Colorado Daily
Encyclopedia
The Colorado Daily is a newspaper published in Boulder, Colorado
, by Prairie Mountain Publishing Co. LLC
, a unit of MediaNews Group
. The Daily is operated out of the offices of Boulder's Camera newspaper. Originally the student newspaper of the University of Colorado
, the Daily became independent in 1970 and has undergone several ownership changes since 2001, coming under the control of the Camera, its former competitor, when it was purchased by the E.W. Scripps Co.
in 2005. The newspaper and its website, coloradodaily.com, continue to focus much of their coverage on the university.
First published on Sept. 13, 1892, the Daily has been said to be the oldest free daily newspaper
in the U.S. In 2000 and 2001, the newspaper won several national journalism awards for its investigative reporting.
, which had grown displeased with the newspaper's editorial positions, including its opposition to the war in Vietnam
. The newspaper's staff transformed the Daily into an independent, off-campus operation supported by advertising revenue.
Under its new structure, the Daily continued to focus much of its coverage on the university as well as the city of Boulder, Boulder County, and state, national and international affairs. Distributed daily on weekdays as a free newspaper on the CU-Boulder campus and campuses in Denver, Aurora
and Colorado Springs, as well as locations throughout Boulder County, it competed with the Camera for scoops, readership and advertising dollars until 2005.
, an investigation into the budding U.S. missile-defense program, and an expose on a Federal Emergency Management Administration civil-defense plan for use in the event of a nuclear strike in U.S. cities including Boulder. "Articles like these induced Nation
scribe Alexander Cockburn
to declare the Daily the best leftist newspaper in the country," the Denver newspaper Westword
wrote in a 2001 retrospective. The newspaper bolstered its anti-establishment reputation by publishing an "anti-Reagan issue" in 1984 and took left-leaning editorial positions as late as 2000, when it endorsed Green Party nominee Ralph Nader for president.
Lange was replaced as editor by Clint Talbott, who led the newspaper for 14 years until 1998. That year, a series of editorials by Talbott on a rape victim who took her case to trial earned the Daily a Pulitzer Prize
nomination. The Pulitzer judges called Talbott's writing "powerful."
The newspaper won several national awards for its reporting in 1999 on how University of Colorado President John Buechner arranged the hiring of a personal friend, Frances Raudenbush, to head a university-wide initiative. Learning that Raudenbush had been hired through a contract with the CU Foundation, a quasi-independent fund-raising arm of the university, the Daily requested records about her hiring and responsibilities from the university and the foundation but was told the records weren't public. The Daily sued the under the Colorado Open Records Act and gained access to more than 7,000 pages of documents, including Raudenbush's contract, as part of a settlement. The documents and additional reporting by the Daily showed that Raudenbush, who had no academic background, was paid a salary exceeding that of many university administrators and worked out of the president's office, where she spearheaded the "Total Learning Environment" initiative, an effort to re-brand the university and raise funds through corporate partnerships.
Throughout the Daily's months-long investigation, Buechner refused to speak with Daily reporters about Raudenbush, the TLE, or anything else. Members of the university's elected board of regents downplayed the matter and accused the newspaper of shoddy journalism, with one calling the Daily a "supper-market tabloid" [sic]. At one meeting of the regents at the university's Denver campus, two Daily reporters were ejected by university police officers after confronting Buechner and asking him to comment on the matter. The rival Camera newspaper (then called the Daily Camera) published an editorial condemning the university's action, which also prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado
to write a letter of concern to the school, questioning whether it had violated the reporters' First Amendment
rights. The university said the reporters had disrupted the meeting, a contention the Daily denied.
After being repeatedly rebuffed, the Daily took the unusual step of publishing a front-page editorial on Sept. 28, 1999, listing the questions it sought to ask Buechner. Among the questions was one asking him to clarify the nature of his relationship with Raudenbush. In another unconventional move, the Daily prodded Denver's daily newspapers, which had until then largely ignored the controversy, to join its cause. This led to the Rocky Mountain News
publishing an editorial on Oct. 11, 1999, in which it said the "public deserves an explanation" of the Raudenbush matter. Shortly after the Rocky's editorial, on Oct. 13, 1999, Buechner announced he would resign, citing a lack of support from the regents. He denied that the resignation was tied to the Daily's investigation and never answered the newspaper's questions.
A critical state audit of the CU foundation later found that Buechner had also assisted in securing an $875,000 CU Foundation loan to help Richard Byyny, then chancellor of the CU-Boulder campus, buy a house from Raudenbush in 1997.
In 2000, the Daily's investigation was awarded the Scripps Howard Foundation
's Roy W. Howard Award for public service reporting. "The effort embodies what public service by a newspaper is and what persistence it often requires," the judges said in announcing the award. Additional awards were given by the Education Writers Association and the National Newspaper Association. Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) named the Daily's investigation a finalist in its annual contest.
The Daily also won a special citation in 2001 from the Education Writers Association for its reporting on the University of Colorado Medical School's "dog labs," in which medical students killed dogs as part of their studies. The investigation showed the school had obtained its dogs from a controversial animal dealer and examined the ethical arguments surrounding the killing of dogs, as well as the university's expulsion of a medical student for aiding animal-rights activists who were protesting against the labs. The Daily's investigation prompted state lawmakers to debate the use of the dog labs, which were later shut down.
, who returned the paper to profitability. Upon taking ownership, Miller named himself editor, sparking the departure of former editor-in-chief White. The newspaper had an estimated daily circulation of 23,000 copies at the time.
Miller told newsroom employees the newspaper would take a less confrontational approach to the university while focusing intensely on local affairs. The latter marked a shift from the newspaper's recent coverage of protests against free-market globalization including 1999's "Battle in Seattle
" and the 2000 presidential campaign
.
The increased emphasis on local affairs was exemplified by the Daily's edition the day after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Instead of featuring a photo of the burning World Trade Center
towers on its front page, as most newspapers did, the Daily ran a picture of people donating blood at the local Red Cross
branch. Miller's emphasis on the bottom line was also on display as he cut several of the articles reported and written by his own staff in the hours after the attacks, citing a lack of space in the paper. This contrasted with the rival Daily Camera's decision to distribute a free special edition in the afternoon of Sept. 11. In the Colorado Daily's front-page photo the next day, the volunteers donating blood could be seen reading the rival newspaper's extra edition.
On Sept. 26, 2005, Miller announced he was selling the newspaper to the E.W. Scripps Company of Cincinnati, then the owner of the Daily Camera and the Rocky Mountain News. Miller left the newspaper in 2007.
Scripps later shut down the Daily's freestanding office, moving operations to the Camera's headquarters on Pearl Street
in Boulder. Scripps sold the Camera and the Daily to MediaNews Group, which also publishes the Denver Post, in 2009.
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
, by Prairie Mountain Publishing Co. LLC
Prairie Mountain Publishing
The Prairie Mountain Publishing Company is an American publishing company owned by MediaNews Group. Former half owner Scripps left the partnership in 2009.It acquired Lehman Communications in 2011.-Prairie Mountain Publishing newspapers:...
, a unit of MediaNews Group
MediaNews Group
MediaNews Group, based in Denver, Colorado, is one of the largest newspaper companies in the United States. It is privately owned and operates 56 daily newspapers in 12 states, with combined daily and Sunday circulation of approximately 2.4 million and 2.7 million, respectively...
. The Daily is operated out of the offices of Boulder's Camera newspaper. Originally the student newspaper of the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
, the Daily became independent in 1970 and has undergone several ownership changes since 2001, coming under the control of the Camera, its former competitor, when it was purchased by the E.W. Scripps Co.
E. W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American media conglomerate founded by Edward W. Scripps on November 2, 1878. The company is headquartered inside the Scripps Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its corporate motto is "Give light and the people will find their own way."On October 16, 2007, the company...
in 2005. The newspaper and its website, coloradodaily.com, continue to focus much of their coverage on the university.
First published on Sept. 13, 1892, the Daily has been said to be the oldest free daily newspaper
Free daily newspaper
Free daily newspapers are distributed free of charge, either in central places in cities and towns, or with other newspapers. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising.-In the U.S.:...
in the U.S. In 2000 and 2001, the newspaper won several national journalism awards for its investigative reporting.
History 1892-1970
The Daily was originally named The Silver and Gold and was the student newspaper of the University of Colorado from 1892-1970. It was renamed the Colorado Daily in 1953. In 1970, it was shut down by the CU board of regentsRegents of the University of Colorado
Regents of the University of Colorado are the regent directors of the University of Colorado system responsible for the overall university system. It is an elected position with a term of 6 years...
, which had grown displeased with the newspaper's editorial positions, including its opposition to the war in Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. The newspaper's staff transformed the Daily into an independent, off-campus operation supported by advertising revenue.
Under its new structure, the Daily continued to focus much of its coverage on the university as well as the city of Boulder, Boulder County, and state, national and international affairs. Distributed daily on weekdays as a free newspaper on the CU-Boulder campus and campuses in Denver, Aurora
Aurora, Colorado
City of Aurora is a Home Rule Municipality spanning Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties in Colorado. Aurora is an eastern suburb of the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area . The city is the third most populous city in the Colorado and the 56th most populous city in the...
and Colorado Springs, as well as locations throughout Boulder County, it competed with the Camera for scoops, readership and advertising dollars until 2005.
History 1970-1998
The Daily took shape as an independent newspaper under the leadership of Tim Lange, who served as editor from 1970–75 and again from 1980 to 1986. Lange spearheaded coverage including original reporting from the civil war in NicaraguaContras
The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...
, an investigation into the budding U.S. missile-defense program, and an expose on a Federal Emergency Management Administration civil-defense plan for use in the event of a nuclear strike in U.S. cities including Boulder. "Articles like these induced Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
scribe Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Claud Cockburn is an American political journalist. Cockburn was brought up in Ireland but has lived and worked in the United States since 1972. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair, he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch...
to declare the Daily the best leftist newspaper in the country," the Denver newspaper Westword
Westword
Westword is a free alternative weekly newspaper based in Denver, Colorado.Westword was established independently in 1977. In 1983 it was bought by New Times Media. In 2005, New Times acquired Village Voice Media, and changed its name to Village Voice Media...
wrote in a 2001 retrospective. The newspaper bolstered its anti-establishment reputation by publishing an "anti-Reagan issue" in 1984 and took left-leaning editorial positions as late as 2000, when it endorsed Green Party nominee Ralph Nader for president.
Lange was replaced as editor by Clint Talbott, who led the newspaper for 14 years until 1998. That year, a series of editorials by Talbott on a rape victim who took her case to trial earned the Daily a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
nomination. The Pulitzer judges called Talbott's writing "powerful."
Investigative Awards 1999-2001
Pamela White replaced Clint Talbott as editor in 1998. Setting out to return the Daily to its tradition of muckracking exemplified by Lange, she led the Daily to numerous prizes for investigative reporting.The newspaper won several national awards for its reporting in 1999 on how University of Colorado President John Buechner arranged the hiring of a personal friend, Frances Raudenbush, to head a university-wide initiative. Learning that Raudenbush had been hired through a contract with the CU Foundation, a quasi-independent fund-raising arm of the university, the Daily requested records about her hiring and responsibilities from the university and the foundation but was told the records weren't public. The Daily sued the under the Colorado Open Records Act and gained access to more than 7,000 pages of documents, including Raudenbush's contract, as part of a settlement. The documents and additional reporting by the Daily showed that Raudenbush, who had no academic background, was paid a salary exceeding that of many university administrators and worked out of the president's office, where she spearheaded the "Total Learning Environment" initiative, an effort to re-brand the university and raise funds through corporate partnerships.
Throughout the Daily's months-long investigation, Buechner refused to speak with Daily reporters about Raudenbush, the TLE, or anything else. Members of the university's elected board of regents downplayed the matter and accused the newspaper of shoddy journalism, with one calling the Daily a "supper-market tabloid" [sic]. At one meeting of the regents at the university's Denver campus, two Daily reporters were ejected by university police officers after confronting Buechner and asking him to comment on the matter. The rival Camera newspaper (then called the Daily Camera) published an editorial condemning the university's action, which also prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
to write a letter of concern to the school, questioning whether it had violated the reporters' First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
rights. The university said the reporters had disrupted the meeting, a contention the Daily denied.
After being repeatedly rebuffed, the Daily took the unusual step of publishing a front-page editorial on Sept. 28, 1999, listing the questions it sought to ask Buechner. Among the questions was one asking him to clarify the nature of his relationship with Raudenbush. In another unconventional move, the Daily prodded Denver's daily newspapers, which had until then largely ignored the controversy, to join its cause. This led to the Rocky Mountain News
Rocky Mountain News
The Rocky Mountain News was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As of March 2006, the Monday-Friday circulation was 255,427...
publishing an editorial on Oct. 11, 1999, in which it said the "public deserves an explanation" of the Raudenbush matter. Shortly after the Rocky's editorial, on Oct. 13, 1999, Buechner announced he would resign, citing a lack of support from the regents. He denied that the resignation was tied to the Daily's investigation and never answered the newspaper's questions.
A critical state audit of the CU foundation later found that Buechner had also assisted in securing an $875,000 CU Foundation loan to help Richard Byyny, then chancellor of the CU-Boulder campus, buy a house from Raudenbush in 1997.
In 2000, the Daily's investigation was awarded the Scripps Howard Foundation
Scripps Howard Foundation
The Scripps Howard Foundation is the corporate foundation of the E. W. Scripps Company, an American media conglomerate which owns newspapers, television stations, cable television networks, and other media outlets...
's Roy W. Howard Award for public service reporting. "The effort embodies what public service by a newspaper is and what persistence it often requires," the judges said in announcing the award. Additional awards were given by the Education Writers Association and the National Newspaper Association. Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) named the Daily's investigation a finalist in its annual contest.
The Daily also won a special citation in 2001 from the Education Writers Association for its reporting on the University of Colorado Medical School's "dog labs," in which medical students killed dogs as part of their studies. The investigation showed the school had obtained its dogs from a controversial animal dealer and examined the ethical arguments surrounding the killing of dogs, as well as the university's expulsion of a medical student for aiding animal-rights activists who were protesting against the labs. The Daily's investigation prompted state lawmakers to debate the use of the dog labs, which were later shut down.
Ownership and editorial changes since 2001
The Colorado Daily was owned by Front Range Publishing, Inc., an employee-owned company, until 2001, when that company declared bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was triggered by the alleged embezzlement of more than $250,000 by its finance manager, who in 2003 pleaded guilty to a single count of falsifying an income-tax return. The bankrupt newspaper was purchased by Randy Miller, formerly of Lee EnterprisesLee Enterprises
Lee Enterprises is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 54 daily newspapers in 23 states, and more than 300 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by A.W. Lee and is based in Davenport, Iowa....
, who returned the paper to profitability. Upon taking ownership, Miller named himself editor, sparking the departure of former editor-in-chief White. The newspaper had an estimated daily circulation of 23,000 copies at the time.
Miller told newsroom employees the newspaper would take a less confrontational approach to the university while focusing intensely on local affairs. The latter marked a shift from the newspaper's recent coverage of protests against free-market globalization including 1999's "Battle in Seattle
Battle in Seattle
Battle in Seattle is a 2007 film and the directorial debut of actor Stuart Townsend. It is based on the protest activity at the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999...
" and the 2000 presidential campaign
2000 presidential election
The 2000 presidential election may refer to:* Croatian presidential elections, 2000* Federal Republic of Yugoslavia presidential election, 2000* Fijian presidential election, 2000* Ghanaian presidential election, 2000* Polish presidential election, 2000...
.
The increased emphasis on local affairs was exemplified by the Daily's edition the day after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Instead of featuring a photo of the burning World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
towers on its front page, as most newspapers did, the Daily ran a picture of people donating blood at the local Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
branch. Miller's emphasis on the bottom line was also on display as he cut several of the articles reported and written by his own staff in the hours after the attacks, citing a lack of space in the paper. This contrasted with the rival Daily Camera's decision to distribute a free special edition in the afternoon of Sept. 11. In the Colorado Daily's front-page photo the next day, the volunteers donating blood could be seen reading the rival newspaper's extra edition.
On Sept. 26, 2005, Miller announced he was selling the newspaper to the E.W. Scripps Company of Cincinnati, then the owner of the Daily Camera and the Rocky Mountain News. Miller left the newspaper in 2007.
Scripps later shut down the Daily's freestanding office, moving operations to the Camera's headquarters on Pearl Street
Pearl Street Mall
The Pearl Street Mall is a four block pedestrian mall in Boulder, Colorado...
in Boulder. Scripps sold the Camera and the Daily to MediaNews Group, which also publishes the Denver Post, in 2009.