The Albuquerque Tribune closed its doors on Feb. 23, but for its 46 employees, the paper had been going out of business since last August.

The Tribune’s editor, Phill Casaus, said there had been concerns about whether the Tribune would survive in the ever-changing era of journalism. After all, afternoon papers were closing all over the country.

“It was not the primary concern at that point, but after Aug. 28 it became the primary concern,” Casaus said. “I pulled my guys aside the very next day and said, ‘You have to go out and look for jobs.’ But I knew at the same time, we had to put out as good a paper as we could.”

E.W. Scripps, the owner of the Tribune, made the announcement that the paper was up for sale on Aug. 28. Scripps had warned that if a buyer could not be found, the paper would close.

First reactions
Former features writer Jim Montalbano said he knew the end had come when he received a phone call early on Aug. 28 informing him of a mandatory meeting at 8 a.m.

“I thought, ‘wow, this is finally it. Now I’m going to get on with my life.’ But about two days after the announcement, I had a little private breakdown,” he said. “The whole big metaphor here is getting a terminal illness diagnosis. When you’re first told this, you get a little depressed.”

Casaus said in the days after the announcement, and the months since, he has experienced “every emotion you can think of.” Because the logistics hadn’t been worked out, Casaus said he was afraid the paper would close within days.

“My initial reaction was that it was devastating. Then it was panic, I didn’t know how long we’d be open,” he said.
But he wasn’t thinking about himself or his future.

“I felt very sad and bad for our staff. I mean, we’re all in the same boat — we all have families and bills and mortgages to pay,” he said. “I didn’t even allow myself to think about what I would do after the paper closed because we still had a paper to put out. I’m the editor of a newspaper and I think you have to be committed to that.”

Getting the paper out
While emotions were running high in the Tribune newsroom, the paper still had to be produced. Casaus said the staff at the Tribune had high standards for the paper, even in the last six months of its existence. He said they were committed to putting out a good newspaper, despite the circumstances.

“You don’t just forget all your history in one day or one month, and our guys have a huge sense of history,” he said. “Clearly, people were concerned. But they also were committed to doing a very good job.”

Montalbano said he and much of the staff took the last few months as an opportunity to do things for the paper that they had wanted to do for a long time.

“It was kind of liberating and kind of exciting to have a few months to knock it all out,” he said. “It was stuff like, ‘I’ve always wanted to do this story.’ And now we had the opportunity.”

While it was important for the staff to continue putting out quality papers for its readers, it was hard to keep the momentum going. Montalbano said attitudes began to change after the first two months when Scripps seemed to lose touch with the Tribune.

“The quality didn’t change for the first two months. When we started to lose people and lose our energy for going on indefinitely in limbo, then it was tough,” he said. “We weren’t getting any information from Scripps anymore and it was just dragging out.”

Looking toward the future
Montalbano said most of the staff, which was made up largely of veteran Albuquerque reporters, was afraid that the paper, its staff and its readers wouldn’t have any closure if the paper sold.

“There was concern that we would just kind of fold the paper and it would re-open in some other form if a sale was made. A lot of the staff was concerned that we wouldn’t get to exit in a dignified way,” he said. “We’re all veteran journalists and we wanted to go out on top.”

Casaus said it’s important for the staff to remember the good aspects of the paper — its “bazillion great issues” — and their careers at the Tribune. He said the Tribune has a long legacy of good quality journalism, and that is what the staff should be proud of.

“The thing that I’m taking with me is just great memories,” he said. “There are some memories the last six months that I’d like to forget, but 99.9 percent of the memories I have at the Tribune I’ll keep forever.”

Though the last six months may not have been the best for the Tribune, Montalbano said the staff is proud of what they contributed to Albuquerque and to New Mexico.

“We weren’t proud of all the editions we put out in those last months, but we were most proud of those last three editions,” he said. “But I think, to the staff’s credit, on most days we still were the best newspaper in town.”

Casaus said being a journalist has been a hard time in recent years, but hopes people will look back at their experiences at the Tribune and be proud of what they contributed.

“I think most people really liked working at the Tribune. They liked the fact that the paper was always striving to be better,” he said. “In the end, we probably hit a wall. But we didn’t hit it with our foot on the break. And if you’ve got to go out, that’s the way you have to go out.”

Written March 12, 2008