Newspapers in Crisis

Rocky Mountain News Up for Sale

By Jonathan Weber, 12-04-08

The Rocky Mountain News, the venerable Denver daily newspaper that has served Colorado for almost 150 years, has been put up for sale by its owner, E.W. Scripps. The company said the paper was expected to lose $15 million this year - a stark illustration of the dire financial circumstances facing many big metropolitan newspapers.

The Rocky, as it's affectionately known, has had a joint operating agreement with the Denver Post, owned by Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group, since 2001. Under the so-called JOA, the two papers run all business operations together while retaining separate editorial staffs - an arrangement designed to enable both papers to survive.

Under editor and publisher John Temple, the Rocky has done some outstanding work in recent years, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning series on the military officers who have to inform the families of the war dead. But as with many daily newspapers, the Rocky has been devastated financially by the flight of classifieds and other advertising to the Internet, and the recession is taking a further toll on all advertising-supported businesses.

If no buyer emerges - and there are no guarantees in the current environment - the Rocky will likely be shut down.

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