The “Rocky”, as it was often called, was the oldest newspaper in Denver — and the oldest in Colorado. It survived blizzards, a flood that carried off its presses, and stiff competition from the rival upstart Denver Post, but kept chugging along, defying convention in 1942 by switching to a tabloid format to counter the Post’s conventional broadsheet.
But trouble in the newspaper industry, compounded by the economic downturn, thwarted plans to sell the venerable paper, and parent E.W. Scripps pulled the plug on its life support on February 26. It died February 27 (its last issue), just two months short of its 150th birthday.