THORNTON - The 147th Annual Colorado Press Association (CPA) Convention was held over the weekend of August 14 - 16, 2025, with the theme of the three-day event shifting dramatically from focusing on surviving to collaborating and innovating with Local News Solutions 2025: Building Capacity to Meet the Moment. 

“We’ve all read the headlines about the decline of journalism, but we know better,” CPA Board President Linda Shapely wrote in her welcoming letter to attendees. “This year’s convention programming was shaped with your feedback in mind: practical, solutions-focused sessions designed to meet you where you are, whether you’re in a legacy newsroom, a startup, or somewhere in between.” 

“Budget constraints, burnout, polarization, and a rapidly shifting digital landscape are putting unprecedented pressure on local news,” CPA’s CEO Tim Regan-Porter said. “We’ve designed this event to help you work through the real-world challenges that keep you up at night.” 

Trading in some of the typical passive presentations and lecturing for more intimate and focused conversations, the CPA Convention offered lightning talks, solution roundtables, and deep dives, designed to bring peer groups together to brainstorm solutions for challenges shared across all different kinds of newsrooms. 

Lee Ann Colacioppo, Editor with The Denver Post, gave the opening keynote address on the morning of Friday, August 15, setting the tone for the weekend by sharing her experience in a “dying” newsroom, and speaking on how innovation in the face of unending change will keep journalism alive and thriving. 

“I do understand what our business looks like at its worst. In 2018 The Denver Post had large layoffs. Good journalists lost their jobs, and then a couple of dozen more people resigned.

“There were people who predicted that we would be gone in three to five years,” Colacioppo said. 

“We chose to fight back against any and all suggestions that we could not deliver deep, important news. Newsroom leaders had to get people to stop focusing on what had happened and to focus on the future. We had actually been given an opportunity, a chance to create something new.

“Our culture now of support and mutual teamwork came out as a byproduct of going through this tough time together,” Colacioppo concluded. “We built a culture of doing stories that matter while always keeping our readers at the forefront of our minds.” 

In honoring the spirit of innovation, students from the University of Denver presented their projects completed through Colorado News Collaborative’s (COLab) MATCH Lab program. MATCH stands for Media, Academia, Talent Collaborating to Help, and aims to unify newsrooms, classrooms, and boardrooms to better serve their local communities. 

Students spoke about how they used AI, census data, social media, public outreach, fundraising campaigns, and other graphic design and marketing tools to help strengthen The Aurora Sentinel’s presence in their community. 

There were panel discussions on building holistic sustainability in local newsrooms, workshops on rating your newspaper’s design and on creating advertising strategies and campaigns, and hands-on sessions with AI tools. 

And though there was emphasis on building better workplaces and on improving the processes of local journalism, there was also attention brought to how news agencies can build stronger communities and can shine a light on underrepresented groups, especially those currently under threat by the present administration. 

In addition to effective peer group sessions with Ruby Jones, the President and CEO of Empower Media Exchange Co., on how journalists can build trust through providing consistently inclusive reporting, there were also structured talks with those in the press, as well as with Colorado legislators, on the critical importance of representation in the media. 

“There are no stories about black bankers, there are no stories about black physicians, there are only stories of when we’ve committed crimes,” Colorado Representative Jennifer Bacon asserted, explaining to the crowd just how the lack of proper representation translates to difficulty on the legislative floor.

“They look down on us when we talk about crime, and on the solutions that we propose to mitigate crime. We are not listened to because we do not have qualitative stories because they aren’t documented.”  

Following the packed schedule of engaging with peers on the many hard-hitting topics that Colorado newsrooms tackle every day, Partnerships Manager Rachel Pickarski helped shift the convention into a proper awards ceremony when, on Saturday afternoon, she proudly announced this year’s honorary inductees into the Hall of Fame. 

Jeanette Chavez was honored for her work as reporter and editor for the Chicago Sun-Times, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, and the Colorado Springs Sun. She had also served as managing editor with The Denver Post, where she helped lead her team to a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the Columbine High School shootings.

Jerry Healey earned his spot in the Hall of Fame from his work with The Miami Herald and the Providence Journal, and as the former owner of the Macari Healey Publishing Company, through which he acquired—and helped to make profitable—the Littleton Times, the Littleton Independent, Highlands Ranch Herald, and Englewood Herald. 

Steve Zansberg was honored for his work as Board President of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and for his service as a civil litigation attorney who utilizes his expertise in First Amendment and media law to represent the CPA and local newspapers in legal matters and defend them from claims of libel or defamation. 

The CPA Member Rising Star Award went to Jace DiCola of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel; the First Amendment Award was presented to Seth Klamann of The Denver Post; and Don Ireland of Gilpin County’s Weekly Register-Call—which earned a total of 10 awards from the CPA—was awarded the CPA Member News Leader Award. 

There were also three writers highlighted with the A-Mark Prize for Responsive Journalism, which the CPA awarded to those who provided impactful, “community-driven reporting across all Colorado News media.” 

Reporters Noam Levey and Rae Ellen Bichell of KFF Health News, John Ingold of The Colorado Sun, Chris Vanderveen of 9News, and Sara Wilson and Lindsey Toomer of Colorado Newsline, along with Editors Tina Griego from COLab, Matt Volz of KFF Health News, Quentin Young of Colorado Newsline, and The Colorado Sun and 9News newsrooms were awarded third-place for their work on “Diagnosis: Debt Colorado,” which investigated medical debt across the state. 

Kaya Williams of Aspen Public Radio and Aspen Journalism won second place for their piece “In a ‘Sacred Valley’ Community Partners Seek to Preserve the Legacy of St. Benedict’s.” And Shelly Bradbury and Sam Tabachnik of The Denver Post won first place for “Reporting on Municipal Courts in Pueblo and Around the State.”  

For the Better News Contest, which awards excellence in journalism for 2024, The Mountain-Ear won a total of 42 awards, including Excellence in Editorial, Excellence in Advertising, Excellence in Photo and Design, and Excellence in Mixed Media, and the 2024 Award for General Excellence.

 Of the 37 additional awards given to 18 individuals on The Mountain-Ear team, there were 22 total first place awards, spanning categories such as Best Humorous Column, Best Headline, Best Agriculture Story, Best Junior Journalist Story, Best Politics Reporting, Best News Story, Best Public Service Project, Best Social Justice or Equity Reporting, Best Website, Best Page Design, Best Newsletter, Best Advertising Campaign, and Best Photography Portfolio.