The Rocky Mountain News in Denver will publish its final issue tomorrow. Read all about it at http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/26/rocky-mountain-news-closes-friday-final-edition/.
The newspaper was founded in 1859 by William Byers, one of the many hucksters to stake claims at the fledgling outpost located at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte in Colorado Territory. Byers hauled his printing press in a wagon all the way to pre-Denver. The paper survived floods and fire and the ravages of time. It just couldn't deal with the Internet.
In the early 1980s, I covered high school sports for the Rocky. Just for a year. From 1978-1981, I wrote about high school sports for the competing Denver Post. I moved on to managing editor of a weekly newspaper, Up the Creek, which began its life covering the lively singles scene in Denver's Glendale enclave. It moved from drooling (in print) over wet T-shirt contests to covering arts and entertainment and culture in a rapidly growing city. We made fun of the Rocky and Post for their mistakes. We dueled with Westword over stories and ads (Westword won). I then moved on to other things, as people do. I love newspapers, and hate to see a good one go into the dustbin of history.
But here I am, writing on the Internet and reading newspapers such as the Rocky and the Post and the NY Times and the London Guardian and all the others for the price of a few cents of electricity.
Weird times, eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment