The Rocky Mountain News appears today in a new form - a form in keeping with the demands of the times.

The page is smaller. It is easier to handle, easier to read.

More emphasis is put on pictures. This is in keeping with the faster tempo of American Life. Sometimes a photographer with a flick of a finger can tell a story more vividly than any of us can spin in words.

Headline type is bolder, more vigorous, more legible. News stories are terser, more compact.

Pace of living has quickened. Pulse of production has been speeded up. With the revolutionary change of Colorado life has come the need for a crisper, more direct, more dynamically human type of daily newspaper.

The new Rocky Mountain News is designed to supply that need.

Jack Foster

1906-1978 - Editor

Jack Foster -- one of the Rocky's greatest editors, and the man who helped save it from certain death -- began his career at 15, as a sports writer in Cleveland.

The paper's owner, Scripps-Howard, soon transferred him to Denver, where the energetic Foster managed to work for both of the company's Denver papers, the morning Rocky Mountain News and the afternoon Denver Evening News, showing up at all hours with reams of copy.

Foster moved to New York, where he was assistant executive editor of the New York World-Telegram when Scripps-Howard asked him to take over as editor of the Rocky. Foster jumped at the chance. But he found the Rocky nearly at death's door.

Foster and business manager Bill Hailey led the effort to change to a tabloid format. Along with other innovations by Foster -- including the "Molly Mayfield" column written by his wife, Frances "Frankie" Foster -- the Rocky rebuilt its circulation and survived.

When Foster retired in 1970 after 30 years as editor, his newspaper was Scripps'largest. The University of Denver's Penrose Library houses a collection of his papers, including correspondence with President Eisenhower.