In their own words

Five former Rocky employees with Metro ties speak about their time at the paper and the future of the industry.

JOHN ENSSLIN
Journalism Professor
At the Rocky 24 years
•“[Newspapers are] morphing into something else. The reason I say that is because the appetite for news is stronger than it ever has been. Just look at the last election. The business model needs to change. The big circulation, metropolitan dailies may be dead.”
•”The bigger loss is the watchdog element. If we can’t pay somebody to go to the city council meeting then the city council figures that out pretty fast.”

KEVIN VAUGHAN
Metropolitan Editor-in-Chief, 1984 - 1985
At the Rocky 12 years
• “When I look at the last three months there were a lot of days that I picked up the paper and I was proud of what we put in there.”
• “I don’t know where journalism’s headed. I need to sort of see how the next few months play out.”
• “I am extremely grateful that The Denver Post offered me a job. I hope to bring something to the paper and learn something from that group of people.”


CHRIS SCHMAEDEKE
Metro Student
At the Rocky seven years
• “I enjoyed being able to work in journalism while taking journalism classes. I had that real-life experience that I could come into a class and say, ‘I’ve done this.’”
• What was your first Rocky story — “My actual first byline was a state basketball, a girls game. I was an outright nervous wreck. I was so scared. It’s, ‘I’m writing for the biggest paper here.’ I went and took care of it.”


ARMANDO ARRIETA
Journalism Professor
At the Rocky five years
• What did the Rocky mean to you? —
“Everything. It was my world. Best job. My dream job. It was everything I wanted to do, and I was only there for five years. I could only imagine what it’s like for people who have been there for 20, 30 years.”
• What killed the Rocky? — ”Officially, the recession. Personally, reader habits. The success of the Internet doesn’t translate into the current economic model of newspapers.”


JUDY DeHAAS
Photojournalism Professor
At the Rocky five years
• About her class at Metro — “I want to change peoples’ lives. I’m not going to stop just ‘cause some corporate whatevers aren’t making money.”
• “No one goes into journalism that wants to make money. What does happen is a deep sense of fulfillment and purpose.”
• “At The Post I’m going to be just concentrating on shooting. I am very thankful that they thought enough of me to give me a chance.”