About Boulder Reporting Lab

Boulder Reporting Lab

Boulder Reporting Lab is a nonprofit newsroom covering Boulder, Colorado, founded in late 2021 by veteran journalist Stacy Feldman. Launched over Thanksgiving weekend in 2021 to fill what Feldman described as a gap in "Boulder-local, public interest, modern daily journalism," the Lab has become a vital source of original reporting for a community whose legacy newspaper had been hollowed out by hedge-fund ownership. Feldman — who previously co-founded the Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit newsroom Inside Climate News and served as its executive editor — developed the plans for the Lab during a fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder. In just a few years, the small newsroom has distinguished itself with wall-to-wall coverage of crises including the Marshall Fire and a 2025 antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, earning national attention as a model for how nonprofit local journalism can serve a community the commercial press has abandoned.

Founding and Stacy Feldman

Stacy Feldman founded Boulder Reporting Lab in late 2021, launching the site over Thanksgiving weekend. It was her second time founding a news organization: in 2007, she had co-founded Inside Climate News, an early single-subject nonprofit newsroom focused on the climate crisis that went on to win a Pulitzer Prize, where she served as executive editor. Feldman developed her plans for the Boulder newsroom during a fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder, embedding herself in the community she intended to cover. As she told the Nieman Journalism Lab, doing local journalism in the place where she lives was a new experience after a career in national and subject-matter reporting — "rewarding in a way that I never would have, frankly, even imagined." The Lab's name was deliberate: "We launched with the word 'reporting' in our name because we're addressing this news crisis in our community by adding original reporting through a nonprofit newsroom," Feldman said.

The News Crisis in Boulder

Boulder Reporting Lab was born of a specific local crisis. Colorado's newspapers had been gobbled up by Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund known for gutting papers rather than growing them, and Boulder's legacy daily had been stripped of reporting capacity. Like a growing number of cities with shrinking Alden-owned papers, Boulder needed a digital news startup to serve the community — and the Lab stepped into that void. Feldman's pitch was straightforward: high-quality journalism driven entirely by a public-service mission, produced by a team that lives in Boulder and is embedded in the community. The Lab positioned itself against the rise of corporate aggregators "popping up everywhere, siphoning away local ad dollars," arguing that only original, hyperlocal reporting — earned through years of consistent, impactful work — could rebuild trust.

The Marshall Fire: A Defining Test

Weeks after its launch, Boulder Reporting Lab faced its defining test: the Marshall Fire of late December 2021, which destroyed more than a thousand homes in Boulder County. The tiny newsroom — then just three people — provided wall-to-wall coverage of the disaster and its aftermath, and newsletter signups jumped 60 percent. The Lab went on to investigate the fire's longer-term impacts, including its effects on drinking water and, in a notable collaboration with the University of Colorado's Center for Environmental Journalism, the health effects on residents living in the burn area — residents grappling with coughs, rashes, and other symptoms from toxic particulates left by wildland-urban interface fires. The Marshall Fire coverage established the Lab's reputation: a newsroom that would show up for its community in crisis and stay on the story long after the national cameras left.

Covering the 2025 Antisemitic Attack

In 2025, Boulder was struck by an antisemitic terrorist attack, and Boulder Reporting Lab again provided crucial on-the-ground reporting. Feldman discussed the newsroom's response on the "What Works" podcast with Dan Kennedy and Ellen Clegg, describing how the Lab's reporters covered the attack and its aftermath for a shaken community. The coverage drew national attention from outlets including Editor & Publisher, which highlighted how a small nonprofit newsroom had become the authoritative source during a major breaking-news crisis. For Feldman, the attack coverage reinforced the Lab's founding premise: when disaster strikes a community, residents need journalists who are already there — who know the streets, the officials, and the institutions — not parachute crews arriving after the fact.

Newsroom and Reporting Approach

Boulder Reporting Lab operates as a small nonprofit newsroom with a lean staff. Early team members included senior reporter John Herrick and reporter Brooke Stephenson, who appeared alongside Feldman at press conferences during major breaking stories. The Lab's reporting approach emphasizes original, public-service journalism: city government, development, the environment, public safety, and the accountability stories that a diminished legacy press no longer covers. Feldman has described the newsroom's relationship with its audience as unusually direct — "People email us and tell us their problems, and we drive over to go have conversations with them" — and its survival as contingent on meeting the community's information needs: "We will not survive if we're not meeting the information needs of our community. It's not a side project we have. It's just who we are."

Nonprofit Model and Funding

As a nonprofit newsroom, Boulder Reporting Lab is funded by donations, grants, and reader support rather than advertising — a deliberate choice in a market where Feldman argues corporate aggregators siphon away local ad dollars without producing original journalism. The nonprofit model frees the Lab to focus entirely on public-service reporting without chasing traffic or advertiser-friendly content. Like other nonprofit newsrooms in the Institute for Nonprofit News ecosystem, the Lab must continuously fundraise to sustain itself, a challenge Feldman acknowledged was new territory even for an experienced newsroom founder: "Round two cannot be more different, in some ways, than round one," she said of the fundraising and development work. The Lab's growth from a three-person startup reflects both successful fundraising and demonstrated community demand.

Collaborations and Partnerships

Boulder Reporting Lab has pursued collaborative journalism as a force multiplier. Its partnership with CU Boulder's Center for Environmental Journalism on the Marshall Fire health-impacts investigation — a pop-up community newsroom model documented by the Reynolds Journalism Institute — showed how a tiny newsroom could tackle an ambitious investigation by joining forces with academic partners. The Lab operates within Colorado's broader collaborative news ecosystem, which includes the Colorado Media Project, COLab (the Colorado News Collaborative), and peers like the Colorado Sun. These collaborations reflect a statewide recognition that no single small newsroom can cover everything, and that shared reporting capacity serves readers better than competition among under-resourced outlets.

National Recognition

Boulder Reporting Lab has become a nationally cited example of the nonprofit local news movement. The Nieman Journalism Lab profiled its founding and early footing; Editor & Publisher covered its crisis reporting; the "What Works" podcast featured Feldman twice; and the Reynolds Journalism Institute documented its collaborative wildfire investigation. Journalism funders, researchers, and fellow publishers study the Lab as a case study in launching a sustainable nonprofit newsroom in a mid-size city — from its fellowship-incubated planning phase to its crisis-driven audience growth to its ongoing fundraising. Feldman's own trajectory, from co-founding a Pulitzer-winning climate newsroom to building a hyperlocal one, gives the Lab unusual credibility in national conversations about the future of local news.

Role in Boulder's Civic Life

For Boulder residents, the Lab has become an essential complement to — and in many areas a replacement for — the diminished legacy press. Its reporters cover the city council, development battles, environmental issues, and public safety with the depth that only a dedicated local newsroom provides. During crises, it has been the community's trusted information source. And its nonprofit, public-service orientation has modeled an alternative to the extractive ownership that hollowed out Boulder's previous newspaper. As Feldman put it, the Lab's team lives in Boulder, is embedded in the community, and has spent years earning trust through consistent, impactful reporting — "That's what I'm always rooting for: more original journalism at the hyperlocal level." Its official website is https://boulderreportinglab.org.