Colorado Sun Wins 27 Awards with Limited Budget

$100,000 — that's what The Colorado Sun spends on salaries for a single month. This nonprofit news organization just dominated the Top of the Rockies journalism contest, taking home 27 awards, including 13 first-place wins. The contest covers four states: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

The Colorado Sun's reporting on proposed Medicaid cuts earned the Public Service award — for the second year in a row. John Ingold, Jesse Paul, and Jennifer Brown collaborated on this winning entry. They were up against "extra-large" newsrooms, those with 15 or more staff members.

The awards ceremony took place in Denver, during the annual convention of the Colorado Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The Sun's editor, Dana Cofffield, said these awards show the staff's agility in telling important stories across diverse subjects. Coffield feels proud of the work; and hopes readers appreciate the effort that went into it.

The Sun won more first-place awards than any other news organization in the region. They also won more overall awards than any other Colorado news outlet in the extra-large category. Make no mistake - this is a significant achievement.

The Sun's "Aging in Colorado" series earned a first-place award for Solutions Journalism. This series examines the challenges facing a significant demographic in the nation's third-fastest aging population. Staffers collaborated on this project, including Brown, Tamara Chuang, Brian Eason, Larry Ryckman, Kevin Simpson, and Parker Yamasaki. Larry Ryckman, the publisher, said the real credit goes to their readers and supporters, who make their nonprofit possible. He's proud of the impact their journalism has had on people in Colorado, as acknowledged by their public service and solutions awards. This impact is a direct result of their dedication to telling important stories that resonate with the community.

Jennifer Brown claimed individual first-place honors for her health feature on a traveling oncologist, her arts and entertainment feature on a Five Points jazz festival, and a politics feature on how Medicaid cuts hurt families caring for adult children with disabilities. She also added a third-place award for an agriculture and environment story.

The short version: The Colorado Sun's reporting is having a real impact on the community. Their work on Medicaid cuts and aging in Colorado earned them top honors. Worth watching: how this nonprofit news organization continues to produce high-quality journalism with a relatively small budget.

Read that again: They spend $100,000 on salaries per month. This will cost taxpayers nothing, the organization is a nonprofit, funded by readers and supporters.

In Delta County, where the median household income is around $40,000, a $100,000 monthly salary budget is significant. The ability to produce high-quality journalism with limited resources is a notable achievement. People in the valley should be paying attention to the kind of reporting being done; it's making a real difference in the community.

The editor, Dana Coffield, said the awards show the staff's agility in telling important stories. That's what locals need more of: journalism that matters, that has an impact. The awards are significant because they demonstrate the organization's dedication to its mission. That's what makes the awards so significant.