Keeping in mind the closure of the Rocky Mountain News earlier this year, it’s not good to hear of another local newspaper struggling. But since filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September, Irvine, California-based Freedom Communications Incorporated has announced it will shut down one of its newspapers: the East Valley Tribune in Arizona.

And, in a cost-slashing move, Freedom also laid off 11 workers, including seven newsroom employees, at the Colorado Springs Gazette, where Monday-Saturday circulation has plummeted 7.8 percent from a year ago (via the Gazette). Almost predictably, the number of readers accessing stories for free online is rising.

The Awl has tracked the carnage at newspapers since 1990, showing a roller-coaster ride for newspaper circulation and then, around the time the Internet proliferates, a long, slow decline.

At least John Temple, the former editor, president, and publisher of the Rocky, has a gig. He’s advising Greenspun Media Group, which runs more than 30 publications, including the Las Vegas Sun, reports INDenverTimes, an online-only publication where some of the Rocky’s former journos congregate.

Read all about the last days of the Rocky in 5280 executive editor Maximillian Potter’s “All the News that’s Fit to be Killed.”

Posted 11/16/2009 at 1:30 pm by Michael de Yoanna
Media, Panorama :: Permalink :: Comments

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.