I've never lived in Colorado, so it doesn't affect me as much as it does the people out there, but as a journalist, I can't help but feel sad for the death of yet another newspaper. The Rocky Mountain News published its final edition today, just a few weeks short of its 150th anniversary.I don't have personal stories to share about what that paper meant to me, but I'm sure they exist, and I'd be happy to have people share them here in comments.
Journalism remains popular with college students. I see news of new fellowships and grants for journalists all the time, and I hear from college students that they want to get into journalism. So I know the interest is out there. What isn't out there right now is a viable business model that would allow many of the old papers to continue to exist. The old model isn't working anymore.
Papers have gone online, and that's good. I suspect many of them eventually will only exist online. And that isn't as good, because not everyone has access to the Internet. That's a discussion for another time.
If nothing else, I'll reflect on the death of a grand old paper, what it means for the hundreds of people who worked there and their families, and look forward to the future of journalism, because people remain unchanged in their desire to have access to objectively presented information.
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