If you are a news and politics junkie like me, you probably yearn for timely local coverage of Thornton news.  With a population of over 100,000 people and being the state’s sixth largest city, Thornton certainly has a lot going on and plenty to report about on a daily basis.  Throw in the other north metro area suburbs and you have a huge population. 

I for one couldn’t care less what goes on in the City and County of Denver.  I don’t live there, I have no love for downtown and what happens there doesn’t usually affect the north area.  You certainly can’t count on the Denver Post or local TV stations to cover our area as they all seem to think the metro area ends at the Boulder Turnpike. 

Give me the truly local news!  The question is though – where do you get it? 

Print Options

The Sentinel – There is one primary news source for truly local Thornton news – the Northglenn-Thornton Sentinel, a product of MetroNorth Newspapers and publisher Scott Perriman.  I have long extolled the virtues of this local weekly news product as the Sentinel covers all the main topics that affect north metro area residents.  From local news, crime, sports, education and more, it is all in there. 

Regular columnists provide their spin on local issues but unfortunately have a decidedly ‘left’ leaning flavor to them.  Vi June is a former Democratic legislator so there is no doubt where she is coming from and Bill Christopher is a current RTD director who of course thinks all things FasTracks are great.  In the case of Christopher, I personally do not think it is right to provide a sitting elected official a weekly free and open forum, no matter which side of the aisle they may be on.  Chuck Green definitely sees things ‘right’ but he is not a truly local columnist so there isn’t really any Thornton content in his columns. 

The Letters to the Editor are a must-read and provides not only a great deal of entertainment (Northglenn!) but also a look at the differing views on local issues.  It is important to note that the Editorials are usually relatively on point and do a good job  addressing local concerns although I think sometimes the editors are afraid to step on any local politicos toes, even when it is called for. 

A couple years ago, MetroNorth started publishing the Thornton Frontier, a free and slightly stripped down version of the Sentinel that is delivered to Thornton residents’ driveways on Saturdays.  This seemed like a great idea at the time but after receiving a few editions, my neighborhood seems to no longer be on the distribution route.  I have no idea if anyone is actually receiving it anymore. 

What’s wrong with the Sentinel?  Well…  I do love the paper but there are certainly areas where it is lacking.  More content in the print edition would be nice after all we are a big city now and the paper is only put out once a week.  That also brings to mind that a more frequent publishing schedule would be nice.  As for online content, MetroNorth’s website design probably was modern 10 years ago but now looks very outdated and there is a distinct lack of content on it.  The publisher seems to have an aversion to online content for some reason.  We’ll cover that in another posting soon. 

The price is right for a Sentinel subscription costing a mere $24.00 for 12 months delivered via mail on Thursday.  If you are a resident of the north metro area, you need to subscribe to this newspaper.  The cost is a bargain and it really is the only local source of news.

It is very important to note the MetroNorth Newspapers is a locally owned and operated business.  Further, they are very good members of the community contributing to many worthwhile causes.  Their community involvement sets them head and shoulders above any other news source in the area. 

YourHub – YourHub is another source of local news and it comes in the Thursday Denver Post.  Launched a few years ago by the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, YourHub was originally viewed as a publication for ‘citizen journalism’ – anyone could submit a story on their website and the paper would publish select ones tailored to given areas of the metro area.  This was a good idea and it had some good content (and some bad) but over time it has gone downhill, perhaps due to the general decline of the Denver newspaper market as a whole.

In theory there are now professional reporters covering the north metro area for YourHub and writing stories but they don’t cover the depth or breadth that our area warrants.  Further, the reader submitted stories now are mainly press release type articles from area businesses and organizations – that isn’t entirely a bad thing but it isn’t really news.  The YourHub website had great promise and still can be useful as they do put all of their stories on it.  Like the print edition though, the content is lacking. 

• Update, 8/6/09, 2:39pm – Coincidentally Westword has a piece on YourHub today although it portrays it in a more flattering light than I would.  Click here to view it.

Online Only News

ThorntonWeather.com – Weather is the one topic everyone talks about every single day.   As we all know, Colorado weather is very unpredictable and conditions can vary greatly from just one end of the metro area to the other.  Denver’s official monitoring station is at the airport and local media outlets report on the weather downtown.  What do we in Thornton care?  Neither of those locations are indicative of Thornton’s weather!  ThorntonWeather.com has been in operation for nearly three years now and is the only source for truly local Thornton weather.  Real time conditions, forecasts, radar and even webcams are there.  Check it out here. 

Examiner.com – Examiner is an Internet website startup owned by Clarity Media Group – a company owned and operated by Phil Anschutz.  They have hundreds of topics covered but unfortunately only two writers dedicated to Thornton topics, neither of which covers much real news and neither writes very often.  Examiner and its writers have the opportunity to fill a niche in the north metro area.   The good news is that the site employs ‘citizen journalists’ so if any of you Thornton residents have a topic you would like to write about, this is a great place to do it.  Click here to go to Examiner.com’s Denver section.

• Thornton Examiner
• Thornton Republican Examiner

Topix – Topix.com is an interesting site and what would probably be considered an ‘aggregator’ of news stories.  You can select Thornton as you main city and it presents you with relevant news from a variety of news sources.  Unfortunately though, it misses a lot of stories and since it doesn’t generate its own content, it simply points you to other websites that have the real story.   Click here to go to the Topix.com Thornton section.

Did we miss a source for local news?  What do you want to see in local Thornton news coverage?  Leave a comment and let us know!

What do we wish for in a local Thornton news source?  Stay tuned! 

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