Faculty worry about colleagues

Elizabeth Skewes

SJMC instructor Jim Sheeler (MA ’07) entered his reporting class the morning of Feb. 26 feeling overwhelmed and hurt. He had just found out the Rocky Mountain News, a longtime centerpiece of his personal and professional life, was closing the next day. Sheeler worked at the Rocky for five years as a general assignment news reporter. The day before the paper folded, Editor John Temple contacted Sheeler to write one final piece – the paper’s obituary.

“I can still feel the hole the paper left when it closed,” Sheeler said. “Since college, it was always my paper – it was the first paper I looked at in the morning.”

SJMC instructor Sandra Fish started at the Rocky in June 2008 as a part-time copy editor and worked there until the paper closed; she was scheduled to work the night of Feb. 27, which turned out to be the day the Rocky stopped the presses. She said it was sad to see that the cutting-edge sensibilities at the Rocky were unable to keep it afloat.

“It’s disappointing – the Rocky was innovative online and in print,” Fish said. “They took risks, doing lots of different kinds of stories.”

Elizabeth Skewes, assistant professor, said the “deep, rich pieces” the Rocky published made it unique. Skewes spent five years at the presentation desk there, where she did part-time copy editing. She said the death of the paper seems indicative of the troubles that all media are facing today.

“It’s sad to see a voice in the community shut down,” she said. “More and more papers are struggling with how to fund good journalism; they’re trying to do it on the cheap.”

Most of these journalism school faculty members’ former co-workers are trying to find new jobs in the media, with varying degrees of success. Some friends of Sheeler, Fish and Skewes have helped launch “InDenverTimes,” an online publication started by several former Rocky Mountain News staff members, but which recently suffered a setback when it lost its funding. Others have accepted positions as adjunct instructors at colleges and government agencies. Some are struggling to find work.

“It’s shocking when you are used to going to work in the morning, then you suddenly don’t. It’s hard to know how to spend your time,” Fish said.

Sheeler said one of the saddest elements of the demise of the Rocky is not just the loss to its workers but the loss to its readers.

“Knowing there are so many stories out there that won’t be told is the most difficult part of grasping reality,” he said.