Welcome to Tri County Regional News, the first local news outlet built from the ground up for Chaffee, Custer and Fremont counties in the digital age. We call our approach A New Way To News™, and this first post explains what that means and what you can expect from us.
Our promise: accurate, thorough, fair and impartial
Four words guide everything we publish.
- Accurate. We verify before we publish. If we can’t confirm something, we don’t report it as fact. Being right matters more than being first.
- Thorough. We go to the meetings, read the documents and ask the follow-up questions, so you get the whole story and not just the headline.
- Fair. We reach out to the people and organizations a story is about and give them a real chance to respond before we publish.
- Impartial. We report what happened and why it matters. We don’t tell you what to think about it.
Why a new way?
Too much of today’s news has drifted toward sensationalism. Headlines are written to provoke rather than inform. Stories are stretched, slanted or hollowed out to chase clicks. Readers are left angrier but not better informed, and trust in local news has suffered for it.
We intend to be different, and to stand out because of it. You won’t find click-bait here. Our headlines will say what the story shows, nothing more. Hard-hitting reporting doesn’t need to be loud; it needs to be right. When we get something wrong, we’ll fix it promptly and say so at the top of the story.
Hard-hitting reporting doesn’t need to be loud. It needs to be right.
How we use AI, and where people stay in charge
We believe in being open about our tools. We use AI large language models to help with three parts of our work:
- Research. Sorting through public records, meeting agendas and background material so our reporters can focus on asking the right questions.
- Editing. Catching errors, tightening wording and checking that a story is clear and complete.
- Bias checks. Reviewing every story for slanted or loaded language, missing perspectives and any trace of bigotry before it is published.
AI is a tool, not a reporter or an editor. Every final draft is always reviewed by a human before it is published, and people, not software, make the final call on what we report and how.
A place for intelligent discourse
News is better when a community can talk about it. Our subscribers can post comments on every story, and we ask only one thing: be respectful. Disagreement is not just allowed, it’s welcome. Dissenting views that are articulate and made in good faith make all of us sharper, and they will always have a home here.
What we won’t allow are personal attacks, slurs or hateful language. Comments containing offensive or racist words are automatically held for review and won’t be published. Our aim is a conversation you’d be comfortable having with your neighbors, because that’s exactly who you’re talking with.
Free this fall, then funded by readers
During our Fall 2026 Kick Off Season, all access is free. Every story, every county, with nothing behind a paywall. Create a free account and you can react to stories and join the conversation in the comments right away.
After the kick off period, we’ll be inviting readers to become subscribers. Subscriptions will be our main source of funding, and they’ll come with special benefits for the people who make this work possible. Independent journalism costs money: reporters’ time, public-records requests, travel across three counties. We believe the fairest way to pay for it is through the readers it serves.
We also gratefully accept one-time contributions of any amount. Every dollar goes toward gathering and reporting relevant local and regional news.
Advertising, kept in its place
We will accept a limited amount of advertising from businesses in our region. When something is a paid advertisement, it will be clearly labeled so you’ll always know the difference between our reporting and someone else’s message.
Most importantly, no advertiser, subscriber or contributor will ever influence what we cover or how we cover it. Money keeps the lights on; it doesn’t buy a story, soften a story or kill a story. Our focus stays on impartial, objective reporting, full stop.
Join us
This is the beginning. We’re building Tri County Regional News for the people of Chaffee, Custer and Fremont counties, and we’d love for you to be part of it. Create your free account, tell us what you think in the comments, and if you know something we should be looking into, send us a tip. To learn more about our standards, read How We Report.
Hello, world. Welcome to a new way to news.
