Less than a year old, Colorado Confidential has received word that they are the first bloggers to be credentialed by the Colorado Press Association. According to the Craig Daily Press:
The seven bloggers at ColoradoConfidential.com became the first journalists solely dedicated to blogging to be credentialed through the Colorado Press Association. The CPA was founded in 1878 to "promote the interests of daily and weekly newspapers."
CPA Executive Director Ed Otte said the inclusion of ColoradoConfidential.com "reflects changes in the newspaper industry."
The ColoradoConfidential bloggers do original reporting and file news stories many times a day. They report live from the Capitol and are often the first to post breaking news in Colorado.
Flip for more about this news.
Just recently, one of the editors from CoCo, em dash announced here on Kos that the online political news daily had received notice from the Colorado Society of Professional Journalism that they will receive Awards of Excellence in Journalism at a March 30, 2007 banquet. And now this!
More from the Craig Daily Press, my emphasis.
"At the CPA Annual Convention last week, someone asked if bloggers would have any trouble receiving credentials for the Democratic National Convention next year," Otte said. "The answer was no because blogging has become the biggest factor of influence in political reporting."
Since July 2006, when ColoradoConfidential.com launched, the sites' bloggers have produced more than 2,300 original news stories on issues of importance to Colorado. More than 27,000 people have visited the site and the Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists announced last month that ColoradoConfidential has won the first Mark of Excellence Award given to bloggers.
Now, I don’t know how many other states have bloggers that have received professional credentials from their state press association, but this is a big deal here! CoCo is a relative newcomer to Colorado media. It began as a project of the New Journalists Pilot Program that I am told was founded by progressive bloggers for progressive bloggers.
I attended the first training session with a room packed with Colorado bloggers who were trained in journalism ethics and investigative methods of reporting. The CoCo writers are paid professionals, unlike many of us who write as a passion or hobby. The CoCo ‘fellows’ were given the tools they need to succeed with their reporting of Colorado political news of the day. Those tools include a subscription to Lexis/Nexis and a professional editor to direct them with their work. Each of the seven "fellows" have beats that they are assigned to cover. CoCo recently added two or more writers to their blog.
Who they are from the CoCo web.
Colorado Confidential is an independently-produced political news daily featuring original and investigative reporting.
As a coalition of long-time progressive bloggers, freelance writers, and professional journalists our aim is to enhance and expand the political dialogue in the Centennial State. By combining the immediacy of blogging with time-honored journalistic inquiry, Colorado Confidential intends to provide a platform for overlooked stories, policy and campaign analysis, and unique local perspectives on the important issues of the day.
Our contributing writers subscribe to a Code of Ethics and the pursuit of truth-telling, fairness, and accountability.
Congratulations to Jason Bane, Cara DeGette, Wendy Norris, Andrew Oh-Willeke, Kerri Rebresh, Erin Rosa and my NW Colorado partner in Democratic politics, Leslie Robinson. You have done Colorado and the blogging community proud!
And for Denver 2008 Democratic Convention travelers I bring you this Colorado geography/tourism brief:
Craig Daily Press is located in Northwest Colorado in Craig, Moffat County. A hunters paradise and home to some of the best tasting antelope in the country. Also, home of Dinosaur National Monument and the Yampa River which offers some exceptional river rafting.
The Yampa River
And I would be remiss not to mention that CoCo runs on the Soapblox platform
also based in Colorado.