When a local newspaper dies, the community loses. The Rocky Mountain News had served Denver for 150 years, even since the city’s founding. Today, the Scripps-owned paper printed its final edition, ceding the field to its younger competitor, the Denver Post.
The paper was on the block to be sold but no one wanted to buy. Editor John Temple says the end was inevitable. “The economics have to work if a city is to have two newspapers. They don’t anymore. So Colorado will lose a part of its lore, a part of its identity.”
The Rocky was a very good paper with excellent visual journalists. Three of the four Pulitzer prizes the paper won over the past ten years were for outstanding photography, including its coverage of the Columbine massacre. But the paper also had a long history of groundbreaking investigations. As a network reporter covering environmental issues in the 1990s, I often chased the Rocky on stories about nuclear waste. I’m sad to see it go.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Filed under: 12. Getting Ready for the Real World |
Advancing the Story 
Just finished watching the video. Very sad indeed. Unfortunately, though, the closing of the Rocky Mountain News is just simply a sign of the times, not just in the news business, but the media industry in general.