Circuit Media’s 50 employees and national presence started in 2002 with eight simple pages of Law Week Colorado, CM’s in-house publication covering legal news in Colorado. That first product was closely followed by StateBill Colorado in 2004 and the company eventually grew to its current footprint, serving government and private sector clients with various services including copywriting, graphic design, 508 compliance, editing, and project management among others.
“We didn’t really have a long paper – it was only eight pages in the beginning,” said founder and CEO, Rebeccca Askew.
Law Week’s humble beginnings included a single sales representative and a freelance writer to help fill out the short publication with stories and articles about the legal world in the state. The need for Law Week came about after Rebecca noticed a gap for local legal news. She was serving as general counsel for a big company at the time and started the paper on the side, running it in her spare time for the first few years.
StateBill was originally set to shut down services before CM bought the operation, and the previous owners had already mailed out notices to subscribers that they were ceasing operations. Rebecca recalled having to send out hundreds of emails to subscribers letting them know the web- and print-based Colorado legislative guide would stay in operation but would be under new management.
StateBill has retained the same developer since it was purchased by CM, and Rebecca said that Angeli almost came with the product. She said Angeli has likely been working on StateBill as far back as the 1990’s.
One of the foundations of the company is the idea of accessibility for all and Rebecca’s involvement with the concept dates back to her time working as a lawyer. “No matter what I was doing, I was always volunteering. I was a guardian ad litem and this is kind of my third career,” she said. Previously serving as a guardian ad litem for children in parental rights and responsibilities cases or in domestic violence situations, Rebecca said there was always a general theme in the work of trying to level the playing field.
“It’s just who I’ve been and it’s really who we’ve all been at Circuit Media…. I think our efforts to be good stewards with the government involves lifting people up in our own way – with communication.”
