For more than a century, spanning the city’s 150-year history, Manitou Springs has had a newspaper to call its own.
It was actually the Manitou Springs Daily Journal for decades until 1933, then a weekly for the 90 years since, mostly as the Manitou Springs Journal and Pikes Peak Journal operated by the Graham family, and for the past two decades as the Pikes Peak Bulletin.
Now here we are, starting 2023 with a final edition of the Bulletin before it becomes part of the new Sixty35 magazine debuting next week.
This isn’t the occasion for another history lesson. It’s time now to assess what to expect.
Thanks to now-Mayor John Graham and his ancestors, carrying through to the most recent incarnation as the Bulletin, Manitou Springs leaders and residents have used their newspaper in many ways. It has been an effective tool to keep up with government and business, as well as the best option for communicating quickly with each other.
On a personal level for nearly nine years, since the last ownership change in April 2014, my experience with the Bulletin has covered the full spectrum. It has evolved from hands-on supervision and weekly columns as interim publisher and then executive editor until retirement five years ago, evolving into a different role with other local pursuits.
My appreciation for the Bulletin’s place in the community has grown, as it’s helped spread the word about the merger last year to form Creative Alliance Manitou Springs (CRANE), as well as keeping residents informed about the Manitou Arts, Culture, and Heritage tax initiative and grants process.
It’s been invaluable for CRANE and the MACH board, having the Bulletin as the best conduit for informing Manitou about everything from CRANE’s public art projects to MACH grant applications.
So, you may be wondering, how will that work now? The honest answer is, we don’t know for sure. There is no blueprint.
Sixty35 magazine will be available every week, though not as easy for free pickup as the Bulletin and Independent have been. Your best bet is a mail subscription, and if you’ve been a Bulletin subscriber, the $26 annual rate will be unchanged for 2023.
Inside the new Sixty35 weekly, you’ll find some Manitou Springs content, with additional stories and information online at Sixty35media.org. Once it launches, you’ll be able to customize your use of the website to see what you want — for example, everything related to what you’ve been reading in the Bulletin or the Indy.
Beyond that, it’s simply a work in progress. The new publication will have a section (with a varying number of pages) initially focusing on Manitou as well as Southeast Colorado Springs. As it evolves, the size will depend on advertiser support.
That’s where you’ll find Manitou news, features, columns and other information. But readers also must be ready to utilize Sixty35media.org, because that will be your best and most timely source for content such as arts and entertainment listings and even much of the government, school district and sports coverage.
Our hope is that advertisers will see the value in being part of a publication with far wider distribution, going to readers throughout the area. Sixty35 will be a great way for Manitou to inform the region about upcoming events and pertinent issues.
One thing you need to know: The coverage of City Council meetings, a pillar of the weekly Bulletin, will be changing. Sixty35 will go to press each week on Monday, for distribution on Wednesday, so it cannot include stories about meetings on Tuesday nights.
So City Council stories will have to go online first, then as warranted in the following week’s Sixty35. Thus, the print coverage of city government will aim toward ongoing issues and upcoming events or meetings.
It’s not possible yet to know how the weeks and months ahead will unfold. For those of us involved with such entities as CRANE, Manitou Art Center, Manitou Springs Heritage Center, MACH, the Manni Awards and many more, the priority will be figuring out the best ways to convey messages.
Almost certainly, there will be bumps in the road and changes in the original plan. Patience will be essential for all involved, and everyone should be open to new approaches, especially using the internet in addition to the printed newspaper.
Here’s the bottom-line message: Manitou Springs will continue to have a newspaper, shared with the region, with many of the same journalists you have known from the Bulletin and the Indy, in a much larger package.
It’s not really the end. Just the start of something new.