Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle might do worse than point his browser at a site called I Want My Rocky. It could provide the subject for his next blockbuster. And I’m not joking.
The story of the demise of the Rocky Mountain News has it all: gritty social commentary amid dramatic Rockies scenery; a devastated workforce falling victim to corporate failure during the global media meltdown; a catchy title. It wouldn’t surprise me to find a gnarled hack passing on pearls of wisdom to a young investigative reporter and an office love tangle lurking in the background.
Then there’s the glimmer of a rebirth, against the odds and driven by the journalists themselves, of the Rocky Mountain News … or something else.
The headline on I Want My Rocky this morning is: ‘Former Rocky journalists to hold news conference’. I don’t know what will happen. But speculation is buzzing in the comments: ‘Next chapter? Dare we hope that you’re about to launch an indie paper? Count me in as a subscriber!’, ‘I am BEYOND excited. I can’t wait to hear more about this Rocky revitalization! Make Scripps regret they ever let you go!’ ‘Best wishes for continued excellence in journalism. Perhaps a business model shakeup is in the works? Go get ‘em guys’. It’s all stirring stuff.
The Rocky Mountain News could very easily come to symbolise the swansong of newspapers everywhere. If could also be the first positive sign that journalists are not prepared to give up without at least a fight.
I apologise if anyone thinks my intro is a tad insensitive. I know people are losing their jobs. But there’s something special going on in Denver. It’s emotional; it’s important for all of us, and it’s a story being told by journalists themselves. I bet I’m not the only one who watched the video announcing the closure of the paper, just a month away from its 150th birthday, with a great lump in my throat.
The scene was chillingly familiar. Dark-suited Rich Boehne, president of Scripps, stands in the newsroom to announce that no buyer has been found and that the following day would see the last edition of the Rocky Moutain News. There’s nothing else to say of importance, but he does what most senior managers (including me) have done in the same situation … he fills the silence with management-speak twaddle.
The shock registers on the faces of journalists. There are tears, outstretched arms and the instinctive reach for notebooks and pens. The video ends with editor John Temple bravely trying to invoke the spirit of Custer with a ‘let’s leave ‘em something to remember’ call.
There’s another moving video on the Rocky Mountain News homepage, reflecting the views of a sports writer and reporter on the defunct title, who have been married for 11 years, In fact, the website itself is like a memorial to journalism; a glimpse of newsrooms past for future generations.
But perhaps that’s about to change.
Never underestimate the raw dedication of local journalists who don’t have the courage to ask their editor for a pay rise, but would defend their community and profession to the death.
When the century-old Nuneaton Tribune shut down in 1991, with the loss of 90 staff, a group of redundant printers and journalists met in a pub and launched the Evening News (later the Heartland News).
It was, frankly, an awful-looking mongrel in the mid-90s. Flimsy, the layout looked like the type had been lobbed at the page from the other side of a wall, there were handfuls of literals and a few jaw-dropping legals. God knows how they stayed out of court. But somehow they stayed in business, despite my best efforts as editor-in-chief of the paid-for Coventry Evening Telegraph and a free weekly in the town.
Shortly after I arrived as editor, we threw money, local change pages and reporters at the Telegraph’s Nuneaton edition. It had it’s own special masthead, we charged half the price of any other edition, we sponsored the soccer team and we almost always got the scoops. But loyal readers refused to give up on the Heartland News. It was only when I took on the paper’s sports editor and a couple of cracking young reporters, born and bred in the town, that we made a dent.
And that’s the point. Staying local and caring like hell goes a long, long way. Failing to do these two simple things is largely to blame for the mess we’re in right now.
One other comment at I Want My Rocky reads; ‘This excites me to no end! Journalists across the country are here to support your efforts!’
Across the country? … try across the globe.
Related posts:
- Rocky Mountaineers launch subscription appeal
- Will start-up journalists hit the most important deadline?
- Newsroom crisis has to be bad news for diversity
- Who says we’ve lost our appetite for newspapers?
- How four journalists and Publish2 redefined the rules of collaboration. But could it work in London?
