It came into being on a dark night two years before the Civil War's first gunshots, survived a flood that washed away its press and countless threats to its very existence, then enjoyed, in the twilight of its life, recognition as one of the best newspapers in the country.
But today marks the final milestone in the storied history of the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado's first newspaper and oldest continually operated business.
This is the last edition of the paper of Damon Runyon and Harry Rhoads, of Mrs. Molly Mayfield and Al Nakkula, of Gene Amole and Dusty Saunders and scores of other characters. The paper whose reporters fancied themselves the "Wildcats of Welton Street" in an earlier era. The paper that shed the bawdy image of the tabloid to win four Pulitzer Prizes since 2000.
In the end, it was the economics - not the history nor the people nor the Pulitzers - that mattered.
The Denver metro area simply could not support two major newspapers in the midst of the current economic recession. That came on top of tectonic shifts sweeping the news business, including, most recently, the phenomenon that has seen the Internet siphon off once-lucrative pieces of the business, such as classified advertising.
The end - anticipated since the E.W. Scripps Co. put the paper up for sale on Dec. 4 - officially came a few minutes after noon Thursday when the Rocky's staff was summoned to the news desk.
Rich Boehne, the president and CEO of Scripps, stepped into the newsroom, and everyone knew.
"Tomorrow will be the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News," Boehne began simply. "It's certainly not good news for any of you, and it's certainly not good news for Denver."
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