KCNC Denver, known as CBS News Colorado, has a fresh approach to covering news in the market. The CBS-owned station has gone statewide in its newsgathering, rather than focusing solely on the Denver metro as it had been for decades. That includes the rebranding of CBS4 Denver to CBS News Colorado earlier this year and introduction of the tagline “Covering Colorado First.”
Another piece of the station’s branding is “Your Reporter,” which features reporters embedded in a certain community — living there, or at least nearby, and interacting with newsmakers, building up sources and packaging stories from their corner of the state. A reporter might be embedded in Boulder & Foothills or Adams County or Northern Colorado, among other regions across the state.
Tim Wieland, KCNC president and general manager, said the community journalism game plan was hatched when Wendy McMahon was named president and co-head of CBS News and Stations in 2021. He described her vision as “having reporters who are embedded in their communities, who take the time to understand the issues in those communities and share their stories.”
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When residents know a reporter is based in the community and may be affected by the same issues the resident is, they are more likely to share their own stories, the thinking goes.
CBS News Colorado isn’t about to require reporters to move to a different corner of the state, but if a reporter covering Northern Colorado were to depart, their replacement would inhabit that region.
Reporter Dillon Thomas, who is based in Northern Colorado, said he used to be at the station daily, but it’s more like monthly since the Your Reporter campaign began. “I can run a studio from my car,” he said. “I have a power inverter, my camera gear, editing gear, drones, etc., all in the back of my car at any given time.”
The statewide focus has resulted in a broader range of stories, including some related to agriculture that the station likely would’ve overlooked when it was solely focused on Denver. Reporter Gabriela Vidal, who joined KCNC in July, mentioned a story she did on a farm that was at risk of closing following historic flooding. A few days later, she saw a similar story on the rival stations’ air. “It’s nice to be able to say you had a handle on that first because you were focused on that county first,” she said.
Kristine Strain, VP and news director, said farming is “a very vital part of our economy in this state” that gets minimal coverage.
Strain became news director in 2021, promoted from assistant news director after Wieland, formerly the KCNC news director, was named general manager.
A More Enterprising Approach
Part of the community journalism initiative is the 70/30 strategy that Strain is pushing — 70% of a reporter’s work should be enterprise stuff and 30% generated by the press releases and news events that most everyone covers. “It’s really easy to fall into the trap of looking at what somebody else provided for you today,” she said, calling such content “low-hanging fruit.”
She added: “We’re driving the news agenda. Rather than somebody else leading, we set the agenda.”
Also part of the CBS group, WWJ Detroit, which launched local news earlier this year, has an embedded reporter strategy similar to KCNC’s.
Wieland credits Strain with expanding the focus beyond Denver. “She said, we have to get out of just the city,” he said. “We’re still going to tell the stories of Denver, but we want to be sure we’re telling all the stories.”
Denver is Nielsen’s No. 16 DMA. It’s not the lone DMA in the state. Others include Colorado Springs-Pueblo and Grand Junction-Montrose.
Thomas said he’s the only TV news reporter in his part of Northern Colorado. “We are staying committed to those regions that are exponentially growing,” he said, “while others are retreating from them and focusing more on Denver.”
Ratings Results
Ratings have elevated since KCNC widened its coverage aperture. In September, the station saw 6% year-to-year growth in total viewers at 6 a.m., a 31% gain at 5 p.m., 27% at 6 p.m., and 26% at 6:30. The 25-54 demo saw similar lifts.
Thomas said the Your Reporter campaign has changed the relationship between reporters and viewers, and reporters and sources, such as law enforcement. “They know they have a reporter who is local, who actually cares about the things they’re impacted by,” and one that does not only turn up when the police lights are flashing, he said.
Strain summed up the station philosophy as “giving voice to the voices that are not normally heard.”
