Colorado Community Newspapers is changing its name to Community Media of Colorado.
The name change reflects the company’s greater commitment to its websites and other forms of online media that work in conjunction with its group of 12 community newspapers.
“Newspapers are the foundation of our business, but newspapers aren’t all we do,” said Jim Diaz, president and publisher of CMC. “Our readers and advertisers want content and business solutions that go beyond print products. We’re increasingly focused on digital solutions to meet that demand for them and create new revenue streams for us.”
The newspaper business is in the midst of a tremendous culture shift across the country. Newspapers are continually cutting back on staffing as revenue falls, and many newspapers have abbreviated printing schedules or have folded altogether.
“Journalists have always been defined by the medium in which their work is delivered: newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, etc.” said Jeremy Bangs, CMC’s managing editor. “But now there are so many different types of media out there that allow people to receive information so many different ways, we can’t be defined by our delivery methods anymore.”
What will define CMC, Bangs said, is it commitment to local news.
“Websites are nothing new for us,” said Bangs. “We’ve had them for 15 years at least. But we’ve always thought of ourselves as a newspaper company and that has largely defined the content we’ve put online. We just took the stories we had in the paper and put them on our sites.
“But if you flip that around and start to think of yourself as not simply a newspaper company, a whole world of possibilities open up to you that you never would have imagined otherwise.”
Community Media of Colorado announced two weeks ago that it was consolidating its Littleton and Castle Rock offices into one location in the Meridian Office Park in northern Douglas County.
The company is still owned by ASP Westward, which also owns Houston Community Newspapers and East Texas Community Newspapers.