“Final Edition” is an excellent piece of video journalism by the staff of The Rocky Mountain News. The video chronicles the final weeks of the newspaper and its staff.

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

The Rocky published its final edition Feb. 27, 2009, after 149 years and 311 days. The newspaper, owned by E.W. Scripps Company, was put up for sale Dec. 4, 2008, due to challenging economic times and the failure of the traditional newspaper business model.

There is much to admire about the way Matthew Roberts and the Rocky photo staff shot and produced this piece. It is a tribute to the dedication of the journalists who worked there and the community that  supported the newspaper for 149 years.

“Final Edition” is a compelling and sad story, similar to what we as journalists have told about other people for years and now tell about ourselves.

According to his message board, Joe Mahoney, former assistant director of multimedia/Rocky Mountain News, said the project began Dec. 4th, when E.W. Scripps announced that the paper was for sale. It was shot and edited during the intervening months, but a great deal of final editing was done in the past week and well into last night by Matthew Roberts.