Fate of Rocky Mountain News to be announced

Parker told Westword (click on the link I posted earlire for the update) she's in the union and talked to a union rep. She thinks she's in the last-in-first-out camp.

 

Yes it's been two years but I'm dredging this thing back up today. There's a reunion tonight to mark five years -- yes, five flippin years -- since the closure. I went back and read some of this thread since I'm out here. It's crazy what happened at the time and what has happened since. And grateful for everyone who reached out and who I have made connections with. There are more than 200 who have RSVP'd -- and it was open for anyone who worked there, just not at the end. It should be a great night catching up with friends and colleagues. Anyway thanks for indulging.

 

Thanks, Steve and Morris.

What a great night catching up with so many folks. Good turnout by sports, including Barry Forbis, Kevin Huhn, Dave Krieger and Drew Litton, among others. Mike Littwin and so many more. It was packed and loud and full of laughter. An incredible night catching up with everyone.

 

As far as I know, no, no one from the Rocky is on the Post sports staff full time.

Tomorrow marks five years since the announcement by Scripps that it was getting shut down. Great to see so many people the other night. I saw a note that it was just short of 200 people who were there.

 

The best digs were certainly the RMN building. Well, the last one. Tons and tons of space. Everything was newer -- the carpeting, the desks, the TVs, the computers. Plus it had better views than the previous building.

The Rocky was only in that building for 2 1/2 years, August 2006 to February 2009, when the Post and the Rocky and the Denver Newspaper Agency moved into the same building (Rocky on the fifth floor, the Post on the sixth).

The Post previously was across the street, on Broadway. The Rocky was down the street, on Colfax, across the street from the U.S. Mint.



It got knocked down and replaced by a Justice Center.

But I loved the newsroom at 1 Herald Plaza. The views of Biscayne Bay were great, and it had tons of energy in it. Loved going in there.

 

Well, this is interesting.

Six years too late -- and it was widely known that he was poking around the scrap heap back then -- but it came out today that Phil Anschutz, probably flush with stock market money that needs to be burned, is exploring bringing back the Rocky, with a prototype to gauge the public's interest.

The original lead in the Denver Business Journal did not have the aspect that it's more than likely a ploy to drive down the price of the Post, which is what I and many other former Rocky people surmised when this news broke this afternoon. DFM has put everything on the market, including the Post, and Anschutz, who already owns the Colorado Springs Gazette, has long been seen as a buyer, the "knight" many folks at the Post are looking/begging for.

http://bit.ly/1wdZ8Yv

This move certainly explains why the Rocky website suddenly went dark three months ago with no explanation. If you're the Denver Post, you hope it's a negotiating tactic.

Will be interesting going forward, but if it does get revived, they better not use the design of that prototype. That thing is a disaster.

Editor/publisher at the closing/burial John Temple told the Denver Business Journal: The Rocky "is more than a name. It's an attitude. It was a group of people committed to something they believed in. I love the Rocky Mountain News. But 'bringing it back' from the dead is going to take more than adopting the name and the tabloid format. All power to them, though. I hope they adopt the attitude of the paper's founder, William Byers, and go for it."