Our Daily Bread

Youngian philosophy: The latest buyout offer at the Denver Post caused recent hires to sweat — and no wonder. The Denver Newspaper Guild-negotiated contract that governs most newsroomers says layoffs of union members are dictated by seniority — so if too few older workers targeted by the buyout took the deal, their youngest colleagues feared they'd be handed their heads. In the end, only non-union types were sent packing, which should have reassured relative newbies. Yet two of the Post's least wrinkled (and most productive) staffers — Robert Sanchez, on the sports beat of late, and business reporter Will Shanley — are leaving to take non-newspaper gigs. Sanchez is going to 5280 magazine, and Shanley's joining up with Linhart Public Relations. While both speak glowingly about their time at the Post, they admit that the uncertainties of today's newspaper industry played a role in their decisions.

Sanchez's move was partly inspired by his desire to stretch as a writer, as well as by 5280's cool factor with members of his peer group. He mentions encountering two twenty-somethings who were much more impressed with the idea of him working at the magazine as opposed to the Post, which typically won him points with readers "in their sixties." But he concedes that the April buyout announcement presented by Post owner Dean Singleton and editor Greg Moore made a big impression on him as well. "Dean said the next couple of years will be difficult," he stresses. As for Moore, he "doesn't want to lose people he's brought in. But if for some reason Greg left, I'd really just be a number to MediaNews — and I have two young kids, a wife and a mortgage."

For his part, Shanley says he received feelers from Linhart through a friend who worked there, "and I thought, if there's ever a time to leave the news business, this seemed like an ideal opportunity to go to a firm that's in the position to grow." In contrast, he acknowledges that "the news business is obviously going through a rough patch — and five years from now, will it be a much better environment?"

Moore hopes changes can help improve this outlook at the Post, and in a late June staff meeting, he discussed some options in between exhortations that attendees not share the conversation with yours truly. Among the most controversial notions was combining Denver & the West and Business, thereby doing away with a stand-alone business section. The business crew's numbers are down: Shanley's gone, reporter Greg Griffin will soon split for a year-long fellowship at Columbia University, scribe Julie Dunn is on maternity leave, and editor Todd Stone took a job at the St. Louis Post Dispatch. However, Moore declined to discuss what impact, if any, these absences might have on a potential Business merger. "I can't be questioned about every element of communication internally," he e-mails. "What I can tell you is the idea of combining business and metro is not even approved, and I am not sure it will happen."

Meanwhile, at 5280, the news is considerably more upbeat. In addition to the Sanchez hire, editor Dan Brogan notes via e-mail that the mag recently expanded a photo-editor gig, that it's interviewing for an articles editor, two sales reps and an online manager, and that it's in the midst of launching a custom-publishing division with another new hire. On top of that, he's getting bigger-name talent to contribute, including J.R. Moehringer, author of the best-selling memoir The Tender Bar, whose profile of Fort Collins musician Jeff Finlin is in the July edition. "We seem to be in the midst of another growth spurt," Brogan says.

The printed page isn't dead yet — especially if it's glossy.