An ongoing series of stories in The Colorado Sun that explored the challenges of aging earned top honors for public service in the 2025 Colorado Better News Media Contest sponsored by the Colorado Press Association — one of 26 awards, including a dozen first-place finishes, collected by The Sun staff at the annual CPA ceremony Saturday night.
Another project with wide staff participation, The Sun’s “What is a river?” — a look at the Arkansas River from its mountain headwaters to the Kansas border — took first place for best series. The Sun also won for best website as well as earning acclaim in a variety of individual story categories. The online outlet, in its eighth year, additionally collected a first-place honor for its signature live event, the annual Colorado SunFest, with its educational Rise & Shine Journalism Workshop for students finishing second.
Jesse Paul, who leads The Sun’s elections reporting team, won special recognition, taking second place in the A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting for his persistent, sensitive reporting on how the mental health challenges of former U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo affected her congressional staffers and, ultimately, her attempt to reclaim her seat in the House. Paul and Taylor Dolven were finalists for the prize for their reporting on statehouse Democrats meeting under the umbrella of the Opportunity Caucus.
“This was a great night for The Sun,” editor Dana Coffield said. “We were honored for the high-quality reporting by individuals, but also for projects that called in people across teams to serve our readers. I’m so proud of all of us.”
The CPA contest judged entries produced in 2025 from member media organizations divided into classes based on story output. The Sun, despite its relatively small staff, competes in the largest group of daily outlets.
The “Aging in Colorado” public service winner, which looked at the challenges facing Colorado, the nation’s third-fastest aging state, from a variety of angles, featured contributions from Jennifer Brown, Tamara Chuang, Brian Eason, Kevin Simpson and Parker Yamasaki, as well as freelancer Robert Davis.
“What is a river?” looked at the Arkansas River from all angles, including environmental, agricultural, recreational and historical with contributions from Lance Benzel, Jason Blevins, Michael Booth, Tracy Ross and Jerd Smith, as well as Brown, Simpson and Yamasaki.
Individually, Brown took first in general feature writing for her piece on a Colorado “death cafe” where participants tackle end-of-life topics and first for her health feature on a traveling oncologist who sees patients across the Eastern Plains.
Reporters Taylor Dolven and Sandra Fish won first-place honors for both data journalism and editorial collaboration for their story looking at the criminal histories — or lack thereof — among people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Colorado and Wyoming. They shared the awards with Andrew Graham, a reporter for WyoFile in Wyoming. Dolven and Fish also won top honors for politics reporting with their breakdown of the 3,500 people ICE arrested in Colorado last year.
Reporters Chuang and Olivia Prentzel teamed up to win first for business feature story with their piece on Colorado’s growing homeowners insurance crisis. Chuang also added a second-place award for business feature for her story explaining fluctuations in Denver’s rent prices, a piece that also took third place in data reporting.
The Sun’s Kevin Jeffers and Dolven took first for best informational graphic for their chart depicting the lawsuits filed by state Attorney General Phil Weiser challenging Trump administration policies. Eric Lubbers joined Jeffers in earning top website recognition for ColoradoSun.com.
Reporter John Ingold took first place for headline writing with this sporting gem: “We asked for your big ideas to fix the Colorado Rockies. You made some great pitches (unlike the Rockies).” But he didn’t stop there. His accompanying story on fans’ suggestions for how to address the Rockies’ woes took second place for sports feature.
Booth showed his headline wit with this third-place finisher: “Colorado lichenologists name discoveries after Indigo Girls and bring science closer to fine.” He also won a second-place award for his environmental reporting on the open space at the site of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant.
Other second-place recognition went to Nancy Lofholm for her agricultural story on the impact of the immigration crackdown on Western Slope farmworkers; to Shannon Mullane for her breaking news story on flooding in southwest Colorado; to Mario Nicolais for serious column writing, where he was joined by Mike Littwin taking third; and to Don Emmert for his touching photo essay on a rancher battling Parkinson’s disease.
More Sun staffers taking third-place honors were Tracy Ross, for her reporting on the tensions between backers of wolf reintroduction and ranchers; Erica Breunlin for her education story on a classroom that teaches pasture-to-table practices; and Ingold for his health feature on fighting cancer with…cancer.
Colorado SunFest, which took top event honors, was headed by Kristina Pritchett, the Sun’s marketing and events specialist. Education reporter Breunlin oversees the annual Rise & Shine Journalism Workshop for Colorado students (click the link for info on this year’s event) that took second.
Among other major news outlets in The Sun’s size classification, The Denver Post racked up 38 awards: 12 firsts, 11 seconds and 15 thirds. The Gazette took 21 overall awards: 10 firsts, seven seconds and four thirds. Colorado Public Radio won 15 awards: five firsts, eight seconds and two thirds.
Although these outlets go head-to-head in many categories of the contest, there are some in which they do not directly compete because of variations in their mission.