If you’ve ever cared about local journalism, or been interested in media, now’s the time to step up to help save a newspaper outlet that’s been around for thirty years.

On March 16, Sixty35 Media announced its layoff of half of the staff in an effort to save the outlet from completely disappearing. You can read about it (and donate) here: https://sixty35media.org/news/sixty35-media-status-faq/

Local journalism matters more than ever as our community grows. It’s critical to preserve diverse perspectives. And it’s vital to be informed. To boot, we’re currently in the middle of an important election with the mayoral seat and four city-council seats opening up.

We need this newspaper to stick around.

What is Sixty35 Media?

For nearing 30 years, the Springs long had the Independent as a FREE alternative weekly, covering arts and culture and providing a different voice than the Gazette. The Indy ran as one paper under the larger Colorado Publishing Group, that also published The Colorado Springs Business Journal, The Pikes Peak Bulletin, and the Southeast Express. It also covered the Military Newspaper Group.

Well, longtime publisher, John Weiss, retired in October, leaving the media outlets with a decision to make moving forward. So, they decided to roll all of those newspapers into one (still FREE): Sixty35 Media. This transition took place at the beginning of this year.

Outside of the television news networks here, The Gazette and Sixty35 are all we’ve got. In a city this large, we need more than The Gazette to bring us our news and to examine our city’s politics.

When we, as citizens, don’t know what’s happening in our city, we suffer. When journalism dies, so does democracy. How can we vote if we don’t know what’s going on? Who’s reporting on the business community? How do we support the arts? And learn what our tax dollars are doing? Who holds our elected officials accountable? Where do we turn to hear the citizen voice? And when you can’t afford a paywall or a subscription, where will you get your news?

Over the next few weeks, Sixty35 will be covering the importance of journalism and why it matters. Follow it here: https://sixty35media.org/