Tgif. I guess.

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

It's a sad, sad TGIF video day. The Rocky Mountain News, a dream job newspaper of mine for so long, has published it's last edition. A 150 year old institution, gone.

It's stunning. Suddenly 220 people are without jobs in a shit economy, in a struggling industry. And these folks aren't just losing their jobs, they're losing their careers. And we're not just losing newspapers, we're losing our government watchdogs, our literacy, our biggest allies in the protection of the First Amendment.

What's so distressing, I think, is that for all the talk about new models of getting information - video, blogs, photos, multimedia - few papers have done it as well as the Rocky. And to what end? These Band-Aids can hardly stop the bleeding of a failing business model, shifting readership and corporate profiteers.

The Rocky had the Pulitzers to back up it's accomplished staff and service, but in the end (sadly) Pulitzers and quality mean little in the face of 20 percent profit margins to corporate behemoths.

Next week I promise to return to our normally scheduled fun and entertaining TGIF video, but for today, a salute to those folks at the Rocky Mountain News and for the rest of my friends and former colleagues at struggling newspapers everywhere.