Colorado Springs Independent Publisher and AAN Convention Chair Carrie Simison announced that she will depart after 21 years with the paper:

Nearly 21 years after walking through the doors of the Independent (then in the Mining Exchange building) — a Minnesota transplant in my signature green Doc Martins — to take a job as a graphic designer with a company I was sure I wasn’t cool enough to work for, it’s time for me to walk out the doors.

I can’t thank the past and current staff enough for making these two decades — half my life — so worthwhile. I got to get up for work each day and know that I was coming someplace where we were making a difference, and that there was no place else I was supposed to be. Thank you to our advertisers for believing in what we do and supporting us. And thank you to our readers for relying on us to keep you informed and entertained.

Finally, I can’t thank the Indy’s owner — my boss and friend, John Weiss — enough for all those years ago, giving this Midwestern girl with the green-painted fingernails a chance to use her design skills to launch into a career in alternative journalism. (Read more)

Says John Weiss, founder and chairman of the Independent, “Ideally, we would replace Carrie with, well, another Carrie. But that is just not possible.“