Local News Solutions brings together people working across local journalism to learn from one another, solve practical problems and build stronger relationships across Colorado.
ABOUT LOCAL NEWS SOLUTIONS
Local News Solutions brings together people working across Colorado’s local-news ecosystem to solve practical problems, learn from one another and build relationships across organizations and roles. It is produced by the Colorado Press Association, Colorado Media Project and COLab, and presented by the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. The partnership reflects the collaboration the gathering advocates: a membership association, a journalism-support and funding organization, and a statewide collaborative bringing their communities together rather than convening them separately. Building on nearly 150 years of CPA conventions, Local News Solutions has grown into a broader gathering that reaches well beyond a traditional press association convention. Journalists, publishers, revenue and audience teams, technologists, educators, funders and community partners work together on journalism, sustainability and the systems that support strong local information.
HOW THE 2026 GATHERING IS ORGANIZED
The 2026 program moves through three linked questions: why local news matters, how it must adapt and who communities need news organizations to become. The arc connects the public purpose of journalism to the practical work of building more useful, resilient and collaborative organizations.
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
These themes are integrated across all sessions, workshops and experiences. You’ll find something relevant no matter your role or the day you attend.
Practical applications of AI, newsroom tools, workflow, ethics and smarter ways of working.
Revenue, audience, product, partnerships, philanthropy and organizational sustainability.
How we strengthen local news together, communicate our value and learn across organizations and roles.
Long-form workshops, hands-on learning and immediately useful techniques you can take home.
This isn’t another conference about the problems in local news. It’s where we come together to solve them. The format follows the problem: keynotes when a shared idea matters, workshops when people need to learn by doing, roundtables and peer exchanges when the expertise is already in the room, and plenty of space for conversations that do not fit neatly on an agenda.
Publishers, editors and managers guiding their organizations forward.
Reporters, producers and editors telling our communities’ stories.
Sales, marketing and audience professionals growing reach and sustainability.
Funders, nonprofits and civic partners strengthening local news ecosystems.
The next generation of news leaders and changemakers.
Bringing together community newspapers, metro dailies, digital-first outlets, public media, nonprofit and ethnic media, universities, students, funders and civic organizations from across Colorado and beyond.
FROM THE CPA CONVENTION TO LOCAL NEWS SOLUTIONS
Since 1878, the Colorado Press Association has brought journalists and publishers together to learn from one another and strengthen the work of local news. As the industry and Colorado’s news ecosystem changed, the convention deliberately broadened. Local News Solutions carries that tradition forward through a partnership of CPA, Colorado Media Project and COLab, bringing nonprofit and public media, digital outlets, funders, educators, technologists, community partners, and people working across revenue and audience into a shared gathering. The history remains part of the foundation, but the event is now organized around the common work required to keep local news useful, trusted and sustainable.
LOCAL NEWS SOLUTIONS 2026
Explore the current program or register for the gathering, Aug. 27–29, 2026.
