Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo

Now I'm not too big on keeping up on talk inside the newspaper industry. Being up on the latest who took over what at what newspaper has never been that interesting to me. Knowing the names and projects I "should know" has always seemed to hold a bit of elitism which I either am to enlightened to take part in or just not important enough to be involved in.

But just recently, even after our paper had already laid off a bunch, it started really becoming important to me to follow the struggles of our industry. From bankruptcies to closings to papers going online-only and tons of other money savings ideas in between, there is just a TON of news going on right now about newspapers. People are trying some really drastic things with the highest of stakes and its heartbreaking to see what is happening to journalists all over the country, just as it is to see it happening to folks in other industries.

I used to always think that as long as I worked as hard as I could and stayed at the top of my game productivity-wise, that I would be safe from all ths and thus didn't need to worry about the outside world, but it is becoming more and more evident that at some point it may not matter how talented I am or how hard I work. Eventually my paper, my company or even the majority of companies could just up and fold, leaving a ton of really dedicated people without a place to turn for work.

And that's basically the story behind the "Rocky Mountain News." I had heard recently they were up for sale, and got word the other day that they were going to stop publishing altogether as of this week, but it didn't really hit me what that meant until I saw this video. I guess it's more than a video, really a short documentary on the last days of the paper. It's something that anyone who is or has ever been a journalist will be moved by.

It's 20 minutes long so I wouldn't expect people to watch the whole thing, but even if you don't know much about the newspaper industry, just watch the first 2 minutes, which pretty much sum up our industry today and will give you a whole different perspective about the current state of journalism.

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