Rocky Mountain News

Rocky Mountain News
	File:20090227finalfrontpage.jpg The last front page of the Rocky Mountain News, printed February 27, 2009.
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner(s)	E. W. Scripps Company, Operated by Denver Newspaper Agency
Publisher	John Temple
Editor	John Temple
Founded	1859
Ceased publication	February 27, 2009
Headquarters	101 West Colfax Ave.; Suite 500; Denver, CO 80202; United States
Circulation	255,427 Daily (March 2006); 704,806 Sunday (March 2006)
Website	rockymountainnews.com

The Rocky Mountain News is a discontinued Monday-Saturday morning tabloid-format newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. (Despite Scrips still running the paper, it was the only newspaper in the Scripps family not to have the corporate lighthouse logo on the front page.) As of March 2006, the Monday-Friday circulation was 255,427.^[3]

It was announced February 26, 2009 that the final edition of the bankrupt paper would be published the next day. This leaves the Denver Post as the city's only daily newspaper. The Rocky Mountain News has been serving Denver ever since the civil war, and was only 55 days short of its 150th Anniversary.

Under the leadership of president, publisher and editor John Temple, the Rocky Mountain News has won four Pulitzer Prizes since the year 2000. Most recently in 2006, the newspaper won two Pulitzer in Feature Writing and Feature Photography. The final issue ran February 27, 2009.^[4]

History

First issue

The Rocky Mountain News was Colorado's oldest newspaper and continuously-operated business. Its first issue was printed on April 23, 1859 by founder William N. Byers, who had hauled his printing press from Omaha, Nebraska by oxcart during the start of the Colorado Gold Rush. The first issue was printed only 20 minutes ahead of its rival, the Cherry Creek Pioneer.

Jack Foster

The E.W. Scripps Company bought the Rocky Mountain News in 1926. The Rocky Mountain News and its competitors, including The Denver Post, resorted to gasoline giveaways and other promotions in an attempt to boost circulation. By the early 1940s, the Rocky Mountain News had nearly died.

It was saved by then-editor Jack Foster when he convinced Scripps to approve changing the newspaper from a broadsheet-format to a tabloid design. Foster reasoned that the new format would make it easier for readers to hold and navigate and that it would make advertising more affordable.

Foster's wife, Frances, introduced America's first "advice" column called Molly Mayfield. It became an instant favorite among readers and was soon adopted many other newspapers, paving the way for advice columnists such as Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren.

The joint operating agreement

After a continued rivalry that almost put both papers out of business, the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post merged operations in 2001 under a joint operating agreement [2]. Through the JOA, the Denver Newspaper Agency was formed. The new company ran all non-editorial operations of both papers, namely advertising and circulation, and is equally owned by the E. W. Scripps Company and MediaNews Group (which owns The Denver Post).

While the newspapers shared an advertising and circulation department, they still published separately (except during the weekends, when the Rocky Mountain News was published only on Saturday and The Denver Post on Sunday; both newspapers' editorial pages appeared in both weekend papers) and maintained their rivalry.

Recent awards

2006

Pulitzer Prize - Feature Writing: Awarded to Jim Sheeler, Rocky Mountain News reporter for his "Final Salute" special report, the story of a Marine major assigned to casualty notification and how he helps families with fallen relatives in Iraq cope with their loss.
Pulitzer Prize - Feature Photography: Awarded to Todd Heisler, Rocky Mountain News photographer for his photos in the "Final Salute" special report.

2003

Pulitzer Prize - Breaking News Photography: From the citation: "Awarded to The Rocky Mountain News Photography Staff for its powerful, imaginative coverage of Colorado's raging forest fires." [3]
Colorado Press Association's General Excellence Award: Named best large daily newspaper in Colorado for the eighth year in a row.
25 Society for Newspaper Design Awards: Awarded to the photo and design staffs. They placed eighth in the world.

9 National Press Photographers Association Awards
6 Pictures of the Year International Awards

2002

Best Of The West: Won more first place awards than any other western newspaper

2000

Pulitzer Prize - Breaking News Photography: From the citation: "Awarded to the Denver Rocky Mountain News Photo Staff for its powerful collection of emotional images taken after the student shootings at Columbine High School."[4]

Rocky redesigned

On January 23, 2007, the Rocky Mountain News was redesigned to a smaller, magazine-style format. The redesign's features included more color pages and photographs, full-page photo section covers, a new masthead logo and different page numbering from the previous design.

The redesign was the result of new presses that allowed the newspaper to print about 25 percent faster than its old presses and can print an average of 60,000 issues per hour.^[5]