(Colorado Gov) Ritter: Newspaper's closure 'sad' (Official Dinosaur Media Wake®)

Denver Post ^ | February 27, 2009 | Tim Hoover

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Gov. Bill Ritter called it "a very, very sad day."

Ritter was speaking to newspaper executives at a luncheon today at the Governor's Mansion when the news came. Someone in the audience stood and said it was official: The Rocky Mountain News was closing.

"We're losing a Colorado icon," Ritter said of the nearly 150-year-old newspaper. "We're losing a newspaper that has helped create history."

Ritter expressed dismay over the crumbling state of the newspaper industry, saying blogs with anonymous contributors are no substitute for reporters and editors that public officials know by name and can actually contact.

"I hope that my children find a way to get the news," the governor said.

Many of those gathered for the Colorado Press Association's 131st annual luncheon wore glum faces after hearing of the News' closing.

"It's like losing a member of your family," said Ed Otte, executive director of the Colorado Press Association . "The competition between The Post and Rocky has always been healthy for the state, not just the Denver-metro area."

Otte commended the Rocky's editor and publisher, John Temple, for leading his newsroom to excellence.

"The losers are really the residents of Colorado," Otte said.

Richard Ballantine, publisher of the Durango Herald, called the News a respected and well-edited paper.

"We're going to miss it," Ballantine said. "I loved the more conservative editorial page."

Steven Pope, publisher of The Gazette in Colorado Springs, said the announcement of the News' demise made him emotional.

"It's really unfortunate such a worthwhile watchdog has died," Pope said.

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ping

[Hardastarboard]

"We're losing a newspaper that has helped create history."

Out of thin air, like all the other dying left-wing MSM rags.

[Rockiette]

Sorry it wasn’t the Denver Post instead - that red rag is probably next.

[unixfox]

"We're losing a newspaper that has helped create history."

Maybe that's why they went belly up. They should have been reporting about it instead of trying to create it.

No symapthy here.

[abb]

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=101134
Rocky Mountain Bye: 150-Year-Old Denver Daily Dies

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/27/johnson-when-a-paper-dies-there-are-no-winners/
JOHNSON: When a paper dies, there are no winners

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/27/pearson-no-two-days-ever-the-same-in-21-years/
PEARSON: No two days ever the same in 21 years

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/27/temple-why-denver-cant-support-two-papers/
TEMPLE: Why Denver can’t support two papers

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11796353
Paige: Sad to say, wild war between the papers is over

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11795956
Publisher: Post will survive

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/02/highlights_from_the_goodbye-to.php
Highlights from the goodbye-to-the-Rocky Mountain News press conference

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=49&aid=159248
Page One Today / Final Edition: Rocky Mountain News

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-webcabl2712498959feb26,0,19406.story
Exec: Newsday rethinking free Web site

[MileHi]

Actually, the Rocky was fairly decent untill recently. Now all we have is the comPost.

[andyandval]

"I hope that my children find a way to get the news,"

Somehow, I'm confident the chirren will find a way, gov.

[abb]

http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/
State jobs for the laid off workers at the Rocky Mountain News??

[Randy in CO]

Exactly. And, if some reporter in CO called him on that comment, he would claim to have been taken out of context. Ritter is a lefty tool who will do to CO what Obummer is trying to do to America.

The mass of anti-business legislation that the Democraps tried to pass in Nov was staggering. Now this @ss clown goes to CA and invites more lefty thought into the state. Idiots, all of them!

[Joe Boucher]

“no substitute for reporters and editors”.
Too true. Without liberal editors and biases reporters how is the dem party going to shove their liberal nonsense down out throats?

[fleagle]

It's so infuriating, newspapers are the very definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. They print ultra-left editorials posed as "news articles" and drown their op-ed pages with the worst kind of ultra-left America is the Big Bad sludge and when this drives readers away, they simply continue printing the same garbage.

Twenty-four hour cable news and the Internet presented all types of print media (newspapers, magazines, books) with a huge and truly perplexing challenge; how to keep readers interested and how to give them fresh, engaging, interesting and in-depth coverage. Instead, the dinosaur print media make superficial and pointless changes (if they made any changes at all) resulting in nothing more than speeding up their own demise.

[Gorzaloon]

Ritter expressed dismay over the crumbling state of the newspaper industry, saying blogs with anonymous contributors are no substitute for reporters and editors that public officials know by name and can actually contact

Then why is everyone reading these, and nobody trusts the papers?

They seem to be a very successful subsitute.

[dfwgator]

I predict eventually if there are newspapers, they will be basically state, not city newspapers. For example I could foresee one Texas newspaper, with Dallas, Houston, Austin, etc. bureaus, but all consolidated.

[abb]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/02/25/2009-02-25_al_sharpton_takes_aim_at_rupert_murdochs.html
Al Sharpton takes aim at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. empire

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/922970.html
TV news must embrace new media, CNN exec warns

[Dr. Ursus]

Hey,we ruined California,your next!

[MileHi]

Ritter is a scumbag. What he is really crying about is that he wants to pick and choose who he interviews with so he always has a freindly forum. Those damn bloggers don’t let him spin and control perception like the “reporters and editors that public officials know by name and can actually contact”.

[abb]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/401698_newspapers27.html
Media workers, academics discuss newspapers’ value

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http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=123&aid=159230
Why the Rocky Closed & What its End Says About the Business’s Future

http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/rocky_mountain_bye.php?page=all
Rocky Mountain, Bye

[Birch T. Barlow]

"We're going to miss it," Ballantine said. "I loved the more conservative editorial page."

The talented employees will be picked up by other outlets. The less talented will struggle.