The Colorado Sun is wrapping up Week 7 with an exciting announcement: We’re growing.
Thanks to a generous grant we just received, The Sun will soon add a reporter dedicated to education coverage. It’s a big vote of confidence in the excellent journalism we are producing, and we’re thrilled to be able to expand our coverage for Colorado readers. We will immediately begin a national search for the best candidate.
The addition of an education reporter will bring our staff up to 11 full-time journalists, along with others who work with us on a part-time basis and an additional network of freelancers who help us tell stories around the state.
The education reporter will cover issues of statewide interest, with a particular emphasis on rural school districts where too many stories often go untold. We admire the work being done by Chalkbeat, a fellow journalism startup that focuses on education stories, but there are many other stories — particularly beyond the Front Range — that are waiting to be discovered and told.
The grant, from Wend Ventures, will fund the reporting over the next two years. Wend is a philanthropic fund that finds projects and removes financial barriers to getting work done. The fund and its managers are uninterested in influencing coverage — and, to be clear, we accepted their money only on the understanding that they would have no say over our journalism.
The goal is simply to provide more coverage of a topic that touches many Coloradans.
Here’s a note for other potential benefactors interested in helping The Colorado Sun: Our donor directly contributed the money to the Poynter Institute, a national nonprofit journalism organization that is passing the funds along to us and will act as a fiscal agent to ensure the money is used to produce education stories. That means large donors can make tax-deductible donations that help us produce great local journalism here in Colorado.
For those interested in the position, please send a cover letter, resume, three recent clips and three professional references to jobs@coloradosun.com. Please include salary requirements. Incomplete applications will not be considered. No phone calls. Include “education reporter” in the subject line.
The Colorado Sun has been growing in another exciting way. In the past week alone, we have added hundreds of new paid members and newsletter subscribers. That’s another huge vote of confidence in us and our mission, and we’re working hard to earn that trust.
As always, if you’d like to support our mission and help us grow, please consider becoming a member at coloradosun.com/join. Every dollar goes to the journalism we produce. Period.
Thanks again, Colorado!