Colorado Springs Independent, an alternative weekly newspaper, indefinitely ceases publication

A weekly alternative newspaper in Colorado Springs is suspending publication and “going dark” amid overwhelming debt, with the hope that it may return in February.

The final issue of the Colorado Springs Independent, known to readers as “The Indy,” will be published Dec. 27, putting an indefinite pause to the weekly that served the state’s second-largest city as an alternative to the city’s daily newspaper for more than three decades. 

“That’s our hope, because that’s all it can be is a hope right now,” Fran Zankowski, the paper’s publisher, told The Colorado Sun on Tuesday. “What happened is, we do not have enough money to pay the staff in January.” 

The entire 14-person staff will be laid off and their final day of work will be Dec. 29, Zankowski said. 

The scrappy, progressive newspaper served as a diverse source of news, appealing to an audience of readers who didn’t see themselves or ideals represented in the conservative views portrayed in the editorials in the daily newspaper, The Gazette. 

“Right now, there’s just a daily newspaper and to have just another voice in the marketplace is essential, especially as a liberal progressive newspaper,” he said. 

Editions of The Indy hit newsstands every Wednesday, providing investigative journalism, restaurant reviews, entertainment news and a popular elections guide. 

Zankowski announced the difficult decision in the Indy’s Dec. 20 edition, explaining to readers that the paper was unable to recover from nearly $400,000 debt accrued after a rebranding effort in March. That month, a round of layoffs slashed the staff in half, he said, and three more people have been laid off since then. 

Zankowski, who has held publisher roles at alternative weeklies across the country for 30 years, was hired in May to help alleviate the financial turmoil. 

But the paper struggled to pay back the debt while continuing operations and “ran out of money” this month, Zankowski said, remembering the Zoom meeting he described as “somber” when he announced the news to staff earlier this month. 

“With great hope, optimism and resilience, our plan is to eliminate our debt, reorganize, and return in February with a financially stable, successful and revitalized publication,”  Zankowski wrote in a farewell note, which he read to a Sun reporter Tuesday. 

The Colorado Springs Business Journal, which was printed as a section in the Indy, will also cease operating, said Zankowski, who is also the journal’s publisher. Both The Indy and CSBJ will keep their websites, but no fresh content will be added.

The Indy “helped shape the trajectory” of the city in the last 30 years, providing a core public service to the community, Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade said after learning about the Indy’s latest setback.

“They have steadfastly provided news and entertainment to residents in all corners of our city and at all income levels, often shining a light on the major issues confronting our community and giving residents the information they need to solve problems and improve their quality of life,” Moboloade said in a written statement. “Democracy is best served by people who are informed, and few do more to that end than professional journalists.”

The paper traced the mayor’s rise as a political newcomer and businessman, reporting how he picked up endorsements from prominent Republicans on his way to beating political veteran and former Secretary of State Wayne Williams.

“The hits just keep coming”

The Indy’s looming demise comes as newspapers across the country are going dark, leaving communities without information they need to make informed choices about their local and state leaders and, and powerful leaders and institutions are not held accountable by watchdog reporters.  

By some counts, the U.S. has lost 2,500 newspapers — including at least 52 in Colorado — since 2005, leaving what has been described as news deserts where people have little or no access to independent news sources on local issues.

“It’s never a good time for a newspaper to close, but it’s particularly painful now as Colorado’s second-largest city is rapidly growing and changing,” Corey Hutchins, co-director of the Colorado College Journalism Institute, said in an email. 

“We have a new mayor and the first one not a Republican in as long as many can probably remember. The area’s media scene is already too thin and the Indy did what alternative weeklies were supposed to do: serve as a counterweight to the local daily newspaper — in this case a publication with an editorial board that endorsed Donald Trump in 2020 and that has a politically active conservative billionaire as an owner who also owns major institutions in the city like the Broadmoor hotel.”

Hutchins, who writes a weekly newsletter about the state’s media industry and has also written for the Indy in the decade he has lived in Colorado Springs, said the paper’s financial struggles track with national trends.

Alternative weeklies have been blinking out in cities for years and the pandemic was particularly brutal for them since the free papers relied heavily on advertising from the service industry and businesses that held in-person events, he said.

It comes as another blow for journalism in southern Colorado, following the closing of the Pueblo Chieftan’s printing plant that sent several newspapers scrambling for a new printer and forced at least one out of business. 

“The hits just keep coming,” Hutchins wrote in the email. “My hope is that this news galvanizes someone with money or ideas to try a new media experiment in a growing American city that could really use it right now.” 

Zankowski was unable to provide an exact amount that would help the paper resume its weekly publication, but said he, too, is holding out hope. 

“In an election year where so much is at stake — not only for Colorado Springs or for Colorado, even for the country — it leaves a gaping hole,” he said.