Scripps puts Rocky Mountain News up for sale, cites economic downturn

Denver’s oldest newspaper — and Colorado’s oldest continually operating business — is up for sale, the parent company of the Rocky Mountain News announced Thursday. “The decision to seek a buyer for the Rocky would have been unthinkable until very recently,” EW Scripps Co. CEO Rich Boehne said in a statement, pointing to a worsening economic climate that has led to $11 million in losses so far this year.

Vail Mountaineer editor quits over publisher’s ‘journalistic standards’

The editor of the fledgling Vail Mountaineer resigned in a huff Monday, sending out a mass e-mail questioning the “journalistic standards, ethics and principles” of publisher Jim Pavelich, who also owns the Denver Daily News and several California papers.

Local TV stations ax well-paid anchors as viewers decline, revenue shrivels

Veteran Denver TV anchorman Ernie Bjorkman will get the chance to move into his next career as a veterinary assistant a few years sooner than planned after getting a pink slip a few weeks after signing a quarter-million-dollar contract in October. The New York Times wistfully reported Sunday the decline of big-money local anchors as the economy socks an industry already hit with big drops in viewers.

New media, new opportunities through the eyes of a young journalist

In the five years since I first became a reporter, I have worked for two established print weeklies, both of which have gone out of business. Most recently, I was working for an award-winning online news site financially supported by a nonprofit organization, before nearly two-thirds of the staff were abruptly laid off after the election. For young reporters like me, the Internet is the primary medium for news content, and it is already leading to a new and inclusive form of journalism rooted in public participation. Although cynics like to say that the craft is a dead end for both young reporters and veteran writers alike, I think it’s an exciting time to be a journalist.

Reporters invited to park the boss’s cars in Longmont

Media writer Mike Roberts over at Westword frequently delivers good nuggets, like his report today about how staffers at the Longmont Times-Call recently were invited to pick up some extra cash by working as valets at a Christmas party for the newspaper’s owners. And two staffers, Roberts noted, have already taken them up on the offer.

Vail Daily shutters Vail’s first newspaper, the venerable Vail Trail

In yet another sign of just how tough things are in the newspaper industry these days, even community publications — once nearly unassailable in terms of financial viability — are getting the axe.

Big changes coming to traditional newspapers

While the nation focuses on the upcoming election next week, many major media companies are making important announcements that are flying under the public’s radar.

Traditional print journalism losing impact?

The New York Observer printed an interesting article Tuesday asking the simple question: Is print journalism impacting this election cycle in the same way it has others before it?

The answer from New York Times editors and reporters was “No.”

Press forum: News orgs aren’t pushing for info like they used to

A panel of Colorado journalists said an industry downturn has led media companies to shy away from pressing for access to government information, Gil Klein posts on his National Press Club blog on Thursday.

Google to digitize newspaper archives, attach advertising

In effort to offer users more relevant content, and to make money through online ads, Google announced this week that it will start digitizing newspaper archives and make them available as part of its Google News search platform.