I have just read upon some news that the Rocky Mountain News, a metro newspaper in Denver, Colorado, published its last paper today. It was owned by E.W. Scripps Corporation and had a JOA with the Denver Post. Since I’m living here in the Cincinnati area, I feel like this is happening all over again since this just happened at the end of 2007 to the Cincinnati Post, it also was a Scripps newspaper.
For the Cincinnati Post – this article was published by the Enquirer – A voice is stilled
From the USA Today – Post newspaper close after 126 years
For the Rocky Mountain News
I can’t be familiar with every metro newspaper across the country since there are several. However, the Rocky Mountain News is a nearly 150 year old paper. On top of that, the reporters and photographers have been amongst the best journalists to get awards, but that didn’t matter to them. What mattered to those people that worked at the Rocky Mountain News were focused on one thing and was to tell the story. If this event doesn’t say anything about the state of the newspaper industry and the media field as a whole, then I don’t know what does!
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This is a final farewell multimedia presentation (on their home page) put together by the 2009 Rocky Mountain News staff:
Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.
**Also see these 2 websites –
Who killed the Rocky?
I Want My Rocky
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Stories around the internet about the Rocky Mountain News being closed:
Rocky Mountain News –
Rocky Mountain News to close, publish final edition Friday
Final Salute
Denver Post – Rocky’s last run
NPPA – Rocky Mountain News Shuts Down Today
Cnet News – Facebook gets it. Bummer newspapers didn’t
Multimedia Shooter – Final Edition
Poynter Online – Rocky Ends Publication Today After Nearly 150 Years, Poynter Offers Assistance
Twitter – RMN_Newsroom
Reuters – Happy trails, Rocky Mountain News
Facebook group – Who killed the Rocky?
Umm, it seems to me that every paper is loosing ground to the internet. I read the news every morning on my blackberry. It’s up to the minute news. The newspaper is old hat compared to google news, or CNN.com. Even the Cincinnati Enquirer has an awesome website. I see newspapers being a thing of the past in a few years. Instead the news corporations will be charging big bucks for advertising rights for their websites. You will still be able to access your favorite online news site. The point is, there will be work out there for photojournalists, just in a different place. News still happens, but now people want video and podcasts about it, not still photos. I’m glad that your main focus has been on multi media not just photography, because that’s where it’s headed.
Well the bottom line is that if newspapers need to survive, they need to invest in multimedia and invest into a “newspaper” that goes on the web. In my opinion, the Cincinnati Enquirer’s website is decent, but websites for example for The New York Times or the Las Vegas Sun are better.