Sad Eulogy for Print Journalism

It's not about the newspaper industry.

It's about Minturn, the town of 1,100 struggling with a development project. It's about Arvada, a Denver suburb mourning the death of the second skateboarder in four months.

Most stories about the Rocky Mountain News' demise focus on the recessionary forces behind the closure, or the pending demise of other newspapers. But the tragedy isn't on Wall Street or in Seattle. The tragedy really affects the people and communities around Colorado that fewer journalists are left to cover.

The News ended nearly 150 years of publication Feb. 28 with a thick 68-page main section and a 52-page eulogy for itself. The latter section was full of great memories from living writers and tributes to former staffers. However, the saddest part of the paper was the regular main section.

Both sections are available on the Internet and on newsstands around Colorado. I urge Colorado residents to pick up the newspaper as a reminder of the tactile pleasures of a print newspaper, and because it is a great value, packed with content for 50 cents.

Even on their last day on the job, the staff continued to write about area businesses and follow local court cases. Somebody even kept typing in all those tiny agate high-school sports scores.

Reporters also covered the news. If you flip through the newspaper, you'll find a beautiful photo of a young girl paying her respects to a 15-year-old skateboarder killed Feb. 27 in an Arvada traffic accident. The story and photo are reminders of the reasons newspapers provide a unique service. My former newspaper editor taught me to use unique with great caution. Joe, this is an appropriate use of the word. Newspapers are truly one of a kind.

Who else is listening to police scanners and dispatching writers and photographers to take the time for a personal story and its community impact? Certainly not bloggers or Associated Content writers. TV news may cover the story, but it would probably put a reporter on the scene with a quick summary and a quote from local police. No context and no reaction from a pastor who knew both the driver and the skateboarder.

Even the TV news wouldn't cover another good story in the final Rocky Mountain News. The small news crew can't afford to send a reporter to the tiny mountain town of Minturn, where lawsuits have stalled a $1 billion development plan.

Surveys show more people get their news from the tube than a paper. But that just means they are getting news from the paper, just later and more indirectly. When I watch TV news, I rarely learn anything that wasn't already in my morning Rocky Mountain News.

Likewise, Internet news sites are also mainly a compilation of newspapers and magazine reporting. Even on a newspaper Web site, readers end up less informed. Readership studies show most readers link to an interesting story on the front page of a newspaper and rarely return to the front page. They likely never see the Minturn story, though they have likely driven through the town and understand the potential impact of a massive expansion. The story might even inspire them to either support or fight a similar plan in their own towns.

I close with quotes from two columns in the final Rocky Mountain News, and two writers far more skilled than myself.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jim Sheeler summarized my preceding babble with a beautiful paragraph about the importance of small, local news stories.

"At their best, they were the stories that showed how we are all the same. They were the kind of stories that could put readers in a crumbly parking lot near a dark, busy street and allow them to look in the window at a single, tiny scene that was both beautiful and haunting. And maybe, if just for a moment, make them stop."

Publisher John Temple's last editor's note was brief and heartfelt. He wrote, "Producing today's paper felt a bit like playing the music at your own funeral."

Thank you to John, Jim and the rest of the Rocky staff for opening your funeral to the public and reminding us why your newspaper was such a vital member of the Denver community.