In this difficult economic time many companies are struggling to stay afloat. Unfortunately, one of the industries being hardest hit by the economic downturn is journalism – more specifically, newspapers.
Being a journalism student, I’ve heard that newspapers would be extinct within the next few years too many times to count. The reasoning being the rise of online users and content, and the readership numbers for newspaper has gone down drastically from back when my parents were young. Back then people used to rely on the newspaper for all of their news and without they might as well have lived under a rock. Nowadays we have so many options via the internet, it’s unbelievable. The areas where people go to get their news are so copious that many newspapers are fighting a losing battle.
Through all of the trouble I hadn’t heard of many newspapers actually folding and the situation hadn’t really hit home with me until today. While I, still, don’t know anyone whose had to go through losing their newspaper job, I now know the impact it has on those who work for papers that facing this kind of demise.
In my J200 class today my professor showed the class a short, 22-minute documentary of the closing of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, CO. The newspaper published its final edition on February 27, 2009 after 149 years and 311 days. Abraham Lincoln was near my age when this paper began publishing.
I found the story to be very interesting and touching. Members of the newsroom began filming when they new things were bad and kept the camera rolling all the way through the last day.
Below is the well-done story of a dying newspaper.
Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.
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