Over a decade ago I watched my grandfather die of old age. It was expected, even somewhat desired, because he’d been such a vigorous man right up to the end, and it was painful to see him drawing those last, labored breaths. And when he was gone, it took a little time to realize that my life and the world in which I lived would never be the same. I was filled with an awful, empty sadness.
I have that feeling again today. Colorado’s oldest newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News, published its last editionyesterday, and I find myself actually in mourning for it.
I grew up with the Rocky and the Denver Post competing for my attention. Grandad read the Rocky and believed every word in it; my father was a Post man, and there were spirited discussions between the two because they read different Denver papers. I delivered both the Post and the Rocky in my boyhood (the Rocky paid better, the the Post was a P.M. back then) and had subscribed to one or the other all my adult life.
The Rocky was starting its inevitable slide downhill when I joined the ranks of ink-stained wretches back in the late 1970s, and my journalism career has been constantly overshadowed by the ultimate demise of the great old newspaper. I’ve had friends and colleagues transcend the small-town newspapers I always worked at and go on to both the Rocky and the Post; now half of them are out of a job.
Of course, it had to happen, eventually, but it is sorrowful nonetheless. Farewell, old friend; you will be missed.
I can’t really say I was surprised by the news when I heard it on Thursday. I figured they would be closing by the end of March. That was the original plan - that they would announce either a sale or a closing by March 31st. I don’t know why they couldn’t have let them put out a few more issues. I wonder if the Post will buy some of the shelved stories and run them - I know they hired a few columnists.
I found the news really devastating, even though I don’t know anyone who works there and I’m pretty sure my own newspaper and my own job are secure. I guess it brought back all the trauma of the last few months, when I got laid off from my first newspaper job and stared into that abyss. I was definitely one of the luckier ones - young and therefore cheap to hire, willing to relocate, and so on. But just trying to imagine being in their shoes, trying to rebuild your future in this economy… And I would imagine, like most newsrooms, there’s a significant number of couples and families who now have to rebuild their careers at the same time.
They did an excellent job of documenting their own demise. I highly recommend the video they put together, as well as the 52-page special section they put together for the last edition.
I reread their Pulitzer Prize-winning story from 2005, Final Salute, this morning. It’s one of the most powerful and touching pieces of writing and photojournalism I’ve ever encountered.
I firmly believe there is a bright future in journalism; it just isn’t in traditonal, ink-on-paper newspapers. People want to know what’s going on and how it affects them, and there’s no better example of that than our current political and economic situation. Nothing is more important to the American people right now than having accurate information and intelligent analysis about what is going on. What’s important isn’t the delivery system but the content.
Relieve the Rocky Mountain News of the burden of paper-and-ink production, and you have a brilliant news organization ready to use the latest new media delivery systems.