Eight years ago, I started a communications business called HipCat Media. It did its job well. It just never quite said what the job actually was.

So we gave it a new name: Paper PR.

Better, Not Bigger

This isn’t a story about suddenly getting big. It’s a story about finally looking like what we already are.

Over those eight years, HipCat Media was one person doing PR work for a handful of local clients. Now, with a new name and new team members, we’re a growing into a nimble team working alongside some of the best organizations across Colorado. The work got more specific, more experienced, more capable — not because the ambition changed, but because the practice grew into itself.

“Moving from a one-woman operation to working with a network of curated collaborators, to help businesses and organizations get the recognition they deserve, felt like the right move,” says founder Michelle Tripp. “I wanted a name that actually reflected that shift.”

What Actually Changed

The name. HipCat Media is now Paper PR — a name that says plainly what this business has always done: help good organizations get their story to the people who need to see it.

The look. The new visual identity, designed with Carrylove Designs, an Austin-based branding studio, centers on a simple idea: the neighborhood paperboy. Hand-drawn illustrations, a warm and editorial color palette, and a design language built around delivery, trust, and everyday reliability replace what used to be a more generic, corporate look.

The voice. For eight years, this business talked like most communications firms do: professional, competent, a little safe. The new brand says the same things with more personality — a little warmer, a little more direct, closer to how this work actually feels day to day.

What Stayed Exactly the Same

The paperboy metaphor at the heart of the new brand isn’t just a nice illustration. It’s the whole philosophy: a paperboy didn’t write the news, and he didn’t decide what mattered. He made sure the story that was already true reached the people who needed to see it, reliably, because the story was worth delivering.

That’s been the actual job for eight years, under any name. It still is.

If you’ve worked with this business before, nothing about how we work is changing: the same care, the same relationships, the same belief that good organizations deserve to be known for what they’re already doing well. What’s changing is that there’s now a small team and a clearer name behind that same commitment.

Why Now

Rebrands are usually framed as a growth milestone, and this one is that too. But if I’m honest, it’s also just time. The name should say what the work actually is, and for a while now, it hasn’t.

Paper PR works with real estate developers and master-planned communities, lifestyle and retail brands, healthcare and wellness organizations, nonprofits, education and civic organizations, events and festivals, and senior care and aging services — across Colorado and nationally.

Same work. Same team. Same route. Just a name that finally fits.

— Michelle Tripp, Founder, Paper PR