Community Media Takes a Community

From 1934-2017, North Denver was served by a family run publication called The North Denver Tribune. When it closed, we all felt the loss of not having a paper that helped foster community. In 2019, a few of us decided to create The Denver North Star to fill that void. For the last four years, we’ve worked to bring our community articles on development and growth, hyper-local politics, arts, culture and more: award winning stories about our neighbors and neighborhoods. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it.

Now we’re at a bit of a crossroads, and we need your help. You likely noticed this issue and other recent ones have been a bit smaller, lighter on content and with fewer ads. These things are related. As businesses face rising costs, one of the first things they cut (but one of the last ones they should) is marketing. Our costs, like everyone’s, have also jumped up. Unlike most small businesses, our revenue largely comes from other small businesses, so we cannot (ethically or practically) raise our rates at a time other small businesses are struggling. I have a different day job and volunteer with the papers in the evenings, weekends and as time allows. We have a small core paid team, but our bigger costs like printing and mailing have seen increases. We’re needing additional revenue and have set a deadline of the end of the year to determine the future of the paper.

If you’re a local business, government agency, organization or someone else with advertising needs, please consider the paper as part of your advertising plan. Visibility in these pages is a fraction the cost of direct mail, more credible than social media and dollars spent locally recirculate in the community.

Increasingly, newspapers are looking to philanthropic giving to supplement other revenue. We’re doing the same. Please consider contributing to your community paper. We’ll have our end of year fundraising drive with a grant match in December, but please consider an extra contribution now. Checks can be mailed to The Denver North Star, PO Box 11584, Denver CO 80211. You can donate online at denvernorthstar.com/support- the-denver-north-star-and-local-journalism (sorry for the bulky interface — we haven’t spent money on upgrading it).

We’re also forming a fundraising committee for the paper to explore other revenue streams. If you’d like to help, or have other ideas for us, please reach out to me at [email protected]. We hope to continue bringing you timely, unbiased news about NW Denver and contributing to creating a sense of community. If that’s important to you as well, we’d appreciate your help.

I’d also like to take a moment to thank Eric Heinz for his service as editor of this paper. Over the last year and a half, he took the reins of the editorial side of the paper (not an easy task to take over for the owner who was doing the job I know), creating and overseeing articles big and small. An East HS grad, he even came to love covering North HS sports. We wish him the best as he’s moving on with his career.

If you’ve read this paper before (and if you’ve made it this far you probably have), our new editor is no stranger. Kathryn White, who has written her beloved Gray Zone column, award-winning pieces on alleged discrimination in city zoning, and more, is taking over the reins starting with the October issue. I know she’s looking forward to talking with you all more directly.

Thank you for caring about our community and our community paper. Again, please reach out if you’d like to be involved in its future.

David Sabados is the publisher of The Denver North Star and its sister publication, the G.E.S. Gazette.

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