STATE BILL COLORADO
Law Week Colorado and its sister news service, State Bill Colorado, were honored Saturday by the Colorado Press Association with awards for public service and news coverage.
The public service award, second place, was for “The Capitol Game.” The two-part series focused, in part, on technological and practical inconveniences at Colorado’s capitol that reduce citizen participation and make it harder for Coloradans to understand the legislative process. A second installment focused on how partisan capitol press offices sought to compensate for a decline in traditional media coverage by creating new outlets for distributing press releases. The series’ reporters were Neela Eyunni, Peter Rossi, David Accommazzo, Caddie Nath and Courtney Sparks. The stories were edited by Don Knox, State Bill and Law Week editor, and Cara DeGette, former Law Week managing editor.
Knox received the news-story award, third place, for his “A License To Conceal? Colorado DMV Takes Squishy Stance On Vulgarities.” The story examined Colorado’s inconsistent application of “personalization standards” on vanity license plates issued by the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The story appeared simultaneously in Law Week Colorado and on State Bill Colorado. The data were obtained by the news organizations through a request made under the Colorado Open Records Act, or CORA.
The stories were judged in the press association’s category for Class II weekly newspapers.

By Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO
DENVER — A committee of journalists that meets secretly to advise top legislative leaders on which journalists should be allowed floor access at Colorado’s Capitol has favorably recommended The Colorado Independent.
The Independent, an online news project of the left-leaning Washington, D.C.-based Center for Independent Media, is believed to be the first electronic reporting site not tied to a print publication to win the association’s recommendation. Others that had close ties to Denver-based reporters and editors were certified.
However, the CCPA didn’t encourage full membership for The Independent. Instead, it recommended a “provisional credential” lasting one year. Such provisional credentials were never addressed in the association’s rules or bylaws, nor are they discussed on the General Assembly’s Web site.
It wasn’t immediately known whether Senate President Brandon Shaffer or House Speaker Terrance Carroll had granted the credentials. In virtually all cases, however, current and former legislative leaders have rubber-stamped the CCPA’s work since the association’s creation in 2007.

Closed-door meetings
The Independent’s editor, John Tomasic, confirmed in an e-mail to State Bill Colorado that the committee made its decision behind closed doors and that The Independent’s editors and reporters weren’t in attendance.
Tomasic said the online news organization thanks the committee for its confidence.
“We see it as recognition of the hard work we have put in over the last three years covering Colorado policy and politics,” Tomasic told State Bill. “We see it as an acknowledgment of our I hope notable redoubled dedication to deliver information to readers necessary to improve public life and to fill the news hole opened up in Capitol coverage by the changing media landscape. We see the capitol credential as part of a new productive phase for the site. We look forward to making good on the committee’s confidence.”
Tomasic called the provisional credential “a selling point, I think” to anyone who might be concerned about giving new media privileges enjoyed for decades by old media: print, TV, radio.
Asked whether the provisional credential was redundant, since any press credential can be pulled at any time by the House speaker or the Senate president, Tomasic said, “Probably. But for (the above) reason and others, I have no complaints.”
The CCPA has recommended credentials for two sites — INDenverTimes and Rocky Mountain Independent — that were created by former reporters of the defunct Rocky Mountain News. Another electronic site that garnered credentials, PolitickerCO.com, was owned by the company that publishes The New York Observer. A fourth side, Education News Colorado, won full credentials: Its staff includes former Denver Post journalist Todd Engdahl.
Proving the dynamism of today’s media market, the Rocky Mountain Independent and PolitickerCO.com are now shuttered. And INDenverTimes no longer pursues on-site coverage of the Capitol.

A turning point?
The association’s decision in The Colorado Independent’s case is a shift from 2008.
Back then, the CCPA’s five-member “standing committee” recommended against approval for the organization, then called Colorado Confidential.
At the time, Joe Hanel, one of the committee members and a reporter for The Durango Herald, cited three foundations who donated money to Colorado Confidential’s nonprofit umbrella organization – the Washington-based Center for Independent Media – as the deciding factors, Colorado Confidential reported then. Those organizations cited were the Gill Foundation, the Service Employees International Union and the Open Society Institute. The foundations often provide funding to progressive causes and candidates.
Neither Hanel, who still sits on the CCPA standing committee, nor the association itself responded to questions from State Bill Colorado about its decision this year to recommend a provisional credential for the The Colorado Independent.
State Bill Colorado, which is not credentialed and did not apply for Capitol credentials this year, has previously reported that the CCPA’s secret meetings are unusual for state-sanctioned bodies that advise top government leaders. Besides Hanel, the current members of the standing committee are Charles Ashby of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel; Bente Birkeland of Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a consortium of public radio stations; Adam Schrager of KUSA-TV; and Eli Stokols of both KDVR-TV and KWGN-TV.
The standing committee, unlike similar organizations operating at the U.S. Congress, is self-perpetuating and doesn’t stand for elections.

By Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO
Now we know why The Denver Post’s PoliticsWest.com website was a virtual ghost town over the past two months.
Denver’s largest newspaper has walked away from its politically themed website, originally undertaken by former Business Editor Stephen Keating. After Keating left the paper last year, PoliticsWest.com became less immediate and less creative, and its already thin traffic trailed so badly that a blog site, ColoradoPols.com, crowed that it had more Web visitors.
So now The Post gives its readers The Spot, which, unlike PoliticsWest, isn’t a standalone site — so there’ll be no more woeful traffic comparisons with Pols, or any other site (State Bill Colorado among them).
What is this new site? In the words of the site’s editors …

The aim is to create a single site for people from all over the world to keep up with public affairs in Colorado and nationally.

Think of it as a high-tech version of the Justice League of America. Superman was great on his own. And so was Batman and Wonder Woman. But when they joined forces, they were unbeatable. We know you’ll continue to visit those partisan, Legion of Doom websites, but we hope you’ll come back and visit us when you’re looking for a little truth, justice and the American way.

Ugh.
The first 48 hours of The Spot haven’t exactly produced groundbreaking political journalism — more like sappy snippets of legislative insider-isms proferred by Lynn Bartels (she filed eight such dispatches before 2 p.m. today.) One of those was a reminder that the annual legislative feed-fest, the Colorado Restaurant Association reception, “points out how valueable (sic) the industry is to Colorado’s economy.”
She adds: “Not to sound like Penny Parker here, but the crab cakes are to die for.”
Perhaps The Post’s editors will become more creative in the coming weeks, taking advantage of video, audio and analytical tools that are being embraced by emerging news orgs. Until then, readers will have to decide whether this is The Spot for them.

The Denver Post will no longer host its “Gang of Four” Politics West commentary blog. The gang included self-styled libertarian Ross Kaminsky, former Colorado senate president John Andrews, progressive pundit and writer David Sirota and progressive activist, campaign worker and self-described “muckraker” Nancy Watzman, The Colorado Independent reports.

By Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO
A panel of journalists that plays a crucial role in deciding which reporters get face-to-face access to legislators on the floor of the state Capitol is again gearing up for business — and causing controversy.
The standing committee of the Colorado Capitol Press Association has met once so far this legislative cycle, committee member Joe Hanel of The Durango Herald confirmed Tuesday. And as in previous years, the CCPA’s standing committee convened behind closed doors.
The CCPA’s preference for secret meetings isn’t just rare for journalistic organizations, which normally press for governmental transparency. It’s the exception for official bodies advising public figures in Colorado’s executive and legislative branches, a recent State Bill investigation determined.
Hanel disclosed that at its first meeting for the 2010 session, which begins Jan. 13, the standing committee approved credentials for reporters at newspapers including the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Statesman and The Pueblo Chieftain.
Asked why the panel chooses to meet privately, Hanel turned and walked away without saying a word.
The standing committee — dominated by traditional journalists including newspaper, TV and radio reporters, — has been criticized by other journalists, including the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, for essentially preventing face-to-face floor coverage by so-called “new media” organizations, including State Bill Colorado.
The CCPA has said that it makes only recommendations. Nevertheless, its decisions are almost always accepted by the legislature’s highest leadership.
The five-member CCPA was created in late 2007 by then-Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and then-House Speaker Andrew Romanoff to issue credentials to journalists with an eye toward ensuring that journalists weren’t lobbying or otherwise inappropriately influencing public policy. Current House Speaker Terrance Carroll and Senate President Brandon Shaffer, both Democrats, have so far left the credentialing panel in place.
Besides Hanel, the current members of the standing committee are Charles Ashby of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel; Bente Birkeland of Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a consortium of public radio stations; Adam Schrager of KUSA-TV; and Eli Stokols of both KDVR-TV and KWGN-TV.
The standing committee, unlike similar organizations operating at the U.S. Congress, is self-appointing and doesn’t stand for elections.

STATE BILL COLORADO
The Colorado Statesman, the state’s political weekly newspaper, has hired veteran writer and editor Scot Kersgaard as its managing editor.
Kersgaard had his first byline in today’s paper.
Kersgaard may be best known as a former press secretary to former U.S. Sen. Tim Wirth, D-Colo. His bio also includes time spent as director of public relations for a Fortune 400 high-tech firm and experience as a newspaper owner, editor and reporter.
For the past 10 years, Kersgaard worked as a freelance writer/editor/PR person and as a real estate agent. His freelance clients included Ford, GE, IBM and Microsoft.
Kersgaard hails from Sun Valley, Idaho. He moved to Vail in 1987, and then to Denver in 1990.
The Statesman bills itself as Colorado’s weekly nonpartisan political newspaper. It was founded in 1898 and is owned and edited by Jody Hope Strogoff.

STATE BILL COLORADO
Former Denver Post and Associated Press reporter George Merritt is working in Gov. Bill Ritter’s communications office.
Ritter made the announcement at a noon backgrounder for the media at The Denver Press Club. Merritt, who most recently worked at municipal lobbying firm CRL Associates Inc., told State Bill that his new job started this morning.
He’ll work under Ritter’s press secretary (and former Post city editor) Evan Dreyer.
While at The Post, Merritt covered Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and the City of Denver through the A-I initiative, the Preschool Matters initiative, the mayor’s re-election campaign and Denver’s push for the Democratic National Convention, according to his CRL bio. He began his journalism career reporting on local governments in Arapahoe and Boulder counties for The Post.
Merritt holds a bachelor’s degree in News/Editorial from the University of Colorado’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

By Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO
DENVER — An advisory committee that screens journalists for access to legislators at Colorado’s Capitol has met secretly since 2008 to make formal recommendations to the House speaker and the Senate president.
Unlike at least one dozen other committees advising either the legislature or the governor, or both, meetings of the standing committee of the Colorado Capitol Press Association are not open to the public. They also are not tape recorded. Minutes of the meetings, if taken, have never been released. It’s not publicly known how many times the five-person committee has met.
The CCPA, whose recommendations have proven key to deciding which journalists get House and Senate floor access and which do not, was authorized in late 2007 by then-Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and then-House Speaker Andrew Romanoff. Though the advisory committee purports to represent members of the media, its members are not elected by the media, as are members of similar committees that operate at the U.S. Congress.
A dozen similar Colorado advisory committees with Web sites were recently reviewed by State Bill Colorado. The Denver-based news service found that, in all other cases, committee meetings were announced in advance and were open to the public. Many of the committees publicly posted to the Internet their meeting agendas, and a majority posted summaries of what transpired at those meetings.
Several attempts last week by State Bill to reach the CCPA standing committee were unsuccessful.

E-mail notification
The CCPA standing committee recently sent a mass e-mail to Colorado journalists indicating it would once again be conducting journalist and photojournalist reviews for the 2010 Colorado General Assembly. The session begins Jan. 13.
“Greetings from the state Capitol,” the Nov. 30 e-mail read. “This email is a reminder that again this year, reporters and photographers will need a press credential to get access to the floors of the House of Representatives and state Senate. … Credentials are issued by the Speaker of the House and Senate President, who look to the CCPA for recommendations.”
The e-mail, reprinted below, does not state how the CCPA will conduct its journalist reviews for the 2010 session. In previous years, some applicants were summarily denied. Others were asked to appear to answer questions from standing committee members.
All meetings were conducted behind closed doors.
When it makes its recommendations, the committee typically checks a box on the application that says the applicant doesn’t meet required standards, though it does not identify the specific problem, or problems, with the application.

Journalists with bona fides
At the time they created the CCPA, the top leaders of the Senate and House indicated that they wanted to keep lobbyists and partisans from masquerading as journalists to gain floor access.
The CCPA advises that applicants “must not be engaged in any lobbying or advocacy, advertising, publicity or promotion work for any individual, political party or movement, corporation, organization, or agency of the U.S. or Colorado government, or in prosecuting any claim before the General Assembly or Colorado government.”
The legislative leaders who created the CCPA also feared that bloggers would descend on the Capitol, snatching floor seats ordinarily used by traditional media representatives from print, TV and radio.
In fact, only a few bloggers have applied for access. None were recommended for credentials.
The CCPA standing committee is composed entirely of members of the traditional media. The current members are Charles Ashby of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel; Bente Birkeland of Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a consortium of public radio stations; Joe Hanel of The Durango Herald; Adam Schrager of KUSA-TV; and Eli Stokols of both KDVR-TV and KWGN-TV.
The journalists’ arrangement hasn’t come without criticism. A number of prominent journalists, including Bob Moore, the editor of The Coloradoan in Fort Collins, and the board of directors of the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society Professional Journalists, have questioned the need for and wisdom of journalist credentialing. A decision by the committee to recommend against giving credentials to Denver’s homeless newspaper, The Denver Voice, was ignored by then-Senate President Peter Groff, who granted access.
State Bill Colorado, which publishes electronically at www.statebill.com, was not recommended for credentials by the CCPA. A sister publication, Law Week Colorado, was recommended for credentials. Unlike State Bill, Law Week publishes both online and as a print weekly newspaper (a format that may be more familiar to traditional readers).

Open, by comparison
State Bill’s review of other government panels looked at panels with “advisory” in their titles. The committees surveyed by State Bill also had Web sites.
A dozen examples were found. They are the Colorado Capitol Building Advisory Committee, the Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission, the Community Corrections Advisory Council, the Emergency Medical and Trauma Services Advisory Council, the Forestry Advisory Board, the Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Advisory Council, the Colorado Municipal Bond Supervision Advisory Board, the Governor’s Advisory Council for Persons With Disabilities, the Pollution Prevention Advisory Board and the Radiation Advisory Committee.
Of the dozen, all indicated meeting times and locations on their Web sites. When it came to posting meeting agendas, all but one did: the Forestry Advisory Board. And 75 percent — nine of 12 — posted summaries of their meetings.
The three that did not were the Forestry Advisory Board, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Advisory Council and the Colorado Municipal Bond Supervision Advisory Board.
At least one of the councils, the Colorado Capitol Building Advisory Committee, makes publicly available recordings of its committee meetings.
None of the councils had streaming recordings of their meetings posted to their Web sites.
The findings of State Bill’s survey are published at the top of this story.

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By Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO
The Colorado Springs Gazette next month will join the list of Colorado newspapers that won’t have a full-time reporter working at Colorado’s Capitol.
The Gazette’s political reporter, Dean Toda, recently departed the newspaper as part of a round of layoffs that cost the jobs of 10 percent of newsroom staffers, Managing Editor Larry Ryckman said. Tom Roeder, who covers the military beat for the newspaper, will take over political reporting duties, but he will do so largely from Colorado Springs.
“We’re focused a lot more on home and not on the statehouse,” Ryckman said. “Our strategy is more focused on how this region is affected by what’s going on at the statehouse.”
The Gazette also doesn’t plan to have a legislative intern as it has in years past, but it will retain its furnished office space at the Capitol, which is provided free of charge by the General Assembly to selected accredited media organizations. Ryckman said the newspaper would use the space, although sparingly.
The Gazette will supplement its political coverage with reports from The Denver Post, with which the Colorado Springs newspaper has a content-sharing agreement, and from the Associated Press, which employs a full-time Capitol reporter, Steven K. Paulson.
In that respect, the Gazette is like a number of other newspapers that have dropped a Capitol presence, including the Fort Collins Coloradoan, the Longmont Times-Call and sister newspaper the Canon City Daily Record, and The Greeley Tribune. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel didn’t have a legislative reporter for the second half of the 2009 General Assembly, but it recently hired Charles Ashby, who was laid off from The Pueblo Chieftain, to cover the 2010 session. The Chieftain’s 2010 coverage plans weren’t immediately known. Two reporters were affected when the Rocky Mountain News closed Feb. 27, but both reporters were quickly hired by competing news organizations.
Newspapers have dropped Capitol staffing as well as other types of news coverage in the wake of the economic downturn and increased competition for advertising dollars from Internet publishers.
Reporters aren’t the only ones affected. Ryckman disclosed that his job also is being discontinued, effective at year’s end.
“It’s certainly not business as usual. These are unchartered waters,” he said, noting that the Gazette’s parent company, Freedom Communications, likely will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization owned by its creditors, a consortium of banks.

STATE BILL COLORADO
Here’s a rundown on how northern and eastern Colorado news organizations covered a legislative tour by Senate President Brandon Shaffer and Senate Majority Leader John Morse.

Sterling Journal-Advocate: Keys to this year’s session, Shaffer said, include addressing the budget cycle, making changes to the state employee retirement fund (PERA) to ensure its viability, and dealing with hot topics like education, health care and economic development.
Fort Morgan Times: Until now the state has pretty much been able to safeguard K-12 funding, but as revenue figures fall legislators will have to look at cutting school funding, Shaffer said. The state cannot afford to ignore that large 42 percent of the budget pie anymore, even though some of the necessary cuts in other areas have already been done.
Longmont Times-Call: In next year’s legislative session, Colorado Senate Democrats plan to push measures “to create a 21st-century work force and to create jobs,” Senate President Brandon Shaffer said Monday. That will include focusing on the preschool-through-graduate school system’s role in providing Coloradans with the skills and education they’ll need to fill those jobs.
The Greeley Tribune: Budget issues will be at the top of the list when the 2010 session convenes in January. Shaffer said he learned early on in his political career that cutting from one area will not work, but instead the 2010 session will focus on different areas and cut from every aspect of the state budget “but do it in a very deliberate, smart way. That’s what has to be done.”