In mid-December, news broke that MediaNews Group head Dean Singleton (pictured) asked unions to open negotiations on new contracts early in the hope of saving a combined $20 million at the Denver Post and the Denver Newspaper Agency. But, as mentioned parenthetically in a December 16 More Messages blog, this information wasn't reported by the Post.
Since then, things have changed on that score, albeit in unexpectedly subtle ways. The Post's website launched a December 19 story on the topic credited to the Associated Press. Then, on January 1, the broadsheet included a reference to its own situation in "Papers Shrink or Vanish in Western Colorado." The article mainly deals with the subject mentioned in the headline -- namely cuts at the Aspen Times and the Glenwood Springs Post Independent. But a paragraph that follows a brief note about E.W. Scripps putting the Rocky Mountain News up for sale states, "MediaNews Group, owner of The Denver Post, has frozen pensions and suspended 401(k) matches for nonunion employees. The company is seeking $2 million in cuts from The Post and $18 million from the Denver Newspaper Agency, which manages business operations for The Post and the News as part of the papers' joint operating agreement."
Credit the Post for making these acknowledgements. It was the right thing to do. -- Michael Roberts
