Left Hand Valley Courier: 25 years in the making

"Late November back in '96...' (to paraphrase an old Four Seasons song - December, 1963), seven of us got together to talk about creating a newspaper in the Niwot-Gunbarrel area. In alphabetical order - Karen Copperberg, Ron Goodman, Selene {Luna) Hall, Lori Lindemann, Mary Wolbach Lopert, Vicki Maurer and Bruce (Biff) Warren.

None of us had any real newspaper experience beyond our high school years. We reached out to several people to see if they were interested in joining us, but in the end, it came down to seven.

"It can't be that hard," we all thought. (Editor's Note: First signs that there was at least one delusional person onboard.)

It was that hard.

It took us until April 1, 1997 to get the first issue put together. We shared one vision - there were a lot of things going on in Niwot and Gunbarrel, involving a lot of amazing people, but the daily newspapers in Boulder County, the Boulder Daily Camera and the Longmont Daily Times-Call, did not pay much attention to us.

Niwot had not really had a newspaper since Doyle Hornbaker closed up the Niwot Tribune in 1958. Gunbarrel had never had a newspaper.

With the advent of computers, we thought we could do this, with everyone working on it on a very part-time basis. We decided to make it a free newspaper, with advertising revenue supporting the distribution of 10,000 copies door to door to homes and businesses.

Selene would sell ads, Mary would serve as editor, Karen would handle circulation, Lori would take photos, Vicki would handle news of record, Ron would draw cartoons, and I would write sports. Some of us had other full-time jobs. We each put in $50 as start-up money and a roll of stamps.

We thought people would be eager to send us their news, that people who wrote articles could write well, that businesses would jump at the chance to pay us for ads, that everyone would love to read the Courier. Not quite how it happened. (Editor's Note: Second sign that there were at least several delusional people onboard.)

We didn't have a brick and mortar office - we met once a week for lunch in the basement of Warren & Carlson law offices. We were virtual before anyone knew what that meant.

We met in Mary's basement once a month to lay out the paper - on her ping-pong table. We found someone, Julia Vandenberg (Chen), who knew how to put it all together on her computer. Because the interconnectivity of the internet wasn't shared by everyone, we delivered articles and ads to her via "sneakernet" by driving the floppy discs, with chocolate if we were late, to her house.

We delivered the papers ourselves, sometimes with help from spouses and children. We (I use the "royal we") even delivered some papers with our kids on rollerblades, clinging to an open trunk of our vehicle, throwing papers onto driveways in neighborhoods with narrow streets.

We did get an angry phone call about that, telling us how unsafe it was ...."Yes ma'am, I'll look into it, and I'll make sure it doesn't happen again". (Editor's Note: Ok, this one isn't delusional, but definitely not within proper child safety laws and standard parenting practices of the 21st century.)

We've had some fun along the way, or we wouldn't be doing this. After the first year, and with the advice of our then ad director Allison Forke, we started celebrating our anniversary with an April Fool's edition, which has produced some memorable spoofs over the years. We talked Bootstrap Brewing into doing a "Free Beer Tomorrow" ad, and most customers saw the humor in it, but one irate individual insisted that it was "tomorrow" and he should get a free beer. (Sorry Steve & Leslie.)

We learned that prairie dogs can almost always generate a response from our readers, whether it's April Fools or a serious article.

Three years in, an experienced newspaper publisher approached with an offer to buy us out for six figures. We were excited about the offer, but after looking into his background, we discovered that he liked to stir up controversy, and never stayed very long in a community. We declined the offer.

After 17 years as a monthly publication, we were approached by a Kansas newspaper that offered to take us weekly, provide more manpower and support, handle the transition, and buy us out after two years. We thought that sounded like a good idea, but we handled it poorly, and we lost many valuable staff members in the process.

Two years of being a weekly paper went by quickly, and at the last minute (actually a bit after the last minute), the Kansas newspaper backed out of the deal. We were left with a weekly paper that was produced in Kansas, with a superb editor, Jesse Murphy, in Kansas and an advertising director, the wonderful Kathy Lafferty, in Kansas. The best part was Murphy and Lafferty left the Kansas newspaper and stayed with us, helping us transition over time to a local editor and ad director. (Editor's Note: Nothing delusional here, We owe a tremendous amount to both these people.)

We survived the Great Recession as well as smaller ones and flourished in prosperous times. We adjusted our delivery area when Silver Creek High School opened and took students west of the Diagonal to Longmont.

Then Covid came knocking. Overnight, stores and restaurants closed, advertising revenue dropped by 75%, and we had to scramble, just as they did, to survive. We became a virtual newspaper, cutting out all printing costs and delivery costs. We went to paid digital subscriptions. We have gradually been able to add one free monthly print edition back in. We're still working on how to get more print copies into the hands of readers.

No one who has ever worked for the Courier has done it for the money. While we are able to cover our costs, and everyone gets paid, we aren't nearly able to pay our staff what they are worth.

Community journalism is in transition. Compare a Daily Camera or Times-Call edition from 25 years ago with today's version. It's significantly different, and not in a good way. High school athletes barely get any coverage in daily papers in Boulder County. Both papers are owned by the same company that owns the Denver Post, so if you read one, you've read them all. They too are struggling to find the right balance to survive in the era of social media.

Our motto is "All Local. All the Time." We have taken pride in building consensus in the Niwot and Gunbarrel communities, rather than trying to stir up controversy. We stay away from national issues except as they have a local connection, such as Gunbarrel resident Neal Gorsuch's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, or a sculpture in Niwot created by a Ukrainian artist.

That doesn't mean we won't cover local controversial issues, such as subdivision road paving, the Niwot business moratorium, or the way the City of Boulder treats its Gunbarrel residents.

Over the years we have added staff, lost staff, and added more staff. We could not do this without them, and they number well over 100 during the last 25 years. Of the original seven, Lori was the first to leave, with growing demands on her time from her family. We lost Ron to cancer several years later. That was hard. Selene became a regional bank manager and her involvement dropped off, though she came back to help for a while after her retirement as we dealt with Covid. Mary and Karen stuck it out for all 25 years, but are now ready to ride off into the sunset. Biff and Vicki, who have also worked together in the law office for over 40 years, will continue.

We truly appreciate our readers, our advertisers, our staff, and all those who have allowed us to serve the Niwot-Gunbarrel community for the last 25 years. Here's to 25 more. (Editor's Note: Here's to the best little paper around.)