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Eric Brown can look out the window of his new office and see his old digs, just across the park, maybe the length of a few football fields away.
Looking at The Denver Post building would have made him cringe not long ago. But now he is in his third week of his new job, one of the lucky ones from a growing pool of out-of-work journalists who are on the streets not of their own volition, but because their jobs as reporters, photographers and editors don’t exist anymore.
Across the country newspapers, including Fort Collins Now, are closing their doors because the economic calculus of ink and newsprint is becoming more difficult to reconcile in the age of declining circulation, readership and ad revenue. The Internet also figures into the math that is making newspaper owners the world over scratch their heads, trying to find a business model that works in this economic climate.
Brown, a 1993 Colorado State University graduate, was the city editor for the Rocky Mountain News when it published its final edition in February. He worked for the News for nine years, going to Colorado’s oldest newspaper after a 3 1/2-year stint at The Greeley Tribune, sister paper to Fort Collins Now.
Now he’s the communications director for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. His office in Denver’s City and County Building looks east across Civic Center Park.
“I thought I would be in newspapers — forever is a long time — but I thought it would be my (only) career,” Brown said.
His thoughts have been echoed by Rocky colleagues as well as journalists at Northern Colorado papers the Fort Collins Coloradoan and The Greeley Tribune, which have made several cuts to newsroom staff during the past two years. But Brown said the idea of having just one career is antiquated. The current crop of college graduates will have multiple careers, most likely, and they’re fine with that, Brown said.
“Once you get your arms around that, it makes it a little easier to decide, this is what I’m going to go for,” Brown said.
His job on the other side of the fence, in public relations, juggling calls from reporters and radio personalities, working with the mayor’s scheduler and prepping his speeches for public appearances, is not unlike working in the middle of a newsroom. He’s right at home.
Even so, Brown not surprisingly laments what is happening to newspapers across the country.
In Northern Colorado:
» In December, FCN parent company Swift announced layoffs at several mountain properties, including the Grand Junction Free Press and papers in Glenwood Springs and Aspen. Earlier, a free weekly, the Vail Trail, was shuddered altogether.
» In January, the Coloradoan’s parent company, Gannett, announced company-wide unpaid furloughs for the quarter. All employees had to take a week off without pay. The move was in lieu of layoffs, Gannett officials said. Those furloughs extended into the second quarter, and will likely be repeated in the third quarter. When the first furloughs were announced, a Coloradoan staffer told FCN that it was “a nice way of giving us a pay cut.” The staffer went on to say, “If it saves jobs, I think people are for it. … Maybe it will get better when we get on the other side of the fence.”
» Earlier this month, the Coloradoan moved all of its printing operations to Denver, cutting 42 jobs.
» May 21 is the last edition of Fort Collins Now, which means the loss of three jobs.
Elswhere:
» In March, the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News cut delivery of print versions to three days a week. They’ll use their Web sites for coverage the rest of the week.
» In December, Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and The Sun (in Baltimore), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Newspapers in Minneapolis and Philadelphia have since done the same.
» The Seattle Post-Intelligencer in March went to an online-only paper, leaving the Seattle Times as the only surviving daily in that city.
» Analysts say it’s possible that at least one major metro area could be without a daily newspaper soon. Candidates include San Francisco, Miami, Minneapolis or Cleveland.
That is just a snapshot of what is happening in the industry.
Back in March 2003, the times weren’t so dark. Joel Dyer and Greg Campbell came to Fort Collins with notion of starting up a free weekly that would tell the in-depth stories that up to that point hadn’t been told.
“I think it’s fair to say that the experiment that Joel and I set in motion back in 2003 exceeded my expectations,” said Campbell, who stepped down as editor in December 2008 to pursue writing books full-time.
In the beginning, he and Dyer often thought their next edition would be the last. But they soldiered on with the help of a loyal advertising and readership base.
The Fort Collins Weekly’s successful template attracted the attention of Swift, which purchased the paper in the summer of 2007. The paper then launched a twice-a-week format in August of that year under the new name Fort Collins Now. Delivery was cut back to once a week in October of last year.
Along the way, Campbell and his team regularly produced award-winning journalism.
Campbell spearheaded the comprehensive coverage of the Tim Masters case. The coverage led to intense public scrutiny of the case, ultimately leading to Masters being exonerated for murder and freed from prison.
“We reported on stories that wouldn’t have seen the light of day,” Campbell said, and along the way “righted some wrongs.”
He’s proud of the paper’s legacy and is sorry that it is at an end.
“My biggest regret is that there won’t be an equal voice that will continue on where we left off.”
Looking at The Denver Post building would have made him cringe not long ago. But now he is in his third week of his new job, one of the lucky ones from a growing pool of out-of-work journalists who are on the streets not of their own volition, but because their jobs as reporters, photographers and editors don’t exist anymore.
Across the country newspapers, including Fort Collins Now, are closing their doors because the economic calculus of ink and newsprint is becoming more difficult to reconcile in the age of declining circulation, readership and ad revenue. The Internet also figures into the math that is making newspaper owners the world over scratch their heads, trying to find a business model that works in this economic climate.
Brown, a 1993 Colorado State University graduate, was the city editor for the Rocky Mountain News when it published its final edition in February. He worked for the News for nine years, going to Colorado’s oldest newspaper after a 3 1/2-year stint at The Greeley Tribune, sister paper to Fort Collins Now.
Now he’s the communications director for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. His office in Denver’s City and County Building looks east across Civic Center Park.
“I thought I would be in newspapers — forever is a long time — but I thought it would be my (only) career,” Brown said.
His thoughts have been echoed by Rocky colleagues as well as journalists at Northern Colorado papers the Fort Collins Coloradoan and The Greeley Tribune, which have made several cuts to newsroom staff during the past two years. But Brown said the idea of having just one career is antiquated. The current crop of college graduates will have multiple careers, most likely, and they’re fine with that, Brown said.
“Once you get your arms around that, it makes it a little easier to decide, this is what I’m going to go for,” Brown said.
His job on the other side of the fence, in public relations, juggling calls from reporters and radio personalities, working with the mayor’s scheduler and prepping his speeches for public appearances, is not unlike working in the middle of a newsroom. He’s right at home.
Even so, Brown not surprisingly laments what is happening to newspapers across the country.
In Northern Colorado:
» In December, FCN parent company Swift announced layoffs at several mountain properties, including the Grand Junction Free Press and papers in Glenwood Springs and Aspen. Earlier, a free weekly, the Vail Trail, was shuddered altogether.
» In January, the Coloradoan’s parent company, Gannett, announced company-wide unpaid furloughs for the quarter. All employees had to take a week off without pay. The move was in lieu of layoffs, Gannett officials said. Those furloughs extended into the second quarter, and will likely be repeated in the third quarter. When the first furloughs were announced, a Coloradoan staffer told FCN that it was “a nice way of giving us a pay cut.” The staffer went on to say, “If it saves jobs, I think people are for it. … Maybe it will get better when we get on the other side of the fence.”
» Earlier this month, the Coloradoan moved all of its printing operations to Denver, cutting 42 jobs.
» May 21 is the last edition of Fort Collins Now, which means the loss of three jobs.
Elswhere:
» In March, the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News cut delivery of print versions to three days a week. They’ll use their Web sites for coverage the rest of the week.
» In December, Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and The Sun (in Baltimore), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Newspapers in Minneapolis and Philadelphia have since done the same.
» The Seattle Post-Intelligencer in March went to an online-only paper, leaving the Seattle Times as the only surviving daily in that city.
» Analysts say it’s possible that at least one major metro area could be without a daily newspaper soon. Candidates include San Francisco, Miami, Minneapolis or Cleveland.
That is just a snapshot of what is happening in the industry.
Back in March 2003, the times weren’t so dark. Joel Dyer and Greg Campbell came to Fort Collins with notion of starting up a free weekly that would tell the in-depth stories that up to that point hadn’t been told.
“I think it’s fair to say that the experiment that Joel and I set in motion back in 2003 exceeded my expectations,” said Campbell, who stepped down as editor in December 2008 to pursue writing books full-time.
In the beginning, he and Dyer often thought their next edition would be the last. But they soldiered on with the help of a loyal advertising and readership base.
The Fort Collins Weekly’s successful template attracted the attention of Swift, which purchased the paper in the summer of 2007. The paper then launched a twice-a-week format in August of that year under the new name Fort Collins Now. Delivery was cut back to once a week in October of last year.
Along the way, Campbell and his team regularly produced award-winning journalism.
Campbell spearheaded the comprehensive coverage of the Tim Masters case. The coverage led to intense public scrutiny of the case, ultimately leading to Masters being exonerated for murder and freed from prison.
“We reported on stories that wouldn’t have seen the light of day,” Campbell said, and along the way “righted some wrongs.”
He’s proud of the paper’s legacy and is sorry that it is at an end.
“My biggest regret is that there won’t be an equal voice that will continue on where we left off.”
