150, and done, the Rocky Mountain News is History.

Being mostly from the west, I've been hearing this or that story "as reported" by the Rocky Mountain News for some time. Because of my recent blogging efforts, I've been reading the paper a lot lately. Here, the employees get the bad news. They should keep in mind though, that is "G. Gordon Liddy" hawking gold over their shoulders on the TV monitor, so while things may get bad (Liddy being a convicted Watergate felon), they do change.

They are toast.

"The Rocky Mountain News publishes its last paper tomorrow.

Rich Boehne, chief executive officer of Scripps, broke the news to the Rocky staff at noon today, ending nearly three months of speculation over the paper's future. He called the paper a victim of a terrible economy and an upheaval in the newspaper industry.

'Denver can't support two newspapers any longer,' Boehne told staffers, some of whom cried at the news. 'It's certainly not good news for you, and it's certainly not good news for Denver.'

On Dec. 4, Boehne announced that Scripps was looking for a buyer for the Rocky and its 50 percent interest in the Denver Newspaper Agency, the company that handles business matters for the papers, because of financial losses in Denver. Scripps said the Rocky lost $16 million in 2008.

'This moment is nothing like any experience any of us have had,' Boehne said. 'The industry is in serious, serious trouble.' "

Sorry to see them go, but they could have tried the untried. Namely, taking an overty conservative outlook, as opposed to the "objective" (liberal really) approach. They were almost 150 years old. Slavery was still legal in the United States when they started, there hadn't been a civil war, the West was not yet won, and women could not vote.

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