The Rocky Mountain News won 27 first place awards in two statewide journalism contests this weekend.
The honors include the general excellence and public service reporting awards in the Colorado Associated Press Editors and Reporters contest.
The awards were announced as the Rocky published its final edition on Friday. The Rocky won first place in 14 categories in the CAPERs contest announced Friday, and in 13 categories in the Colorado Press Association contest announced Saturday. The Denver Post won 10 first place awards in CAPERs and 17 in the CPA contest.
Colorado Associated …

After nearly 150 years, the Rocky Mountain News will publish its last newspaper on Friday.

From all of us at I Want My Rocky, thank you doesn’t seem to say everything you, our readers, mean to us. We will treasure all the kind words sent in to us via this Web site and the support you’ve given us by making the Rocky your newspaper of choice in Denver.

We are truly sorry for the outcome.

Please keep watching this Web site for further announcements on where you can find your favorite writers.

It’s Monday, so you know what that means: back to work, even for those of us at the Rocky Mountain News. Today is Monday, Feb. 23., and not many news outlets who first reported on our situation expected us to be here today. Yet, this morning on your doorstep was another Monday’s edition of the Rocky and our web site is still alive and well.

In this morning’s Rocky, you learn the rather ironic fact that despite being the stage for the signing of the stimulus bill, Colorado will actually receive less money from the package per resident than 48 other states; if you couldn’t wait out the end of the neverending Oscar broadcast, you learned that Slumdog Millionaire struck it rich; airlines are considering offering in-flight Internet access; curling — yes, curling — holds its U.S. Olympic Trials here this week; Chris Iannetta continues to blossom as the Rockies catcher and Dave Krieger says Ian Stewart should be in the lineup every day and puzzles over why he isn’t; and if you’re keeping track, the Rocky@150 series has now reached its 99th year, 1976, the year of the Big Thompson Flood and the year the price of the newspaper soared to 15 cents.

An editorial in the Intermountain Jewish News argues for the Rocky’s survival, not because it’s the Rocky, but because a city needs many editorial voices:

And the Denver Post? Were it the Post that threatened to go under, we would be writing in praise and support of the Post. It is an excellent newspaper. But neither it — nor the News — can do the job of both together. With different staffs, different styles, different takes on the same news, each brings out the best in the other and heightens the free flow of news in Denver. Our city is blessed — and we hope it stays that way.

Today, is Monday, Feb. 16, two months since we launched IwantmyRocky.com and one month from the day many people assumed we would be gone. Despite all the rumors then and all the rumors now, it is another Monday at the Rocky Mountain News. If you don’t believe us, check your doorstep.

The newspaper is still there and our Web Site is still here. This morning we reported on truly Western jobs like the bartender, the cowboy, the poker dealer, the miner and more; President Obama’s impending visit to the city to sign the stimulus bill; the bargains available for skiing and snowboarding tickets; the NBA All-Star Game, the dropping numbers of sage grouse, the Daytona 500; and perhaps the biggest decision facing Colorado this spring: who will be the Rockies’ fifth starter. It’s a decision we plan to be around to report.

Thank you again to those who have written in support of the Rocky, and thank you to all of those who continue to pick up the newspaper each morning and visit our Web site each day.

Someone really wants the community to believe that the Rocky’s death is imminent.

Wednesday morning, the Rocky Mountain News reported about a draft letter produced by the Denver Newspaper Agency anticipating that Denver will be a one-newspaper town as of March 1, 2009, and that newspaper will be the Denver Post.

Here’s what we really know.

First, Denver Post owner Dean Singleton said the Rocky planned to close down “as soon as practicable.” We’re still here.

Then, we were supposed to be dead on Jan. 16. We’re still here.

Now, the DNA is getting ready to tell advertisers that Dean will be a operating newspaper monopoly on March 1.

However, the owner of the Rocky has only announced its intention to sell the newspaper. E.W. Scripps has said nothing about closure. Singleton, on the other hand, has taken every opportunity to portray the Rocky as a dead newspaper walking. That’s hardly surprising, given that in the last week, the Rocky Mountain News reported that he has borrowed heavily from the Denver Newspaper Agency just to make his payroll and is planning to take over the agency once the Rocky (he hopes) goes away.

But today is February 4, and we’re still here. And we plan to be here on March 4, as well. As long as there are two newspapers, the Denver Newspaper Agency works for both of us. That’s the way it was set up, and that’s what the attorney general of the United States sanctioned – a 50/50 partnership.

Thank you to the loyal readers who are helping the community, our owners and the owners of the Denver Post know that you will not accept just any newspaper on your doorstep.

Keep sending your messages of support. But please don’t send flowers, because we’re not dead.

Check out this Flickr slide show for more images from last week’s candle light rally.

Here are a few images of those who gathered to show their support for the Rocky Mountain News at the candle light rally Thursday.

If you attended and took photos, share them with us. E-mail pictures to contactus@iwantmyrocky.com, and we’ll add them to our gallery below.