Rocky Mountain News Folds

The newspaper business is in deep trouble these days. Fewer people read a newspaper every day; more and more getting their news from the Internet (where readers expect information free of charge). Compound that with the worst economy in a generation, and the drop in advertisement spending that happens in every downturn, and one has a recipe for consolidation. The latest victim is Denver's Rocky Mountain News. The loss of any daily is a sad thing, but this was a childhood friend.

The “Rocky,” as its staff called it, printed its first edition dated April 23, 1859. That was two years before the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was just a lawyer in Illinois. Colorado was 17 years away from statehood. William Byers got the first edition out at 10pm the night of the 22nd. A rival paper, the Cherry Creek Pioneer got its first edition out 20 minutes later. Those 20 minutes mattered, as the Pioneer never published again.

In 1968, a family moved from Los Angeles to Denver, and the morning deliveries of the Rocky Mountain News began. It had one thing that the New York Times still doesn't have – a decent comics section. And in a town of 5 TV stations (a rather large number in those days), it had a readable television section. And to an 8-year-old boy, not much else mattered.

Kids grow and their tastes evolve. The sports page started to matter more. Denver was, and is, a sports -crazed city. First and foremost were always the Denver Broncos of the NFL. If the Soviets had sent tanks all the way to the English Channel, they'd only make the front page if the Broncos weren't playing that week. Then, there was the American Basketball Association's Denver Rockets, later Nuggets, one of the teams that survived the merger with the NBA. Baseball was AAA minor league with the Bears and Zephyrs (one of the worst nicknames ever). This was quite a petri dish for sports writing talent, and Woody Paige, Jr. remains a favorite. Just this week, the Rocky's sports section was named one of the nation's 10 best.

Commentary at the Rocky was pretty middle-of-the-road but never poorly crafted. In its final editorial the paper noted, “This is the last edition of the paper of Damon Runyon and Harry Rhoads, of Mrs. Molly Mayfield and Al Nakkula, of Gene Amole and Dusty Saunders.” These names are in the same league as Jimmy Breslin, Mike Royko and Studs Terkel when it comes to thinking and writing. Denver, though, is a small stage compared to New York or Chicago. Otherwise, Messrs. Amole and Saunders would be famous nationwide.

The Rocky was a tabloid, and that means it relied quite a bit on photography. Photo journalists never get the credit they deserve; their acknowledgment in print is usually in 4 point type printed vertically next to their shot. That is, when they get acknowledged at all. Yet, the picture on virtually every paper in the world that covered the Columbine High School murders ran a photo by George Kohaniec Jr. of the Rocky.

What is particularly sad is the quality of the paper had improved just before it died and was gaining recognition as a good paper. Although the Denver Post won the area's first Pulitzer in 1986, the Rocky piled up honors in the last few years. Indeed since 2000, only 6 newspapers have won more Pulitzers.

Writers, of course, are sentimental about places to publish their work – much like gamblers are sentimental about casinos. The Rocky isn't the first paper to fold, and it won't be the last, not even the last this year. But a part of what made growing up in and around Denver the experience that it was is gone. So, the Kensington Review offers this in lieu of flowers. Thanks, old friend.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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