Golden's RCR Wireless shuts down

Only days after the Rocky Mountain News closed up shop, another local publication, RCR Wireless, has reached the same conclusion.

RCR, a Crain Communications publication, is less venerable than the Rocky, but hardly fly-by-night. It's been around for 25 years, "enabling intelligence on all things wireless for industry leaders and enterprise volume buyers," according to the "About Us" section on its website. Unfortunately, though, that's all in the past. A byline-free item dated March 3 is succinct and to the point. Its first paragraph reads: "RCR Wireless News has suspended publication of its print and online products immediately and is closing operations. Unfortunately, the market for RCR's products has been hit particularly hard by the global financial meltdown."

According to a mocoNews.net brief, "About twenty employees, mostly in the publication's main office in Golden, Col., were given notice" yesterday. They'll join a job market already awash in former Rocky journalists, many of whom still hope to stay employed in their chosen field. It's especially distressing, then, that trade pubs like RCR Wireless, which once provided options for writers interested in specialization, are having just as much difficulty surviving in today's economy as major metropolitan dailies.