New Deal: Colorado-national consortium buys community papers

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Sun, a Denver-based online news operation created three years ago by journalists who left The Denver Post, has partnered with a national nonprofit to buy 24 community newspapers in a unique venture that seeks to preserve local journalism. The arrangement adds to a growing number of newspapers receiving boosts from nonprofits that are devoted to protecting journalism in the United States where private equity or hedge funds buy up and consolidate financially struggling legacy newspapers. The Sun and The National Trust for Local News announced the private purchase Monday of the family-owned Colorado Community Media, which operates the papers, some of them more than a century old.