The world of print journalism will never be the same again. After 150 years of service to the Denver community, the Rocky Mountain News announced Thursday that their final issue would be Friday (February 27, 2009). Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the newspaper had been in financial trouble for months due to an industry-wide decline in newspaper revenues and the current financial turmoil that has shaken global markets.
The Rocky Mountain News had a storied history. Its first printing was in April of 1859, when William N. Byers, an Ohioan by birth, moved to Denver in order to sell newspapers to citizens of a booming gold-rush city. Since then, the paper has been through countless adventures. Evidence of the paper?s rich history can be found in author Robert L. Perkins? The First Hundred Years-an Informal History of Denver and the Rocky Mountain News, a book that chronicles the adventures of the Denver news giant from its birth in 1859 to its one-hundred year anniversary in 1959.
It is fitting to note that, while the closing of this institution is indeed a great tragedy, both for the industry and for the loyal readers of the paper, the Rocky Mountain News has left the stage in peak condition. The tenure of the paper?s last editor, John Temple, has seen the tabloid finally solidifying its position as a no-nonsense, high-quality news source that shatters the traditional stereotype that many Americans have come to associate with tabloid newspapers. Since 2000, the Rocky Mountain News has won four Pulitzer Prizes. Three were for excellence in photography while the last one was for reporter Jim Sheeler?s ?Final Salute? article, a piece about Casualty Assistance Calls Officers in the United States Marine Corps that was recognized as an outstanding achievement of journalistic prose, form, and content. While the death of this paper is a tragic one, Rocky employees can rest assured that the content produced by the paper was not at fault for the collapse of their beloved institution. Rather, revenues from Classified ads all but disappeared with the advent of Internet posting of services and sales, especially from sites like Craigslist.
This bottoming-out of revenue streams provided by newspaper ads has had detrimental affects throughout the American newspaper industry. This past Wednesday (February 25th, 2009) saw the announcement from the San Francisco Chronicle that the newspaper was in experiencing incredible financial hardships, with the paper losing thousands of dollars each week. Hearst Corporation, owner of the Chronicle, knows that it cannot accept these losses forever. Currently, the paper looks to be listed for sale or closing within the coming months. The Journal Register Company, a multi-state corporation that owns over three-hundred local newspapers, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to the almost complete destruction of revenues.
Some newspapers seem to be surviving, if not thriving, in this world of lessened newspaper revenues nationwide. The Wall Street Journal, for example, seems to be weathering the hard times nicely to due to highly successful web-based subscription service has resulted in many people paying substantial annual fees in order to read the Journal online each day.
The Rocky Mountain Press may be the first newspaper to go this year but it will certainly not be the last. With the passing of this once-formidable institution, an industry stands on the brink and waits to see if any more papers will share the same fate as the Rocky. For the job-seeking, ex-employees of what was Denver?s top tabloid and for the dedicated readers who enjoyed their paper?s daily serving of news, the market shift that has gutted the profit-making organs of newspapers across the nation has already taken its toll and robbed the world of quality writing and photography that Denver knew and loved. This new paradigm shift, while justified according of the market?s natural tendencies, has left a world where everyone already misses their Rocky.
Copyright Daniel Downs 2009
