Editorial: Time Will Tell For The Rocky Mountain News

This story was written by , Rocky Mountain Collegian

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For the second time this week, media was hit hard by the poor state of the economy. Yesterday, E.W. Scripps Co., owner of the Rocky Mountain News, announced that the paper would be put up for sale for 30 days.

As Colorado's oldest newspaper and one of its oldest businesses, this is a most unfortunate turn of events. A little piece of history may die in 30 days, along with the jobs of some of the state's finest working journalists.

Scripps announced that, if there are no offers by mid-January, the company will be looking at other options, which could include the possibility of shutting down the 149-year-old newspaper.

So, we wonder, what is the future of the Rocky Mountain News and where will all of those talented journalists go if the paper is shut down?

Rather than shutting down, we at the Collegian believe there are various options for keeping the Rocky alive, even if it's a drastically different product than it is now.

The Rocky could be offered to readers as an insert in the Denver Post, as was done with the Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review-Journal when the two competing dailies could no longer exist in the city. Or it could become a smaller free daily with a strong online presence.

Whatever the future looks like, we hope the Rocky Mountain News is in the picture in some way, shape or form. It would be a huge loss to Denver and the west to see so many good journalists out of work.

But let's not get too discouraged just yet -- somebody may swoop out of the night and buy up the Rocky Mountain News, allowing us all to let out a sigh of relief.