Reporter Jennifer Brown with The Colorado Sun joined us to discuss the struggles of in Colorado. Traditional newspapers are vanishing in Colorado and across the country, according to a new done for the .
The analysis found that Colorado has 212 newspapers left. 52 have closed in the last decade, 19 of which have closed just since 2019.
鈥淲hen small towns, especially, lose their paper, there's no one paying attention to the city council, the county commissioners, the school board, all those things that connect and engage a community,鈥� Brown told KUNC.
Publisher Gannett, which owns the , announced in June that it would be in mid August.
鈥淎nd this printing press in Pueblo printed more than 80, weeklies, dailies, magazines - a lot of weekly papers in the southern part of the state, especially,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淎nd the problem is really that the printing is super expensive.鈥�
With the closure of such a major printing press, papers that were already struggling to afford printing services are going to have to pay more and travel farther for them.
The cost increases could cause multiple local papers to give up and close. Meanwhile, they鈥檙e taking their work online, collaborating with other media outlets and applying for grants to keep their services sustainable.
