Today, the 220 remaining employees of the Rocky Mountain News received confirmation of their worst fears. The Rocky Mountain News is being shut down, after owner EW Scripps Co. was unable to find a buyer for the nearly 150 year old newspaper.
Colorado, like most of the country, has experienced more than its fair share of layoffs. Colorado’s unemployment rate hovers in the 7% range so we are in better shape than some other areas of the country, but that brings little peace to those families already impacted by a job loss.
Like many newspapers, the Rocky Mountain News was losing circulation and ad revenues as consumers go online to get their local news. Companies like Craig’s List have really hurt the news industry. Classified advertisements were a huge revenue source or revenue for the newspapers, but it is hard for them to compete against free services like Craig’s List, real estate and automotive web sites and low cost online job search sites.
It will be interesting to see what happens to society if we are not able to find a way to fund quality journalism. It costs real money to pay the salaries for all those hard working journalists that we rely on to report on everything from local crime and government corruption and what is going on with the local school board. Democracy and free markets suceeed so long as they are kept honest and serve the public best interest. I’m not sure we fully appreciate how important quality journalism is to protecting the American way of life.
If you or someone you know lost your job and need someone to explain the various health insurance optons to you, please contact Colorado Health Insurance Brokers and we will do our best to help you through this rough patch.
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