DENVER (AP) — Several staffers who left The Denver Post amid budget and staff cuts made by the newspaper's New York-based hedge fund owners are forming a new online news site called The Colorado Sun.

Co-founding editor Larry Ryckman, a former senior editor at The Post, tells Colorado Public Radio he wants to "do journalism that people value."

Ryckman says he was approached by a group called Civil, a startup that wants to test a unique blockchain system for sustaining journalism. Colorado Sun readers will be able to buy virtual tokens in the wider Civil community of publications to financially support and influence what is covered.

Civil says the arrangement would decentralize ownership, and rules would be in place to make sure one person can't secure total control of publications. The Colorado Sun could launch as early as July.

___

Information from: Colorado Public Radio, http://www.cpr.org/news