Once you wind your way past the sweeping security desk framed by historical front page framed art and a gallery of photographer's work you are escorted to elevators that take you to the 5th floor, a sort of mecca for would-be journalists. That floor is where the reporters have their low-walled shades of gray cubicles and produce the articles and stories that are read in the newspaper everyday.
Overhead large flat screen TV sets silently report the news from major news sources and local Denver stations. We are introduced to several people, a columnist here, a photo editor there. Most desks consist of PILES of paper: old newspapers, new newspapers, post-it notes, cards, work-up copies, magazines, just an endless prairie of paper.
The photographer's area? Deserted.
People are pleasant yet distant. I've had enough "newcomer" tours in my working tenure to recognize the faces of people who know the lay of the land and they're not eager to share the terrible secrets.
Empty desks are few and far between, giving the area a bustling, busy look, but it turns out the empty desks are further back, around the corner. There are groups of them that sit empty having been vacated by "experience" that no longer is at the Rocky.
One can feel the newness of the place.
Newness - the people in the online section don't make eye contact. They are absorbed in the computer news-void and you can wonder about that generation's social skill level. Newness - the street sign that says "Gene Amole Blvd" looks out of place and like it's covering a spot on the wall. The place doesn't have that lived in feel just yet. Or how a house feels when you stop being sure you can pay the mortgage.
If you pay attention, you can feel the ancient excitement of journalism that has nothing to do with the rise or decline of anything. I don't think the spirit of writing, communication and connecting with a single person or diverse concept can be kept down by worries of circulation numbers. People will keep writing and interpreting our world and what we as readers can't see because we can't be all places at once.
There's more - the visceral need of mankind to document its presence on whatever surface it can find. It will continue. The caves in France from 15,000 BCE, "Kilroy was here" from World War II, and whoever is writing "Stop the Oil War" on idle trains in the Burlington Northern rail-yard in Denver.
The group of people we saw today help form the opinion of the city of Denver and how we view what goes on around us. As I looked into the faces of some of the editors and columnists I know that the news isn't something that you come in and do fresh off the farm. It isn't like working at a job that can be learned in a few days. I understand what "experience" means when it comes to journalism. Time and attention.
Still, there's that nagging question about where print media is heading. Who knows? People a lot more intelligent than me are bringing together the information that are like bricks that pave the road to the future, but what kind of road those bricks will make when they are all put together is still a mystery. Whatever the outcome, journalism will survive, however it may take different forms.
We were told today that there are plenty of jobs to be had in journalism. You'd better be good at more than just writing, though. You better know how to shoot, edit audio, take and edit video and make audio slideshows. Some of the students had a far away look in their eyes when they realize that they are going to have to work a whole lot harder than the man who gave us the tour.
Times have changed, that's for sure.
Maybe what the "Gene Amole Blvd" sign covers is the writing on the wall about the future of print news.
We'll see.
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