Where are we headed?

After nearly 150 years, Rocky Mountain News, one of Colorado's daily newspapers folded on Friday, February 27.

With the downturn in the economy, newspapers and magazines, like many businesses, are filing for bankruptcy or just downright going out of business. This got me thinking about the death of newspapers, a topic several of my journalism classes have either heavily focused on or briefly mentioned.

Not quite the comforting news you want to hear when you're hoping to find a job in the industry, but is it reality or not?

I remember in Reporting I lecture, which I took about a year ago, Professor Ron Yates refuted the idea of newspapers becoming obsolete. One of his arguments was that most people spend their time in front of a computer while at work, and they wouldn't want to spend even more time on the computer once they're home to fetch their news. Also, the nostalgia that comes from sitting down with a newspaper in-hand simply can't be offered by the web.

Yet, there is a certain population of younger generations who are not used to the idea of paying for their news. Instead, they're used to receiving their news in their inboxes for free, and this makes me a little apprehensive.

The video on the Rocky Mountain News site could quite possibly be the most depressing thing I've seen since watching Titanic, but, at the same time, it gives me hope. The passion and commitment the employees at Rocky Mountain News displayed in the video make me optimistic about the future of newspapers. I like to think these employees are a snapshot of each and every newsroom across the nation, perhaps even the globe, and that they'll help keep newspapers alive.

Let's hope I'm not just being naive.