The Reuters headline "E.W. Scripps Posts Loss, Cuts Jobs, Suspends Dividends" is undeniably bleak -- and it accurately reflects the article that follows. Today, Scripps, which owns the Rocky Mountain News among many other print and broadcast properties, announced that it would cut 400 jobs in the face of a $16.8 million net loss and a 9 percent revenue decrease.
Will some Rocky employees be losing their gigs as a result of this move, joining the 34 folks who'll be departing from Scripps' Southwest Florida Group and the 45 leaving the Ventura County Star? Editor/publisher/president John Temple, responding via Blackberry from New York, where he's attending a wedding, says, "No." But that doesn't mean Scripps' Colorado properties are off the corporation's radar. The Reuters piece makes note of "a $25 million non-cash charge to further write down its investment in a Denver newspaper partnership," and the Boulder Daily Camera, the Rocky's sister paper, is peddling its headquarters, as pointed out in the blog, "The Boulder Daily Camera's Building Goes on the Block." The grim tidings continue. -- Michael Roberts
