Denver’s ap, owner of The Denver Post, and Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps, owner of the Rocky Mountain News, announced plans Thursday to form a company to handle business operations for the pair’s other Colorado newspaper holdings, a move aimed at cutting costs and increasing advertising.
The companies will each own a 50 percent stake in the new entity, Colorado Publishing Co. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Employees of the properties will continue to work for either MediaNews, which owns 40 daily newspapers nationwide, or E.W. Scripps, which publishes newspapers in 18 markets and owns cable-television networks HGTV and Food Network.
The two companies, through the Denver Newspaper Agency, already share profits and expenses from publishing The Post and the News.
“It makes sense for our interests to be aligned all across Colorado,” said Jody Lodovic, MediaNews president. “Any time you can leverage your assets, it’s better.”
ap’s daily newspapers included in the partnership are the Fort Morgan Times, the Journal-Advocate in Sterling and the Lamar Daily News. Its weekly newspapers are the Akron News-Reporter, the Brush News-Tribune, The Burlington Record and the Julesburg Advocate. The Estes Park Trail-Gazette publishes twice weekly.
Scripps’ papers included are Boulder’s Daily Camera and Colorado Daily and the Broomfield Enterprise, published twice each week.
The partnership will enable advertisers – particularly chain retailers – to purchase advertising in all publications at the same time, said John Morton, an independent industry consultant.
MediaNews has similar arrangements with Gannett Co. for papers in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Texas.
“The genesis is the papers can take advantage of the economies of scale,” said Morton, head of Morton Research Inc. in Silver Spring, Md.
He added that expenses could be slashed through job cuts.
“You’ll need fewer people to run a collection of papers,” he said.
Asked about layoffs, Lodovic said he did not anticipate any. He added that the editorial content of each paper could be expanded and new products might one day be launched.
Also Thursday, Scripps reported its first loss in 14 years – $603,000 – after a $90.6 million expense for writing down the value of its Shop at Home cable network. Analysts said Scripps probably will sell Shop at Home, which failed to lure consumers with jewelry and cookware that it sells on TV and its website.
Overall, revenue rose 17 percent to $707 million, bolstered by its TV stations and Shopzilla, the company’s online shopping service. Expenses from a printing-plant consolidation in Denver reduced earnings slightly.
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-820-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
