Artifacts

Violinists play in the Denver Newspaper Agency building on Thursday, Feb. 26 prior to the awards ceremony for the Society of Professional Journalists. The Rocky won over 35 awards.

Original blog post published March 2, 2009. All photos captured on or near the time of the paper's closure.

Final Edition. Presses fell silent. Shuttered. February 27, 2009.

Artifacts from an era of booming profits, record readership, and huge circulation numbers are all that remain of many newspapers.

Artifacts, be it a copy of a final edition, memories, a yellowed newspaper clipping in the family scrapbook or a now eternally empty rack lining a Colorado street corner are all that remain of the 149-year history of the Rocky Mountain News.

Even as papers fold, many reporters and photographers still fight armed only with a thirst to tell stories that shape their community - be it for a small daily or a major metro with an international scope.

A scoop is a scoop. A great photograph is a great photograph.

Someone garners knowledge from that hard work that leaves those artifacts that we so value.

My thoughts go out to the Rocky staff and those in the community who looked forward to visiting the daily headlines armed only with a curiosity of the world around them and a hot cup of coffee.

Final Editions of the Rocky Mountain News sit unsold, among multiple tabloid magazines at a local bookstore in Denver.

The words, "Rocky Mountain News', once perched high above Colfax Ave, on the Denver Newspaper Agency building, lay strapped to a flatbed trailer. March 3, 2009.