinger- Harwell
Lyn hired me in the spring of 2024. The Bulletin started doing deeper stories and more investigative reporting, moving further into Colorado Springs, seeking to report untold stories and find a sustainable business model. The Independent revived – only to close again the following year.
The financial aspect of the Bulletin was consistently difficult, especially with the cost of weekly printing, but Lyn kept going, piecing together funding often just in the nick of time. It remained time consuming and often stressful.
So why did they do it? In short, because of the vital role news outlets play in providing the information people need for democracy to work well.
“I’m on team democracy and team local journalism,” Lyn explained. “I don’t know if I can affect democracy at all on a nation-wide level, but locally I can. And locally the Bulletin can.”
Lyn continued, “People want an alternative source of news … when the Indy went down it was left up to us to do it … That’s part of democracy.”
Lyn’s spiritual path of service
Lyn came to Colorado Springs from working for celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse at Emeril’s Delmonico in New Orleans. A restaurant business associate asked him repeatedly to come work in Colorado Springs and, finally, he did.
Lyn said “personal things” going on in their life at that time had brought them into a crisis of faith – what they describe as a “tantrum” at God.
“This is all Your fault. My life is a mess because of You,” Lyn remembers saying to God.
They believe that in that dark moment, God led them to the Springs Rescue Mission.
“I was literally sitting in my driveway and the next thing I knew I was in the parking lot of the Rescue Mission, and I don’t know how I got there,” Lyn said. They heard God speak to them there, saying, “This is the place.”
Lyn said they told God, “If you’re there, I will give my life to you.”
Smiling, Lyn advised, “Carefully think about what you promise God. Because God will use you.”
Lyn said God took them first to the Mission, where they helped create a culinary program and several other programs, and then in founding the nonprofit pay-what-you-can Seeds Community Cafe. The cafe served high quality food to all, and also trained dozens of persons in the culinary arts and saw them placed in living wage jobs. Lyn said at Seeds they saw “miracle after miracle.”
And yet with all the good works Lyn has been involved with in their life, Lyn said, “Bringing the Bulletin back is one of the most significant things I’ve ever been involved with because it’s so important to the community.”
“We’ve made a great publication … and that’s more than I could ever hope for,” they said.
