Reader: Writing for the Post Is as Much of a Career-Killer as Writing for Westword!

It's been a tough few weeks for the Denver Post. In mid-March, the paper's hedge-fund owners reported they would cut a third of the newsroom staff, which has already suffered through devastating layoffs over the years. On April 8, the Post's editorial page revolted, devoting the entire Perspective section to columns on why "News Matters," asking the Post's owners for mercy and earning headlines across the country. 

Here at home, though, some people aren't persuaded that the Post is worth saving. Says Jeffrey:

Just close it down and put us all out of our misery. Seem the "reporters" would rather whine than put out a quality product. Let Anschutz re-open the Rocky Mountain News with talented writers.

Responds Bob:

 It has nothing to do with the hedge fund. They didn’t listen to their customers. They pulled the readers' opinion poll; every piece of feedback they were given they ignored. We canceled our seven-day-a-week subscription. I will never buy this paper again.

Adds Ernie:

Newspapers should all die. Waste of paper and ink.

Says Sam:

We want our Rocky back. Westword is mostly MaryJane ads these days.... maybe replace the paid staff at the Post with interns who care....

And Steve concludes:

Reporting at the DP these days is as much of a career killer as writing for Westword!

Keep reading for more stories about the Denver Post and its owner.

"Seven Other Hedge-Fund-Era Denver Post Blunders"


"Denver Post Lays Off Thirty Employees, Nearly One-Third of Newsroom Staff"

"Denver Post CEO Mac Tully Gives Up Ship Amid Paywall, Newsroom Shifts"

"Columnist: Denver Post Paywall Raising Morale as Newsroom Moves Out of City"

"Denver Post Puts Up Paywall for 1st Time Since Aurora Theater Shooting Trial"

"The Denver Post Layoffs Have Begun After Buyouts Fell Short"

"Can the Denver Post Survive Its Hedge-Fund Owners?"

As Alan Prendergast wrote in "Can the Denver Post Survive Its Hedge-Fund Owners," his September 2016 cover story, "At the Denver Post, the chain’s flagship paper, the newsroom has been pruned of more than a third of its employees since June [2015]. Fifteen years ago, in the heyday of Denver’s daily newspaper war, the “Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire” had legions of reporters fanning out across the Front Range and the region, backed by squads of photographers and editors; now barely a hundred staffers remain.

"Bureaus have been closed and most local arts coverage scrapped or turned over to freelancers, with an increasing reliance on copy from other MediaNews papers (such as the Boulder Daily Camera or the Longmont Times Call), wire services and other organizations to fill the news hole. The editorial page is a ghost of its former self. And the critical tasks of covering breaking news and watchdogging state and local government in all its permutations have fallen on a dwindling pool of overworked, multi-tasking, Facebook-conscious and ever-tweeting diehards.

"Downsizing is, of course, a current fact of life in the newspaper business. Newspaper advertising revenue peaked in 2005 and has been plummeting ever since; it’s now 60 percent less than what it was a decade ago. The industry’s workforce has shrunk by about 40 percent — 20,000 jobs — in the past twenty years. According to the Pew Research Center, there are a hundred fewer daily papers in America than there were in 2004, and those that survive haven’t exactly been unscathed by the downturn; even a weekly like Westword is a notably leaner operation than it was a few years ago."

What do you think of the Post's situation? Share your thoughts in a comment or email [email protected].