Rocky Mountain News

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 10:12pm on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

April 2009: A new Denver news web site has been launched by former staffers of the Rocky Mountain News.

Called INDenverTimes, the site features many longtime Rocky Mountain News writers and columnists, including business writers David Milstead and John Rebchook; sports reporters Sam Adams, Aaron Lopez and Chris Tomasson; reporters Kevin Flynn, Tillie Fong and Bill Scanlon; sports cartoonist Drew Litton and editorial cartoonist Ed Stein; columnists and bloggers Gary Massaro and Mark Wolf; and arts writers Lisa Bornstein, Mark Brown, Mary Chandler and Marc Shulgold.

The service covers local news, sports, business, and arts and entertainment, and aims to provide a Denver perspective on national news.

INDT says they will distinguish themselves with their business and sports coverage, claiming they have "a significant competitive advantage" in these areas.

They certainly have a sense of humor, as the home page claims that INDT is "The No. 1 site for insight, perspective and news in Denver."

Heather Sickels    Boulder, CO

Posted at 11:56am on Monday, March 2nd, 2009

February 27, 2009: The Rocky Mountain News issued its final edition today. The front page reads, "Goodbye, Colorado" and offers the following.

"It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to you today. Our time chronicling the life of Denver and Colorado, the nation and the world, is over. Thousands of men and women have worked at this newspaper since William Byers produced its first edition on the banks of Cherry Creek on April 23, 1859. We speak, we believe, for all of them, when we say that it has been an honor to serve you.

To have reached this day, the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News, just 55 days shy of its 150th birthday is painful. We will scatter. And all that will be left are the stories we have told, captured on microfilm or in digital archives, devices unimaginable in those first days. But what was present in the paper then and has remained to this day is a belief in this community and the people who make it what it has become and what it will be.

We part in sorrow because we know so much lies ahead that will be worth telling, and we will not be there to do so. We have celebrated life in Colorado, praising its ways, but we have warned, too, against steps we thought were mistaken. We have always been a part of this special place, striving to reflect it accurately and with compassion.

We hope Coloradans will remember this newspaper fondly from generation to generation, a reminder of Denver’s history – the ambitions, foibles and virtues of its settlers and those who followed. We are confident that you will build on their dreams and find new ways to tell your story. Farewell – and thank you for so many memorable years together."

Heather Sickels    Boulder, CO

Posted at 11:21am on Friday, February 27th, 2009

February 26, 2009: The E. W. Scripps Company announced that following a sale process that produced no qualified buyers, the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado's oldest newspaper, will cease publication after its final edition on Friday, Feb. 27, 2009.

Following the mid-January deadline for parties to express interest in negotiating a purchase, only one potential buyer worked with the company's broker, and that party was unable to present a viable plan. Since that date, Scripps has worked with MediaNews Group, to formulate a plan to unwind the partnership.

Although the newspaper will cease publication after Friday's edition, Scripps will continue to own and offer for sale the assets of the Rocky Mountain News, including its name, masthead, archives and Web site.

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 1:20pm on Friday, December 5th, 2008

On December 4, 2008, the web site of the Rocky Mountain News announced that the newspaper will either be sold or closed down.

E.W. Scripps Co. says it's putting the Rocky Mountain News up for sale after losing $11 million on the Denver operation in the first nine months of the year.

Since 2001, the News has been in a joint operating agreement with The Denver Post, owned by Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc.

Rich Boehne, president and CEO of Scripps, says the company's 50 percent share of the joint operating agreement's cash flow "is no longer enough to support the Rocky, leaving us with no choice but to seek an exit."