IWantMyRocky.com was created in December as part of an effort to save the Rocky Mountain News. In February, the Rocky published its final edition, silencing a 150-year-old voice and extinguishing an institution older than Colorado itself. We lost the battle to save the Rocky, but we’re still here to fight for the news.

By the end of 2009, the number of journalists who have lost their jobs since 2001 is expected to pass 14,000. That’s roughly 25 percent of the industry’s news workforce. Whose stories are going untold as a result? Which government agencies are going unwatched? What agendas are slipping beneath the public’s radar? At IWantMyRocky.com, we will work to restore the journalistic prowess that has been lost and join efforts to save news organizations on the brink.

Here’s how we’ll start:

• By participating in the formation of a national strategy on journalism to address the current crisis and take advantage of the opportunities it presents;
• By maintaining a credible source of news and analysis about the industry and its changes;
• By partnering with other organizations working hard to restore the public’s faith in journalism and understanding of its intrinsic value to our political and social systems.

In addition, IWantMyRocky.com continues to serve as a meeting place for journalists of the Rocky Mountain News, offing links and contact information for the reporters, photographers, editors and others you came to know and trust.

About Kim Humphreys, director

“Let’s do something about it.”

That was my call to colleagues on Dec. 4, the day the Rocky’s parent company put the paper up for sale. That was the beginning of a campaign in which I am proud to have been a leader. And while the outcome was not what we had hoped for, our efforts were not wasted and our work is not finished.

I was a copy editor and page designer at the Rocky, working mostly on the news and business desks since 2003. Previously, I had worked for the Associated Press and a couple of community newspapers in Colorado, including the Longmont Daily Times-Call, where I was deputy managing editor and editor of the editorial pages.

I’m a fourth-generation Denver native, and it’s still the place I call home.

Acknowledgments

Thanks and gratitude to the founders of the original IWantMyRocky effort, including John Ensslin, Kevin Flynn, Steve Foster and Mel Pomponio.