Last issue to be printed Friday
The Rocky Mountain News, a 150-year-old daily newspaper in Denver, will shut down operations and cease printing after tomorrow’s edition.
The paper has tried since December to find a buyer, but after that failed, owner EW Scripps decided it was time to bid farewell.
The long run
The Rocky Mountain News has been around longer than the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. It was established in 1859, before Colorado was even a state. Scripps has owned the paper since 1926.
The paper won several Pulitzer prizes and has had a “colorful” circulation war with the Denver Post for a century.
Hey, must be the money
The 255,000 circulation tabloid-format newspaper lost $16 million in 2008. RMN told employees about the closure this morning, but said they will continue to pay salaries through the end of April 28.
Scripps is still trying to sell the paper’s name, web site, archives and masthead.
No room for rivals
We may soon see a similar story coming out of Seattle. After a lengthy competition with The Seattle Times for readership, Hearst Corp. put the Seattle Post-Intelligencer up for sale in January.
The company said it would cease printing if the paper didn’t sell in 60 days. With the deadline fast approaching and no deal in sight, it appears Seattle is about to become a one-paper town. The Post-Intelligencer held a meeting yesterday to teach employees how to file for unemployment.
More hurt for Hearst
Hearst said it may shut down San Francisco’s main newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, unless it can push through more job cuts. It has offered voluntary buyouts to many of its 1,500 employees.
The Chronicle has the second largest circulation on the West Coast and the 12th biggest in the country with a circulation of about 375,000. According to Wikipedia, the publication lost more than $50 million in 2008.
I wonder how much longer the print medium is going to survive in general. Newspapers have a very long tradition, to be sure, but since we are firmly in the digital age, how much longer will the traditional newspaper remain relevant, when they can just switch to an online edition?
In response to Mr. Stone, I would worry if newspapers all changed to an online format. I believe there are many potential problems with such a move, and one — likely by coincidence — is right before our eyes.
The photo of that Chronicle front page — which I believe was the July 11, 2006, edition — posted here has a clear typo in the main headline: “NEWSOM’S OYMPIC VISION SEES NEW 49ERS STADIUM.”
Who knows what, if any, flack the Chron took back then for this mistake. I hope someone brought it to their attention who does not work there, and not because we should poke fun at them but because accountability is a way to build trust among readers. With an online publication, something can be posted and reposted a billion times — with all errors, omissions, facts and the like corrected at will — with few ever knowing what the original content contained. Also, any comments from readers can be removed at the publication’s discretion.
Newspapers are hardly perfect, and that’s a good thing. It is the duty of readers to call them out on mistakes. That’s a healthy relationship, and it may completely disappear if online formats are all we have.