Colorado Sun marks sixth anniversary with continued progress, much gratitude 

The Colorado Sun this week celebrates its sixth anniversary and we’re approaching our first as a nonprofit newsroom serving the entire state.

We launched in 2018 with 10 full-time journalists, zero members and a lot of hopes and promises to serve Colorado. Today, we have a staff of more than two dozen, we serve about a million users on our website a month and are supported by more than 13,000 members. We are incredibly proud of what we have built and grateful for the support of so many Coloradans who helped make this possible.

The Sun staff is keeping busy this month:

• On Sept. 27, The Sun will host its second SunFest event, bringing together about 30 speakers and attendees on the University of Denver campus to join in discussion about “A Better Colorado.”
• Two of The Sun’s founders are taking on new responsibilities and job titles this month. Dana Coffield became editor of The Sun, succeeding Larry Ryckman, who has been named publisher.
• In the coming days, our team will be updating the Colorado Sun app — free for iPhones, iPads and Android devices — with better navigation, easier ways to share stories, a spot to listen to our daily podcast and the best reading experience in the state. Download it here and watch for the update!
• The Sun and San Juan Citizens Alliance are hosting a day of Animas River education and stewardship in Durango on Saturday, Sept. 14. Following a panel discussion led by The Sun’s Colorado River reporter Shannon Mullane, there will be a clean-up along the Animas River Trail.

The Sun made national and international headlines even before our launch, when our founders left The Denver Post and announced plans to offer a robust digital alternative to legacy newspapers owned by hedge funds. A grant from a blockchain pioneer provided initial funding for The Sun, but the newsroom quickly developed a reader-supported membership model that has helped inspire other newsrooms around the country. 

Unlike many news outlets, The Sun has never had a paywall, meaning that its stories are free to read. The Sun also shares our journalism with dozens of news organizations around the state. We also share content with Aftersight, a nonprofit dedicated to providing audio access to print information and services for blind or low-vision individuals as well as others who need an alternative to print across Colorado.

A free press is a pillar of a healthy democracy, and we believe that news is a public good. Everyone deserves access to the news and information they need as voters and citizens, whether they can afford to pay for it or not.

The Sun has been widely recognized for quality journalism since our launch, winning 29 awards in the four-state Top of the Rockies journalism contest last spring and 18 awards in the recent Colorado Press Association contest. Our coverage has shed light on important issues over the past six years and in some cases helped to change state laws as a result. 

The Sun made national news again in 2021 when we stepped forward to help preserve two dozen Denver-area weekly newspapers that came up for sale and were in danger of being purchased by a hedge fund. The Sun partnered with the nonprofit National Trust for Local News and acquired the Colorado Community Media chain of newspapers, ensuring that the papers continued to serve their communities. Last year, we donated our shares in the CCM newspapers to the Trust.

Last September, The Sun announced plans to become a nonprofit to better reflect our values and underscore our commitment to Colorado, transitioning from a journalist-owned operation to one, in essence, owned by the community that we serve. In November, the Internal Revenue Service recognized The Sun as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Since then, more than a thousand Coloradans have become donors and joined our community of supporters.

We are thrilled and honored that so many Coloradans have made The Sun their trusted source of statewide news.

Building and maintaining trust are at the core of The Sun’s mission. In the past year, The Sun signed on to The Trust Project, a global transparency standard that demonstrates a news outlet’s commitment to original reporting, accuracy, inclusion and fairness. The Sun also implemented trust indicators that help people know who and what is behind a given news story.

A few months ago, The Sun partnered with the national nonprofit Gigafact to hunt down the truth on viral claims through bite-size fact briefs. We have since published dozens of fact briefs, including:

• Was the recent discovery of 40-pound invasive fish in Colorado the result of a science experiment?
• Did U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert request infrastructure funding from a bill she voted against?
• Is the state flower Columbine illegal to pick in Colorado?

Please let us know if you have suggestions for others you’d like us to chase down. That’s what we’ve done from the very beginning: verify facts, inform and serve Coloradans.

Thanks, Colorado, for another great year.