The Colorado Springs Independent (commonly referred to as The Independent or simply The Indy) is a newsweekly that serves the Pikes Peak region of Southern Colorado (El Paso, Teller, and Pueblo counties.) It is Colorado Springs' largest locally owned media company. The paper's articles feature local coverage, investigative reporting, an in-depth local events calendar, and a healthy dose of local humor. The Indy has also received dozens of awards for excellence from the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists as well as the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. It is currently available in more than 910 locations for free. Home delivery is also available. Media Audit (Winter 2011) reports the Indy's readership at 125,000.

History

The Independent was founded in late 1993 by John Weiss and Kathryn C Eastburn. The pair started the paper to provide "...informative, entertaining and thought provoking..." articles. The paper was initially available on Wednesdays locally and was also featured as a supplement to the Thursday edition of the Denver Post. Now the paper is released on Thursdays, can be home delivered along with the Sunday Denver Post and still includes the original local news and opinions but also food, film, music, and culture articles.

In the first year, The Indy's thought provoking articles included some of the following headlines:

• Double Vision: Is Colorado Springs a tale of 2 Cities
• Hot Commodity - No end in sight for higher rents
• Creation of dispute / Evolution of curriculum

Best of Colorado Springs

Annually the Independent publishes the results of a readers poll on a variety of businesses in the Colorado Springs area. The results cover food and drink in one issue with a follow up of services and attractions the following issue.

Location

The Independent's location on 235 S. Nevada is a historic building in downtown Colorado Springs. Its historic name is the United Brethren Church and was built in 1912/1917. It was designed by architect Thomas MacLaren and is built in the Romanesque Revival style. The basement of the building was initially the home of the Tourist Memorial Church in 1912 and when the upper levels were completed in 1917 it became the home of the church was renamed to the United Brethren Church as can be seen on the cornerstone of the building. The building was added on during the 50's and 60's then again recently before being purchased by The Independent.

Starbucks controversy

In December 2007 the Starbucks

Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

 coffee chain, after a single complaint from a customer suggesting the Independent was trashy or lewd, decided to no longer allow the newspaper to be distributed in their stores. This ban was challenged by the publisher of the Independent, John Weiss, but was told in response that the chain has a non-solicitation policy and that they only carry two papers, the New York Times and a local paper (in this case the Colorado Springs Gazette). The Independent said that their readers were very upset by this change and showed this by many letters to the editor. The response to the readers by The Independent was simply that the chain was no longer allowing delivery into their stores. This was similar to a ban by the King Soopers grocery store chain in 1999 but the stores eventually allowed the paper again after repeated complaints to the corporate headquarters by shoppers.

Awards

The Indy has received numerous awards from varying news and journalism agencies. The Colorado Society of Professional Journalist, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the Utne Reader have all given awards to The Independent and for topics ranging from excellent articles to one of the ten best newspapers reporting on local news.