The sheer size of Denver’s two newspapers on Wednesday and Thursday led to press runs being behind schedule and affected on-time delivery to some customers of The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Newspaper Agency said Thursday.
“Wednesday morning’s press run was approximately two hours behind schedule, and Thursday’s was about an hour behind schedule,” said Jim Nolan, spokesman for the agency.
“That affected on-time delivery to some of our customers. That doesn’t mean that every subscriber got a paper two hours late. Some subscribers in some parts of the distribution area got the papers late,” he said.
The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News are owned and operated by separate companies. The DNA handles printing, delivery and advertising for both newspapers.
Nolan said he didn’t know just how late the deliveries were. But he said under normal circumstances, the expectation by the DNA is that the papers will be delivered by 5:30 a.m.
Harry Whipple, president and chief executive of the Denver Newspaper Agency, said the agency is working hard to prevent further problems.
“We have some of the best on-time delivery records in the industry,” Whipple said. “So we take it seriously when we encounter those instances where we fail to meet our subscribers’ expectations. Our production and distribution staffs are working hard to minimize any further disruption in service.”
Nolan said that the reason for the delay was the physical size of the papers caused by World Series coverage and advertisers using the Series to promote their products.
“The papers were quite a bit larger because of World Series advertising and World Series coverage. … The physical size of the papers led to a press run configuration that was fairly difficult,” he said.
Nolan said that Monday through Friday the combined press run of the papers is more than 500,000 copies. He did not know if that number is being increased for the World Series.
Nolan said there were no press breakdowns at the printing plant, at 5990 Washington St. He also said that the printing of the Boulder Daily Camera at the plant – which started this week – did not contribute to the delay.
He said that some people are still in training on the new presses at the plant, which have been in use for daily printing of The Denver Post since the beginning of September.
“I wouldn’t say it wasn’t a factor, and I wouldn’t say it was a factor,” Nolan said.
Nolan also couldn’t say at what time the press runs for both The Post and the News are completed, although he said the runs normally start together and end together.
He said the DNA doesn’t view the situation as a long-term problem.
