Colorado: Spanish-language weekly debuts Wednesday

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Spanish-language weekly debuts Wednesday

La Tribuna, formerly La Mision, will cover Eagle and Summit counties,
Roaring Fork Valley

Bobby Magill
May 1, 2006

GLENWOOD SPRINGS Change is inevitable, but the editor of the local
Spanish-language newspaper La Mision hopes that change for his readers
will give them a better connection to their community. Beginning
Wednesday, the monthly La Mision will become the weekly La Tribuna. The
new newspaper will cover issues important to Hispanics and Latinos from
Dillon to Grand Junction, said editor Luis Polar. The newspaper will be
published every Wednesday and distribute 9,000 copies in the Colorado and
Roaring Fork rivers valleys, as well as Eagle, Summit and Lake counties.
Polar said the newspaper will fill a critical need in communities on the
Western Slope. Its goal, he said, is to raise the quality of life among
Hispanics and inform them about issues they care about.

We want to make sure we cover all different aspects of life in the region,
he said. We encourage community feedback. La Tribuna will continue its
open-door policy for readers, the way La Mision did since its inception
five years ago. La Mision started in Basalt as a nonprofit grassroots
newspaper that provided a vital form of communication for Spanish speakers
throughout the valley. Just this year, La Mision was bought by Colorado
Mountain News Media, the Gypsum-based subsidiary of Swift Newspapers,
Inc., which publishes the Vail Daily, the Glenwood Springs Post
Independent, the Aspen Times, Summit Daily News and other daily and weekly
newspapers on the Western Slope. The name was changed because we want to
have branding recognition for the Hispanic side of the company. Polar
said. Company executives decided to name its Spanish newspapers La Tribuna
after Swifts successful La Tribuna newspaper in Greeley.

We want to follow in the footsteps of whats been done, Polar said. We want
to be able to do in-depth feature stories to grow into the crux of matters
in our valley, to give a snapshot of whats happening throughout the
region. Edwin Ruis, editor of the award-winning La Tribuna in Greeley,
said readers can expect a high quality publication. We are trying to set
the bar very high, Ruis said. Our readers, they deserve the highest
quality newspaper we can give them. The Greeley paper won six Colorado
Newspaper Association awards and an Associated Press award this year. Ruis
is currently in Glenwood Springs helping Polar launch the Western Slope
edition La Tribuna.

Polar said the new La Tribuna will be operated out of the Glenwood Springs
Post Independent newsroom, with reporters in Glenwood and the Eagle
Valley. La Tribuna will also share resources with Colorado Mountain News
Media's English-language newspapers, he said.


Vail, Colorado