Colorado Community Media, which publishes 24 newspapers across the Denver metro area, started 2022 with ambitious goals and a continued focus on providing local news that matters in all of our communities.

CCM came under new ownership last year, bringing on plenty of changes. One of those changes includes me taking on the new role as the South Metro editor, which means managing newspapers in Douglas, Elbert and Arapahoe counties. Overseeing the entire editorial department for CCM is Lisa Schlichtman, who arrives with decades of expertise and knowledge from Steamboat Springs.

For my part, I bring to you a lengthy career specifically in community news. They always say all roads lead to home. For me, that is community journalism. I came back to Colorado six years ago after a nearly 15-year career in Arizona where I was a senior journalist and editor.

After taking somewhat of a career detour for a few years, the road home brought me back to community news with CCM. Many years ago, cowboy poet Baxter Black said local, community news when compared to mainstream media is the difference between homemade bread and Pop-Tarts. I believe that’s not just true in community news but also in our towns and schools.

At the end of the day, it is members of your local town councils and school boards who make decisions that truly impact your day-to-day life. They decide local taxes, laws, public safety and building regulations. While we hear and talk so much about what’s happening in Washington, D.C., it is the elected officials living in your towns that make major decisions.

That is where your local journalists matter most. It is up to the professionals who make up the CCM staff to tell you what your local council members are saying and how they are voting. It is up to us to tell you what is happening inside the board rooms at the local school district. It is up to us to look at a national issue, call local hospitals and ask – “What is happening here?”

Besides telling you about important news that will impact your life, we also want to highlight the good things that make each of our communities special.

In 2022 we want to bring you more from your local community. After two years of COVID dominating the news, taking over the world and causing distress everywhere we look, it feels a bit like the world forgot to celebrate the good news. At CCM, we want to hear the good stories. I encourage you all to share story tips about random acts of kindness, a new business, an elementary school student putting together a community project or just a person or resident who deserves to have their story told.

If you have a story tip about something newsworthy, want to highlight the good in our communities or want to provide some input to what we can do to further improve your local newspaper, write me an email at tgrimes@coloradocommunitymedia.com.