Farewell, Rocky Mountain News
This morning, 200,000-some people reached down to grab the Rocky Mountain News out of the driveway for the very last time.
E.W. Scripps, the owner of the Rocky, announced yesterday that today would be the final issue of the paper, just days shy of celebrating its 150th birthday. The Rocky Mountain News is one of the oldest, largest and most-respected daily newspapers in the country. This announcement is a blow to Colorado, to the media industry, and to those of us who love holding the thin pages of the paper in our hands each morning.
Shuttering the Rocky is another indication that the newspaper industry is crumbling. Since 2007, five other daily newspapers have closed. The San Francisco Chronicle and Seattle Post-Intelligencer are both in danger of shutting down if they’re not sold soon. According the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer filed for bankruptcy protection this week. They join the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant, Baltimore Sun and Minneapolis Star Tribune in Chapter 11.
These days, the things that make money for newspapers are being systematically stripped away by the Internet. With free advertising and news options available online and updated by the second, newspapers must find another way to compete in order to survive.
Will our children be surprised to hear there was ever a time when newspapers were thrown on the front lawn before the sun came up each day? Time will tell what the future holds, but for today I bid a fond farewell to the Rocky Mountain News.
