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REUTEMAN: Rocky and I made it our business to be useful

By Rob Reuteman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 27, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

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For a five-hour stretch on Thursday, I was getting that familiar BlackBerry vibration on my hip holster every 30 seconds or so. Friends and business acquaintances from over the years, reporters and editors I've worked with - all offered sincere, eloquent condolences. Many expressed sorrow for us, for the economic uncertainty the paper's closing will cause.

Don't feel sorry for us - feel sorry for Denver, for Colorado. You may not miss us now, but you will most certainly miss us later. After all, you don't miss your water till the well runs dry.

There will be many nooks and crannies around this town that won't see the light of day any more. It will be somewhat easier for all manner of crooks to prosper. Corruption at all levels of government will grow some. Politicians will escape embarrassment. Businesses will hoodwink their employees and shareholders. More taxpayer money will be wasted. And far fewer people will be looking out for you. I'm talking about trained, dedicated, experienced journalists who know what to look for and know how to get it in front of you to read in digestible form.

Hey, look, I didn't get into journalism to chase Octomom around the block. Neither did any of my colleagues here. This has been serious business, and there necessarily will be less of it done in Denver. When this newsroom is humming - as it is today - the energy is palpable, a thing to behold. I am blessed to have been a cog.

I don't see any villains in this piece. It's the economy, stupid. It's happening everywhere to everything and now it happened here to us.

A summing up seems proper. I have been business editor here since 1997, leader of a team second to few in business journalism. I'll come into the office today and pry a few dozen state and national business journalism award plaques from the past 10 years off the walls. I don't quite know what to do with them, but I ain't leavin' 'em for the buzzards.

The week after last Thanksgiving, I got an e-mail from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. It contained a roster of the Rocky business staff and asked me to write back with any additions (laughable these days) or subtractions. I pored over the list and was shocked to see that, despite all the calamities in the newspaper world, I had the exact same staff as a year earlier. I wrote back and said, "I may well be the only business editor in the country who returns your e-mail with the message: no changes."

I gloated. Two weeks later, we were put on the chopping block. The past few months have been the strangest sort of limbo to work in. But every day brought professional pride and yielded good financial journalism.

There has been a yellowed Rocky clipping on my home office wall since 1999, an article about the life and times of Edward Thomas Taylor, a Colorado congressman for 32 years who died in 1941.

"I never aspired to greatness," Taylor said at 79. "I only aspired to usefulness. I hope to be of worthwhile service in the future."

Try as I have, I've never been able to improve on those sentiments.

reutemanr@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5177

Comments

  • February 27, 2009

    8:26 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Ottis writes:

    Rob, good column. As someone who has worked with you professionally in Denver, my best wishes to you. Thanks for your good work. The Rocky will indeed be missed.

  • February 27, 2009

    8:59 a.m.

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    law1 writes:

    Mr. Reuteman, I know you guys rarely get thanked for the work you do so...thank you. I consider good reporters like you to be some of our most valuable public servants, on par with teachers

  • February 27, 2009

    11:43 a.m.

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    dwschulze writes:

    Rob,

    Where will you be writing now?

  • February 28, 2009

    11:59 a.m.

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    dencolo writes:

    From Rob Reuteman:
    I am unemployed. I do serve on the executive committee for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (sabew.org). The national business editors convention will be in Denver April 26-28. Clearly, we will have much to discuss. I am busying myself working as its program chairman. Visit the Website for more info. It has been a sincere honor to have served you all as a Rocky editor for 26 years, the best of my life so far.