Newspapers

Rocky Mountain News: Marking anniversary of its death four years ago today

Four years ago today, the Rocky Mountain News closed on the cusp of its 150th birthday. The changes in the Denver media scene since then have been profound. And while the Denver Post, the city's surviving paper, continues to exist, its present doesn't look much like the future that seemed in the off ... More >>

Denver Post goes all-union but main pension plan to be frozen in "not a good" contract

The Denver Newspaper Guild has ratified a contract covering newsroom employees at the Denver Post, and as part of the deal, the broadsheet will become a closed shop, with all workers required to join the union. Yet DNG administrative officer Tony Mulligan isn't exactly celebrating, since the deal al ... More >>

Denver Post & MediaNews Group: Fallout from partner Journal Register Company bankruptcy?

Almost exactly a year ago, the Journal Register Company's John Paton was named CEO of MediaNews Group, owner of the Denver Post, with a new entity called Digital First Media taking over management of both firms. But the first birthday of this deal hasn't been a happy one. Yesterday brought word that ... More >>

Jerry Grilly to retire as president and CEO of the Denver Post

Jerry Grilly, the president and CEO of the Denver Post, is retiring -- and not for the first time. Grilly had been lured back to the Post three years ago, shortly after the closure of the Rocky Mountain News, which ended the joint operating agreement that yoked the two papers. It's a different worl ... More >>

Dean Singleton, Denver Post publisher, shoots down rumors of national copy-editing center

MediaNews Group​In an interview last month about stepping down as CEO of MediaNews Group, Dean Singleton talked geographical expansion and consolidation. These words echoed after MediaNews bought the Longmont Times-Call's parent company days later -- and fears of job losses were heightened by ... More >>

Dean Singleton and MediaNews Group: Bankrupt no more

Dean Singleton's indebtedness looks a lot less onerous this week.​The Saturday Denver Post blurb about Affiliated Media couldn't entirely avoid the word "bankruptcy," as the broadsheet's writers have endeavored to do since January. After all, the judge who approved the prepackaged plan assembl ... More >>

MediaNews Group bankruptcy story reads differently in Denver -- which doesn't run info about Dean Singleton's salary

Dean Singleton: Still making a pretty penny.​A blog published last week noted that the Denver Post had managed to report about an impending bankruptcy filing by the holding company of its parent firm, MediaNews Group, without using the word "bankruptcy" in the headline -- a neat example of spi ... More >>

A letter to Dean Singleton from a former employee who thinks his paywall ideas are crazy

Dean Singleton wants to charge for delivery on the Internet, too.​As the newspaper industry continues to struggle, more and more attention is being paid to the paywall strategy being promoted MediaNews Group boss (and Denver Post publisher) Dean Singleton. He plans to start charging readers fo ... More >>

Post-News joint operating agreement ends not with a bang, but with a press release

Dean Singleton.​The death of the joint-operating agreement that was supposed to sustain a business partnership between the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News for a half-century but didn't survive for even one decade can't help seeming anticlimactic. After all, the Rocky's been gone for si ... More >>

Change of focus for IWantMyRocky.com

Back in December, when IWantMyRocky.com debuted, John Ensslin, one of numerous Rocky Mountain News employees who helped launch the project, described the website as "more of a rally-the-troops kind of thing, where people can post their comments or even videos." Although the site succeeded in that ... More >>

This just in: Newspaper lovers still exist

The conversation took place at Parker's Warhorse Inn. Covering the troubles in the newspaper industry can be mighty dispiriting: I sometimes feel like I spend my days writing the obituary for my own career. No wonder I felt such trepidation when accepting an invitation from the folks at the Douglas ... More >>

Denver Post veteran Steve Lipsher learns small-town papers not immune from print-journalism downturn

Steve Lipsher. In an item included in a May 2008 Message column, longtime Denver Post staffer Steve Lipsher talked about his decision to leave the beefy broadsheet in favor of a news-editor gig at the Summit Daily News, a 12,000-circulation free daily based in Frisco. His love for the mountains was ... More >>

Denver Post chairman and MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton responds to this week's Message column

Dean Singleton. Say what you will about Denver Post chairman and MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton (and plenty of his critics have, and will continue to do so): He's among the most accessible and engaged of all media magnates -- and he's not afraid to push back when he feels he's been misinterpret ... More >>

Harry Whipple out as head of Denver Newspaper Agency

Harry Whipple. The only surprise in yesterday afternoon's announcement that Harry Whipple would no longer be in charge of the Denver Newspaper Agency was the identity of his successor: former Denver Post publisher Gerald Grilly, who's coming out of retirement to take the gig. Indeed, the February 2 ... More >>

After the Rocky taps out, the Post acts like it won by a knockout

Q&A with David Milstead about the death of the Rocky Mountain News and the future of the Denver Post

David Milstead. The most dogged and enterprising journalist to write about the Rocky Mountain News' closure saga came from the Rocky's own newsroom. Business columnist and reporter David Milstead broke story after story. For example, he unearthed a confidential letter from executives at E.W. Scripp ... More >>

Will advertising rates for the Denver Post be going up?

Dean Singleton delivers. During yesterday's press conference announcing the closing of the Rocky Mountain News, MediaNews Group boss Dean Singleton, whose firm owns the Denver Post, declared that the ad rates at his publication are "way below" the national average, but "they'll just have to stay th ... More >>

Highlights from the goodbye-to-the-Rocky Mountain News press conference

J. KnightE.W. Scripps CEO Rich Boehne addresses the media after announcing the Rocky would close after Friday's issue. Reporter Lynn Bartels's colleagues at the Rocky Mountain News warned her not to try exiting the Denver Newspaper Agency building through the main lobby. After all, the place was sw ... More >>

How the troubles at the San Francisco Chronicle echo in Denver

The San Francisco Chronicle, the largest daily newspaper in the Bay Area, is reportedly in such shabby fiscal shape that its owner, the Hearst Corp., says it may have to close the venerable pub within weeks if expenses can't be brought under control. In the event of such a shut-down, San Francisco ... More >>

Dean Singleton's giant balls

This morning, both Denver dailies feature articles spurred by a Denver Post memo sent out in response to "Scripps Says Post Violates JOA," a January 28 Rocky Mountain News report based on a leaked letter reportedly penned by two executives at E.W. Scripps, the Rocky's owner. The latter piece, by s ... More >>

Could MediaNews Group furlough program come to the Denver Post?

Even as a Denver Post statement branded a Rocky Mountain News story about troubles at the broadsheet inaccurate, another memo associated with MediaNews Group, the Post's owner, was turning heads on the left coast. The document, first published at Jim Romenesko's Poynter Online address, revealed th ... More >>

The Denver Post's fiery response to charge that it violated JOA with the Rocky Mountain News

"Leaked Letter Reveals Deep Problems at Denver Post, Denver Newspaper Agency," a More Messages blog published this morning, considers the content of "Scripps Says Post Violated JOA," a David Milstead-penned piece from today's Rocky Mountain News. The article's centerpiece is a letter purportedly w ... More >>

Denver Newspaper Guild not sharing details about reopened contract talks with the Denver Post and Denver Newspaper Agency

The title of a certain December 15 blog -- "Denver Newspaper Guild Almost Mum on Renegotiating Denver Post and Denver Newspaper Agency Contract" -- pretty much foreshadows the DNG's lack of eagerness to discuss its recent decision to open pacts with the Post and the DNA early at the request of Dea ... More >>

Department of Justice trying to preserve at least one newspaper JOA

The blog "Debate Over Spiked Rocky Mountain News Media Column Heats Up" deals in part with a piece by Jason Salzman, who feels the Denver dailies haven't truly measured the chances that the Justice Department might choose to prevent the dissolution of a joint-operating agreement that links the Roc ... More >>

Dean Singleton to be honored with 2009 Community Cultural Enrichment Award

MediaNews Group vice chairman and chief executive officer/Denver Post publisher Dean Singleton faces the same kind of bleak economic outlook as any newspaper magnate, albeit with a number of intriguing twists -- among them the potential closure of the Rocky Mountain News, the Post's joint-operatin ... More >>

The Rocky Mountain News is going down

MediaNews Group's Dean Singleton about outsourcing to India

A feature article about the difficulties facing the up-for-sale Rocky Mountain News plus a sidebar about Rocky journalists who could land at the Denver Post and a piece about the Rocky-Post joint operating agreement appear in the December 11 Westword. As a bonus, we're also offering a series of ou ... More >>

E.W. Scripps CEO Rich Boehne on his company's commitment to newspapers

As is the case with all articles, plenty of interesting stuff gathered for Westword's December 11 feature about the dire circumstances facing the Rocky Mountain News and sidebars focusing on Rocky writers who the Denver Post should try to hire and the joint-operating agreement between the Rocky an ... More >>

Rocky Mountain News put up for sale

It's the sort of headline most media observers in this area have been anticipating for quite some time, but it's still a shock to see it in print: "Rocky Mountain News For Sale." The article, published moments ago on the Rocky's website, quotes from a press release in which Rich Boehne, president ... More >>

Denver Film Festival vet and TV "dinosaur" Ed Asner part of Stop the Presses

Ed Asner as Lou Grant. Ed Asner is back at the Denver International Film Festival -- at least on film. The irascible star of Lou Grant came to Denver 21 years ago, when the completely forgettable O'Hara's Wife opened the festival in 1987. But former festival director Ron Henderson won't forget ... More >>

The Boulder Daily Camera's building goes on the block

Denver Post tries to squelch shut-down rumors in memo that says the Rocky would close first

Daily Sentinel on the block

MediaNews Group Changes Its Tune With Connecticut Sale

Dean Singleton Fights Back Against Bad MediaNews Press

Rocky Mountain News' David Milstead Predicts One-Newspaper Town

Dean Singleton to the Newspaper Industry: Stop Your Whining

Is Circulation at the Denver Dailies Sliding Or Not?

Dean Singleton on Sinking Circulation at the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News

The Post and Rocky Attempt a Cover-Up

Brightly colored advertising stickers on the front of the Denver dailies are part of a national trend to turn page one into a billboard.

Adrian Dater Flames ESPN

There is a limit to freedom of speech for this hockey scribe.

Cuts Redux

The Post joins the buyout trend as its owner admits the newspaper business is facing tougher times than he expected.

More Messages: Barking and Biting

More Messages: The Latest from the Dean of Newspapers

Dealing

The Post offers staffers money to leave.

The Message

Plus-Minus

The Message

Free for All

The Message

The Denver Newspaper Agency has combined the city's dailies into a one-two punch.

The Black-and-White Newsroom

Several Post staffers want more colors in their paper's palette.

Inside the Temple

The Rocky's leader believes his paper is a survivor.