RIP, Rocky Mountain News
For those of you who know my professional profile, today is something of a sad day for me. The Denver newspaper that employed me as a reporter and columnist for seven years between 1986 and 1993 is publishing its final edition today.
That newspaper, as you may have heard, is the Rocky Mountain News, a nearly 150-year-old institution whose founding predates Colorado’s 1876 admission to the Union. Hearing the news yesterday felt kind of like hearing of a loved one passing on after spending weeks on life support.
For decades, Denver was one of the few U.S. cities that had competing, independent daily newspapers. But alas, Denver and its environs didn’t have the advertiser base to support two daily publications.
In 2000, the Rocky and the rival Denver Post merged under the provisions of the Newspaper Preservation Act. This allowed the papers to combine business functions such as advertising, circulation and production, while allowing separate newsrooms.
By late last year, however, the writing was on the newsprint. Newspapers around the country are suffering due to vast declines in advertising revenue brought on in part by the Internet. The paper’s owner spent three months seeking a buyer, found no one willing to bite, and finally decided to drop the hammer.
A colleague at my current employer who works near Denver has bought two copies of the final Rocky and will ship them to me. God bless him.
Here’s something I wrote a year ago on my other blog (which I haven’t updated in a while):
“…it’s been more than 14 years since I left the Rocky and 10 since I left daily journalism. The funny thing is that some days I miss the newsroom and other days I don’t.
Among the reasons I miss the work are the camaraderie of my colleagues, reporting and writing stories on deadline and seeing the result under one’s byline in the next day’s paper.
Other days, I don’t miss it due to the layoffs and buyouts, the productivity edicts (being forced to churn out dozens of mediocre stories per month as opposed to a doing a couple of solid investigative pieces). I also sometimes wonder if my reasons for even getting into the field were pure. You know, journalists are supposed to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” But heck, I wanted to be comfortable, too. Did that mean I had to afflict myself?
Speaking of the Rocky, it hurts to hear that the paper has had to cut its staff through buyouts and of rumors that the paper might even be shut down. While I by no means was the world’s greatest hack, the Rocky afforded me the chance to do some decent work, including that transportation column I worked on between 1989 and 1992.
Would I want to get back into newspapers? It depends on the job and, of course, the salary. The more relevant question, however, is will newspapers have me back? I doubt it, after being away for so long. They’d probably see me as too old and too expensive.
So for now, I’ll continue to use my writing skills to win contracts in corporate America. After all those years in newsrooms, who’da thunk I would be toiling in a marketing subspecialty for a non-media company? I certainly did not. But at least the hourly rates are better.
Denver also holds fond memories in that The Spouse and I moved there right after we were married and that our older two kids were born there. I remember how my wife would bring the kids into the newsroom and my then-five-year-old daughter would startle my colleagues when she’d shout “Hi Daddy!” I recall how a woman I worked for as city editor, who later served as the paper’s managing editor, would hold my young son in her arms as he would happily suck on his fingers.
My wife and I were discussing this week’s news that the company that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News filed for bankruptcy protection. That’s when I mentioned that the Rocky and the Post were on a race to the bottom. Looks like the Rocky won. Some victory.
