Publisher’s Update: Five Important Updates for the Community
By David Sabados
I hope autumn is treating you well. I don’t like to take space away from the news often, but we’ve had a lot going on and I wanted to take this opportunity to update our readers on a few important, exciting developments.
We’re proud to be part of a resurgence of print media across the country, providing quality local news at no cost to our community. The current dumpster fire at Twitter, a platform many digital outlets rely on for readers that’s now hemorrhaging trust and users, only serves to highlight the importance of print media outlets free of corporate clickbait, the whims of billionaires, and elitist paywalls.
As we enter our fourth year of publishing, we’re looking forward to continuing to bring you unbiased news about our city and community free of charge and directly to your mailbox or local business paper rack.
Better late than outdated
You may have noticed this issue arrived a little later than normal. We had it ready to go with a front page story about NW Denver schools DPS was considering closing — an important and controversial issue in our community. Just before we were set to mail, DPS reversed course and likely took the schools in our area off the chopping block (see page 11 for more on that).
We couldn’t send out a paper with an outdated cover story so, for the 1st time since we started, we had to scrap the run, redo a few parts of this edition, and reprint. It wasn’t the easiest (or cheapest) decision, but it’s more important to be accurate than fast. We hope this edition was worth the wait.
You’re reading an award-winning newspaper!
We’re honored that the Colorado Press Association has again recognized the talent and dedication of our team. The association recently bestowed nine awards on The Denver North Star for our 2021 coverage. I’m especially proud of the variety of awards: from an investigative piece that contributed to the reshaping of a city board, to our in depth election coverage, to heartfelt and at times funny pieces from our columnists, and even an award for our creative and effective advertising of Tennyson Street businesses.
• Best Investigative Story Package – first place “North Denver Couple Denied Zoning Variance to House Disabled Mom: Subjectivity and Bias on Denver’s Board of Adjustment for Zoning Enters Public Spotlight” by Kathryn White
• Best Editorial Special Section – first place “2021 Election Special Section” by Rachel Lorenz, Ernest Gurulé, and David Sabados
• Best Humorous Column Writing – first place “Pumpkin Workouts Aren’t Scary; But are Effective!” by Erika Taylor
• Best Junior Journalist Story – first place “Reflecting on the COVID Class of 2021” by Shaina Walsh
• Best Advertising Campaign – first place: Tennyson Street ads by Melissa Levad- Feeney and Jill Carstens
• Best Business News/Feature Story – first place “Five North Denver Businesses You May Not Know (But Do Now!)” by Kathryn White and David Sabados
• Best Serious Column Writing – second place “The Gray Zone: Make it a Good Visit” by Kathryn White
• Best Sports or Sports Event Story – second place “Youth Baseball Team Looks to Be High School Feeder” by Eric Heinz
• Best Editorial Special Section – second place “The Don’t Panic Gift Guide” by Basha Cohen
Considering our role in the community — as a nonprofit?
When we started The Denver North Star, it was with the goal of bringing community news back to North Denver. While a business was the simplest way to legally incorporate, none of us thought we’d be getting rich doing this (and we were right).
After three years, we’re looking at what our role is and what that means for us as an organization. Across the country, a number of media outlets, especially local ones, are converting to nonprofit status. The change is more than simply a legal conversion though—we also think it reflects the role we strive to have: as a community-centric organization.
Over the next few months, we’ll continue conversations with other outlets about their transition and with the community about the role we hope to continue serving.
$5,000 marching grant and end of year fundraising
For the fourth year in a row, we’ve been selected by the Colorado Media Project to receive a $5,000 year-end matching grant.
To receive it, we just need to raise $5,000 in the month of December. Each year since we’ve started, we have asked the community to donate, and each year you have responded. Thank you.
It costs about a quarter of a million dollars each year to cover the basic expenses of creating The Denver North Star and our bilingual sister publication The G.E.S. Gazette. More than 10% of that comes from community donations.
Our costs, like everyone’s, have risen dramatically: printing has more than doubled and delivery costs have increased nearly that much as well. We aren’t alone and know all small businesses are seeing rising costs. We see our advertisers as community partners — not ATMs — and decided we would be one cost that isn’t increasing for them next year, so our rates are staying the same.
While advertising will continue to be the majority of our funding, your contribution is meaningful to ensuring our longevity. We have set a December fundraising goal of $10,000 from the community and hope you’ll contribute next month. If you prefer to write a check, please use the form on this page to mail your check dated Dec. 1 or later so we can show the strength of our community support. If you prefer to donate online, we’ll have a new, easy to use online contribution option ready at denvernorthstar.com by Dec. 1 as well.
While we are hoping to transition our status, we are not yet a nonprofit so please note that your contribution this year is not tax-deductible, but we hope that will change by next year’s drive. Thank you for your support!
Mailboxes are better than doorsteps, but nothing is perfect
You may have noticed that earlier this year your paper started arriving in your mailbox instead of on your doorstep: we switched from a private delivery service to using the Postal Service. Overall we think it’s been a positive change, and hope you agree.
Mailing papers lets us deliver faster, deliver to more apartments, ADUs, and other hard to reach places, and your paper isn’t accidentally tossed on the lawn by your sprinkler or in the snow. No delivery method is perfect, though, and we are working with our local post offices to identify holes or problems. If you live North of 20th Street and West of I-25 within Denver, you should be receiving the paper each month. If you’ve had any delivery problems these last few months, please email me directly at David@denvernorthstar.com with your address and details so we can work with the local post offices to further improve our delivery in 2023.
Thank you for caring about our community and our community paper!
David Sabados – Publisher
The Denver North Star
The G.E.S. Gazette