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Owner of Lake City's only newspaper ready to pass on the torch

Grant Houston at the office of the Lake City Silver World.
Laura Palmisano
Grant Houston at the office of the Lake City Silver World.

A recent report finds 130 newspapers shut down across the U.S. last year. This includes 13 in Colorado. Research shows that losing local news sources weakens civic engagement and increases political polarization.

Hinsdale County in southwest Colorado is the most remote county in the lower 48. Grant Houston has run the Lake City Silver World there for nearly 50 years. Now, as he turns 70, he's looking to sell, but only to the right person.

KVNF's Laura Palmisano spoke with Houston about his life in journalism and the challenges of running a newspaper in a tiny town.
Copyright 2025 KVNF - Mountain Grown Community Radio

This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including Aspen Public Radio.

Laura joined KVNF in 2014. She was the news director for two years and now works as a freelance reporter covering Colorado's Western Slope. Before moving to Colorado, Laura worked as a reporter for Arizona Public Media, a public radio and television station in Tucson. She's also worked at public radio station KJZZ and public television station KAET Arizona PBS in Phoenix. Her work has aired on NPR, the BBC, Marketplace, Harvest Public Media, and on stations across the Rocky Mountain Community Radio network. Laura is an award-winning journalist with work recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, Colorado Broadcasters Association, and RTDNA. In 2015, she was a fellow for the Institute for Justice & Journalism. Her fellowship project, a three-part series on the Karen refugee community in Delta, Colorado, received a regional Edward R. Murrow Award. Laura also has experience as a radio host, producer, writer, production assistant, videographer, and video editor. She graduated summa cum laude from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University.