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On April 25, Westword staffers Kristen Fiore and Hannah Metzger, as well as Westword founder/editor Patricia Calhoun, collected first-place awards at the Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies awards ceremony, which honored work by journalists in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming.
And readers like you, who support our newsroom, really share in those awards.
The next day, Westword concluded our spring membership campaign. While we came in just short of our $20,000 goal — we raised $18,683 — we still felt like winners, thanks to you.
Since Westword was founded almost fifty years ago as Denver’s alt-weekly, it’s always been free… but that doesn’t mean producing quality journalism comes cheap. And now, when we’re publishing 24/7 online as well as weekly in print, with no paywall and free copies of the paper all over town, we rely on your support more than ever. Every dollar helps fund journalism that serves our community and advances our mission to connect readers with the realities of life in Denver.
Judging from contributors’ comments, we’re succeeding in that mission.
“Westword is one of the best things about this town,” says one.
“I enjoy the writing and keeping up with what is happening in my city,” says another.
While this latest campaign didn’t quite hit the target, it attracted 452 contributors, including 103 new contributors — and that’s certainly a winning number.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll share more information about our award-winning reporting and its impact, culled from a recent reader survey. But we’re already honored by your support and faith in our product.
Still want to make a contribution? You can do so here.
In the meantime, you can read Kristen Fiore’s award-winning feature story, “Fighting Fire With Ire,” as well as Hannah Metzger’s first-place winner, her profile of Michael Fields, the Republican “Governor” of Colorado.
All of my Wake-Up Call columns are available in this archive. They’re all free to read, of course… and we have our members to thank for that.
