My first exposure to the Rocky Mountain News was in January 1965. I had completed my mid-year exams and had flown to Denver for a job interview with Jack Foster, the Rocky's editor. Foster also was probably one of the closest friends of my father, who was then general editorial manager and president of E.W. Scripps Co.

Foster in fact had been sent to Denver from New York City about 25 years before, and my father and he had remained in weekly touch (except for the war years) for a quarter of a century. Given the fact that Foster himself had worked for my grandfather, Roy W. Howard, at the New York World-Telegram in the '30s, I thought the chances for a job come summer looked pretty good. I wasn't mistaken. What can you say about nepotism? It tends to run in the family.

We cemented our deal for me to become a general assignment reporter in August 1965 by celebrating at the Lotus Room. Few today in Denver have ever heard of the Lotus Room, I imagine; if your taste runs in the direction of greasy mutton fat washed down by Sake-tinis (Sake and vodka) you were probably in the right place.

Sharing space with the V.F.W. on Bannock Street and Speer Boulevard, the Lotus Room had it all, from gambling at Chinese New Year's with the mayor to the best egg roll in town. The price was right, too.

Now that this city apparently is going to have but one newspaper, 44 years ago seems almost an Ice Age phenomenon. I had hoped that if Denver ever became a one newspaper town, I would be on the winning team.

Denver had been a multi-newspaper town at the turn of the previous century with several owners having a piece of the action. The Rocky had been the bantamweight all its life, but after World War II there were plenty of people who knew that one day that funny looking tabloid morning newspaper (a traditional East Coast format introduced by Foster) would overtake its more profitable, bigger competition, The Denver Post. Plenty of naysayers could be found all over the metropolitan area, but the feisty Rocky staff and its readers had a soul and spirit that suggested the underdog never looks as good as the champ until the fight is over.

There came a day in 1980 when the underdog Rocky overtook the Post in daily circulation, a lift which gave many people, including not only those who worked for the Rocky, the belief that one day we would become No. 1 for good, not only in daily circulation, but also on Sundays. Unfortunately, as we now know, that day never came.

What made the Rocky different from every newspaper I ever worked for is that its newsroom was a real kick in the ass. It was a fun place to hang out. The entire building, from pressroom to newsroom, hummed with activity. Like it or not, just about everything a newsman wanted eventually became available somewhere in the building.

But on top of that, the Rocky put out an exciting, sometimes ruthless newspaper. Foster and his wife, columnist Molly Mayfield, knew intuitively what people liked. Columnists like Pasquale Marranzino and Gene Amole (brought on in the 1970s) helped define the paper as the anti-establishment voice in town. The Rocky was read throughout the entire Denver area.

Many might not have liked it, but they didn't go without it.

In the early 1980s and '90s the economics of the business changed dramatically. Advertisers, for whatever reason, balked at supporting two newspapers. And whereas the papers remained competitive in terms of circulation, the Rocky never got a good grip on the vital retail advertising. Some say the tabloid format was really a kiss of death.

By now the Post had become a morning newspaper, to the disadvantage of the Rocky.

The two papers fought tooth and nail for the daily reader, but it became obvious that one of them, in the not too distant future, would give way to the vagaries of the marketplace. The expense of salaries, the constant need for new equipment and the high cost of newsprint put the handwriting on the wall.

What you are witnessing here in Denver has either happened or is happening around the entire nation. Every play has a last act. The fight between The Rocky and the Post came as close to being a draw as a Tunney-Dempsey fight. But when it was all over, it was the Rocky that ended up on the canvas.

Michael Balfe Howard was editor of the Rocky from 1974 to 1980. His grandfather, Roy W. Howard, was an associate of Edward W. Scripps, the founder of the E.W. Scripps Co., which owns the Rocky Mountain News.