Today the media landscape of Denver changed as it was announced by EW Scripps the Rocky Mountain News which has been around almost since the birth of Denver over 150 years ago would publish their last edition on Friday February 27th, leaving Denver as a one newspaper town.  While it wasn’t a total surprise this would happen since the announcement in December that Scripps wanted to sell or shut down the paper in thirty days, it was a decision many had hoped would not be the final result and a buyer would be found.  As the distribution of news turns to the web, advertising dollars have decreased which isn’t helped with the current downturn in the economy as well. Newspapers are needing to redefine themselves to help with the changes the web has brought in recent years.

With this change in the Denver print media it was somewhat ironic Detroit Michigan Photographer Rosh Sillars presented this evening at the ASMP Colorado chapter meeting on the topic of new and social media for photographers.  In his presentation discussing the various social mediums available in this present state Ross did a great job explaining how to best set-up your soft marketing of social media between the hybrid (Flickr, YouTube) and community (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace) sites as your website and blog remains the focus of this marketing.  However as someone who already uses some new/social media the one item I took away from this presentation is that there is not one solution for all and you need to address the various options which are right for your business.

As I walked home from the presentation, I noticed a satellite truck in the middle of Civic Center Park and a reporter preparing for a 9pm live shot.  Looking at the set-up the shot it included the skyline of Denver and the building which houses both Denver newspapers.  This evening the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post logos were both illuminated on the Denver Newspaper Agency building, and while this may continue after tomorrow the media landscape of Denver has changed.