It's -30- for Albuquerque Daily

By: Saturday was be the last day The Albuquerque Tribune will publish, and Governor Bill Richardson has proclaimed it ?Albuquerque Tribune Day? in New Mexico.

The Albuquerque Tribune, the city's afternoon newspaper, closed shop today after nearly nine decades.

The simple front-page headline read "Good night, Albuquerque."

Editor Phill Casaus says he's been taking phone calls all day from readers sobbing and crying.

Casaus praised his staff's commitment, will and love of the newspaper and of each other.

Eighteen editors, reporters and photographers hunkered down in front of computer screens to put out the last edition.

Tribune newswire editor and most senior staffer Rick Hindley sent the final edition to print, 18 seconds before the 9 a.m. deadline.

The Pulitzer prize-winning Tribune became the latest newspaper to succumb as readers increasingly shunned ink and paper for electronic media.

Richardson says the newspaper has been a voice for the people for 86 years and says he?s saddened to be losing that voice.

The governor says he joins Tribune Editor Phill Casaus in calling on New Mexicans to celebrate the paper?s long and proud history.

"The Tribune has been an important institution?a voice for the people?for 86 years," Richardson said, adding that he's saddened to be losing that voice.

Editor Casaus appreciated the governor's proclamation.

"What can I say, it's humbling and flattering," Casaus said Friday. "This newspaper always covered state government pretty intensely and for them to do that is flattering. I don't think they did it because we were easy on them."

In fact, Richardson's proclamation reads: "Tribune columnists and editorial writers have needled those in power when they (often) needed it and praised them when they (rarely) deserved it, contributing to a reputation as an aggressive and tenacious watchdog of government at all levels."

The Tribune's Cincinnati-based owner, E.W. Scripps Co., announced last August that the afternoon newspaper would close unless a buyer could be found.

The president of a New Mexico advertising and public relations firm and his business partner made an offer for the newspaper in October, but withdrew it early this month, saying they could not put the deal together.
The newspaper's 38 editorial employees were told during a staff meeting Wednesday that the last edition would be Saturday.

Richardson's proclamation highlighted the history of The Tribune and praised it for "consistent, award-winning and in-depth coverage as well as dramatic, surprising and quietly beautiful photography."

The newspaper also mastered the art of what the governor called the most precious page in every newspaper?the comics.

Aside from praising the newspaper for its 86 years of storytelling, Richardson wrapped up his proclamation with a bit of humor.

"Whereas," the proclamation reads, "whether by Election Night deli feasts, lunchtime pizza pigouts or the most holy of Tribune holidays, Pie Friday, the Tribune has proven time and time again that a newsroom travels on its stomach."