It seems as if the invention of the Internet is killing traditional print newspapers. For years now, I have been reading that subscriptions were down and that papers were in the red. Now, another “victim” has bitten the dust – Denver’s Rocky Mountain News.
After almost 150 years in the business, the Rocky Mountain News sent out its last issue on Friday. What did the final headline read? It said “Goodbye, Colorado.” The articles went on to say “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.”
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The newspaper’s fate had been up in the air for at least three months, hindered also by the declining economy. It was put up for sale in December and had suffered various layoffs and cutbacks that many in the newspaper industry have had to go through lately. The closing of the newspaper means at least 200 jobs lost in Denver.
Of course, Denver still has a newspaper, the Denver Post, but for how much longer? The Rocky Mountain News follows the New York Sun (which closed five months ago) in finally giving up the ship and closing. Also in danger are the San Francisco Chronicle (which lost $50 million dollars last year) and the New York Times (with debts estimated at times at $400 million dollars). The Tribune Company (owner of the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the Baltimore Sun), the Star-Tribune Holding Corporation (owner of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune), the Journal Register Company (owner of the New Haven Register), and the Philadelphia Newspapers LLC (owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News) have all filed for bankruptcy recently.
I know I must be getting old because this saddens me a bit. I am sure people 20 years younger than me think that newspapers are outdated and should have gone away a long time ago. But, for some reason, the fact that electronic text is replacing print and handwriting (don’t even get me started on email vs. letters) just seems so impersonal.
What do you think? I know Internet news is much easier to access and much more timely than a printed paper can be, but should we still have print papers? Do you subscribe to your local paper?