By: Rocky Mountain News staffers have created a Web site to rally readers who want to show their support for the newspaper, which is being sold.
John Ensslin, a reporter and group spokesman, says the site would allow people to show what the newspaper means to their community.
E.W. Scripps Co. announced last week it was putting its flagship newspaper up for sale. It expects it to lose $15 million this year. Scripps says it may close the newspaper if there is no buyer by mid-January.
About 30 staffers met Saturday and Ensslin says the talks will continue.
The Denver Post and the News have a joint operating agreement. The Denver Newspaper Agency handles their business and production operations, while both maintain competing newsrooms.
The site, www.iwantmyrocky, was launched late Sunday. Ensslin sent out the following statement.
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Upon the announcement by the E.W. Scripps Co. to put the Rocky Mountain News up for sale, a move that may bring on the closure of Colorado?s longest running business, members of the Rocky Mountain News banded
together to fight for their newspaper.
Sunday night at 7 p.m. the Web site www.iwantmyrocky.com launched to make the case as to why the Rocky Mountain News is worth saving. The site will give Rocky staffers and readers a chance to express why the newspaper is important to them, putting a face on what many see merely as a business transaction and serving as a reminder of the important role the Rocky
Mountain News has played in Denver and the state of Colorado for the last 150 years.
Addressing Rocky Mountain News readers at www.iwantmyrocky.com, longtime columnist Mike Littwin wrote: ?We ask not for your money, but ? as they say in the sports world ? for the opportunity to play for pride. Many of you read the Rocky. Many of you and your families have read the Rocky for generations. Many of you don't know how to hold a paper that is bigger than a tabloid and simultaneously eat your Wheaties. As you may have heard, the Rocky has been around for nearly 150 years ? and many of us have grown attached to this place. We?re thinking many of you have the same kind of attachment to the Rocky.?
Along with the Web site, Rocky staffers and their supporters will be taking to the airwaves this week. On Monday, Rocky Mountain News reporter Kevin Flynn will be on the Peter Boyles show on 630 KHOW to discuss the
initiative and will be joined by several other Rocky staffers.
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