Say it ain't so

Sad to say, Denver's first newspaper -- and the state's oldest business -- published its last edition today. Today's issue is a keeper, though. Full of great stories about and from the publication's storied past, as well as all of today's news. The front page features a goodbye to readers, framed by the first front page of the first edition, published April 23, 1859.

Just saw the photo on the Rocky's home page, and it's an empty newsroom. Makes me feel a little sick.

Here's an excerpt from the front-page goodbye:

To have reached this day, the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News, just 55 days shy of its 150th birthday is painful. We will scatter. And all that will be left are the stories we have told, captured on microfilm or in digital archives, devices unimaginable in those first days. But what was present in the paper then and has remained to this day is a belief in this community and the people who make it what it has become and what it will be. We part in sorrow because we know so much lies ahead that will be worth telling, and we will not be there to do so.

Rest in peace, Rocky. May your spirit live on in journalists for generations to come.