Since March, a small team has produced six issues of the Pueblo Star Journal on a bootstrap budget, addressing critical local issues such as water and food scarcity as well as local sports and entertainment. We’ve provided a venue for veteran journalists and college journalism students to be paid for their work. We’re proud of what we’ve been able to create while operating essentially as a volunteer enterprise.
But we need you, Pueblo. If you value what we are bringing to our community, we need your financial support.

The simple fact is without a vibrant, engaged newspaper, communities stagnate socially and economically. This is our election issue, with a cover story that was written pro bono by a 20-year veteran political and governmental affairs reporter. She donated her talents because it is important for you to know more if you’re going to make informed decisions in the upcoming election.

And you’ve shown us you appreciate our work. You pick up your free copies each month and call us for more. You comment on our stories and provide feedback through our website and social media. On day one, you even broke the internet for an afternoon.

We are committed to continuing the great journalistic, educational and community engagement work you have come to expect … but we can’t do it alone. Without an influx of financial support, we’re going to have to take a hard look at our bottom line and make some tough decisions. Do we put this project on ice for a while? Keep going in a way that is financially and physically unsustainable, hoping for the financial tide to turn? Say it was fun while it lasted and move on?

We have been overwhelmed by the support shown by advertisers. However, because we are a nonprofit, the PSJ is limited in how much of our earnings can come from advertising.

Support in the form of donations and sponsorships is critical to keeping the Star Journal going, let alone growing. Our goal of creating a locally owned, independent community newspaper requires the direct financial support of our community.

A dedicated team of veteran journalists and creatives volunteered their time over the past year to make the Pueblo Star Journal a reality. They made original visual art, interviewed dozens of outstanding sources and dedicated countless hours to copywriting, editing, designing, fundraising, marketing and promoting this project.

Just think of the trusted local journalists whose names you have seen in our pages – Juan Espinosa, Chris Woodka, Luke Lyons, Joe Stone, Regan Foster, Amy Matthew, Jayson Peters, Mike Sweeney, Bryan Kelsen, Justin Morenz and Gary Markstein, to name a few. We’ve shared the voices of trusted local officials, including Daneya Esgar, Dr. Brad Roberts and, in this edition, PCC President Patty Erjavec. We’ve also hired and provided the first paid byline for no fewer than six student reporters, columnists and photographers from Colorado State University Pueblo, as well as a recent graduate.

We do this not because it’s glamorous or financially beneficial, but because we believe so strongly in this dream – and because we saw a hole that, for the sake of the city we love and call home, desperately needed to be filled.

We need to hire staff and invest in physical capital if we are going to grow this product the way you have asked us to. Whether it’s $5 or $5 million, any donation you can offer is a miracle to this team and propels the PSJ into 2023. We are fortunate to have the fiscal sponsorship of Pueblo entrepreneur Ryan McWilliams and his nonprofit, Positive Content, to help guide us through this period of giving and to ensure that your gift is tax deductible.

If positive feedback and encouragement could fund a newspaper, we’d never have to worry about finances. We know you love the Star Journal. We love creating it for you and telling Pueblo’s stories.

With your help, we will be able to make the Star Journal a permanent fixture in the community we all treasure.

Click here to donate using PayPal:

Make checks payable to:

Positive Content,
c/o Pueblo Star Journal Fund,
303 S. Santa Fe Ave., Pueblo CO 81003