and Urban Growth in the State. Photo By Colorado Public Radio.
Whether you’re sitting in traffic, waiting on a delayed bus, or walking out of your way to ride a train. Nathaniel Minors reporting is where you can find out what is going on with transportation in the state.
Minor has been with Colorado Public Radio since 2014 where he is a senior reporter covering transportation and growth. Minor graduated from the University of St Thomas in 2010. As a freshman, he took an intro to journalism class where he saw the power of the fourth estate.
“The things that stood out to me right away were like, this is a profession where you can really have an impact where you can speak truth to power and all those cliques,” said Minor, “That was sort of a catalyzing like ok yeah I should go into this it’s important.”
Days after graduating Minor began working for Minnesota Public Radio. After three years there he won two fellowships to report abroad in Nigeria and Austria. As he gained experience in the field he began to understand that making a difference wasn’t the only thing he enjoyed about his job.
“I figured out fairly quickly that it’s also fun. You can be rude to people and get away with it if that’s what the job demands.” said Minor “you can walk in and ask someone why are you doing that? Why is this important to you?”
Journalism jobs have been falling in the past 15 years. The Pew Research Center found a 26% decrease in newsroom jobs between 2008 and 2020. The biggest reduction in jobs has been among Newspapers and radio journalists. But while legacy media has shrunk Digital media rose 114% During that same time.
Minor, who was an associate digital producer for Minnesota Public Radio, helped turn radio reports into digital stories. In 2014 he moved to CPR News which was a much smaller operation eight years ago.
“I think there were like 15 people in the newsroom so it was pretty small. That kinda appealed to me because it just feels like you can have an impact as an individual when there are fewer people,” said Minor. “I knew they wanted to grow and I wanted to be a part of that.
Colorado Public Radio has now grown from 15 to around 50 journalists in just eight years. It has also purchased Denver news site Denverite and now manages Colorado Springs public radio station KRCC.
With such a large newsroom the station has been able to have journalists covering specific topics. Minor had become fascinated with a major transit project called Fastracks that was being built at the time and found himself reporting on it and other transportation issues often.
“I felt like it wasn’t being covered consistently in any newsroom in the metro area. So I pitched my bosses like hey there’s a hole here and I think I’m the right person to fill it,” said Minor.
A typical day on his beat involves following the plans and actions of agencies like the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Regional Transportation District, and bodies like the Denver Regional Council of Government or the State Legislatures Transportation Committees.
“Sometimes I will write stories before something big happens. Like if there’s a big vote coming on something, write about it before it happens so that you tell people about it and if they care about it they have a chance to try to participate somehow.
Recently Minor has also been working to expand the horizons of his reporting by looking at housing issues across the entire state from Louisville, to Greely, and Glenwood Springs.
Aside from day-to-day reporting Minor has also taken on big projects while at CPR in the form of podcasting. He was part of their first podcast series The Taxman which looked at the history of the Colorado Taxpayers Bill of Rights.
Then in February, he premiered the podcast Ghost Train. A four-episode look at the Fastracks program which he had been covering for years. He started collecting audiotapes for the show in 2020 and worked full-time on the project for months until the show premiered this February.
The biggest hurdle Minor faced creating the show was finding a way to make something about a public transit expansion project interesting. He did this by telling the story of the conflicts and drama the project brought up.
“You have to think about what are the fundamental building blocks of this story. Like what are we talking about here? And we’re talking about things like liberty, and freedom, and the opportunity of movement. You really have to break it down to that level,” said Minor
Minor believes anyone wanting to go into the field of journalism should ask themselves why they really want to do it. Because that can shape the types of stories you cover and how you frame them.
For Minor, he’s found that covering transportation, which is the largest contributor of greenhouse gasses in the state, needs to be a climate beat as well.
“I didn’t know I was gonna be a part climate reporter but that reality just kinda shapes every story I write,” said Minor “I think if I was doing this beat even ten years ago it would be much different.”
As Denver road congestion is expected to double in the next twenty years, and agencies like the Colorado Department of Transportation begin looking at ways to fight climate change instead of expanding highways, Minor will continue to cover it and make complex issues understandable to his listeners.
MFJS Reporter Spring 2022 