Thursday, February 26, 2009

End of an Era

With newspapers having a hard time surviving the economy and competition from the new media, Colorado is losing the states oldest paper. Tomorrow is the final edition of The Rocky Mountain News. Started just a couple of months shy of 150 years ago, The Rocky has been a fixture in Denver and the Rocky Mountain region. So now Denver joins most cities in America as a one newspaper town. The Denver Post will stand alone.

I have seen other papers shutdown in towns where I have lived. Shortly after I moved away, The Houston Post was closed; and while I lived in Tulsa, The Tulsa Tribune ceased publication, leaving only The Tulsa World.

Scripps, the publisher of the Rocky, had unsuccessfully tried to find a new owner, but in this economy, it was not to be.

Charles Paul Martin 1925-2009

Today is a sad day. My father-in-law, Charles Paul Martin, died shortly before noon, Eastern Daylight Time in the ICU of United Hospital in Clarksburg, West Virginia. He fell and broke his hip eight days ago, triggering multiple health issues. He was 83, and will be missed immensely.