Temple: Rocky moving day is here - finally

Published August 5, 2006 at midnight

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I've moved more times than I can remember.

But I've never experienced a move like this.

We all know what it's like packing and unpacking boxes, lugging furniture, cleaning the old place and then having to do the same to the new one when we're all worn out.

Well, moving a newspaper throws in a whole new set of challenges.

We won't have to do the heavy lifting or even bring our old furniture with us when we move today. But the Rocky Mountain News has to keep publishing without skipping a beat while hundreds of people and their computer equipment migrate a few blocks from just west of the Denver Mint to the northwest corner of Broadway and Colfax - 101 W. Colfax Ave. to be exact.

Your Monday paper will be produced in part from our new address. By a week from Monday, if all goes according to plan, the entire Rocky will be generated from there.

I'm not complaining about the juggling act of publishing and moving at the same time. Most of us here at the Rocky are thrilled about our new digs, even if some of us have had to take some time to get our arms around the idea of being a floor below our competitor, The Denver Post.

When I walked into the Rocky's newsroom for the first time more than 14 years ago, it was electric. The place seemed so big. Yet it was abuzz with people. I loved the windows that wrap the room on the north and east and the terrace. When I was metro editor, I held news meetings there on nice days. The editor's office has a view of Mount Evans that I'll never forget.

But 14 years later, there are more of us and more computers crammed into a space that doesn't feel big anymore. The carpet's the same. The furniture's the same. To be kind, the place has seen better days.

It would be nice if I could say that was the reason we were moving. And in part it is. But the truth is more complicated. Since the joint operating agreement went into effect in 2001, it's been inefficient at best for the Denver Newspaper Agency - a third company that handles all business matters, from advertising to circulation, for the Rocky and the Post - to work out of two buildings.

It's made it difficult for the agency's staff to work together and for either newsroom to work with them. And that's not good at a time of great opportunity - and great challenges - for newspapers.

The new 11-story building gives the agency and the two papers a fresh start.

When we leave the site we've occupied since 1952, we'll be saying goodbye to a rich history and a colorful past. Our new newsroom won't have a darkroom or editors who smoke while poring over copy. It will never see a spittoon or hot type. No wire machine will ever clatter out the story of the day. I'm told we're still going to have a few typewriters (electrics not Underwoods).

That doesn't mean we're forgetting those who came before us. If you walk our grand new 45,000-square-foot space, you'll see plaques telling the story of some of the people who've made the Rocky what it is today: William Byers, the paper's founder; Jack Foster, the second-most-important editor in its history, who turned it into a tabloid; Harry Rhoads, perhaps its greatest photographer; Greg Lopez, the wonderful columnist whose life was tragically cut short in a hit-and-run accident by a drunken driver; E.W. Scripps, the man who more than 125 years ago started the media company that now owns the Rocky; Frances Melrose, the versatile reporter, history columnist and grand dame; Al Nak-kula, the most storied police reporter in the paper's history; and Vern Walker, a fine man who died on assignment when his plane crashed while he was taking pictures of fall colors.

Finally, there's Gene Amole Way. Today, it's a street outside our building. Those signs will soon come down to make way for a justice center. But new ones are already up on the "street" that binds our new newsroom, a reminder that Gene Amole's Way - writing to express, not to impress - is the Rocky way.

I would like to think that all of these people, too, would be excited by their paper's new home.

By a library-cafe inspired by the Tattered Cover bookstore where staff members will be able to take a break or read away from the hum of the newsroom.

By a terrace overlooking Civic Center, with a sweeping view of the mountains. One of two on our floor.

By a conference room where we can view photos, Web pages, television news and even the pages of our paper as we build them, all projected on a screen in front of our team.

By a news desk that will be the first true nerve center we've ever had, where our Web operation and our print operation will converge and work together, day and night.

Our goal has been to create a great place to work. The result, we hope, will be even better journalism for you, in print, online and soon on a ticker that runs along the Broadway side of our building.

One of these days we hope you'll be able to come on down and take a look.

For now, I hope you'll wish us luck.

John Temple can be reached at editor@RockyMountainNews.com or by mail at 100 Gene Amole Way, Denver, CO 80204.

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