The uncertain fate of the Rocky Mountain News represents the second time in recent history that an E.W. Scripps newspaper has lived a tenuous existence.
The Scripps-owned Albuquerque Tribune stayed in business for six months from the time it was put up for sale in 2007 until it published its final edition a year ago.
Cincinnati-based Scripps announced Dec. 4 that it would attempt to sell the News and might close the newspaper if a deal isn’t struck. A Jan. 16 deadline for submitting bids passed without Scripps commenting on the status of the News.
The publisher has closed three newspapers since 2005. Two of them — in Cincinnati and Birmingham, Ala. — succumbed to either sudden or scheduled deaths.
In contrast, the Albuquerque Tribune lingered with no clear outcome, as has the News.
The absence of information has left News staffers shaken, wondering if they’ll continue to have jobs at the 149-year-old paper.
“Working in a newspaper is a stressful and demanding job even in the best of times. Now, it’s much tougher for them, especially at a paper like the Rocky with such a long history,” said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst with the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Scripps spokesman Tim King said the company is working as fast as it can to determine the News’ status.
“There positively is a sense of urgency in our approach toward the Rocky,” he said.
The three newspapers closed by Scripps were part of joint operating agreements like Denver’s, in which the News and The Denver Post share business operations but have independent and competitive newsrooms.
Declines in newspaper advertising and circulation have created widespread financial losses in the industry. The number of U.S. cities with two major newspapers has dropped to fewer than a dozen.
The Scripps saga in Albuquerque was prolonged because the chain thought it had a serious offer from a buyer for the Tribune, said Brian Fantl, general manager of the Albuquerque Publishing Co., which ran the business operations of the Albuquerque Journal and Tribune.
“There was an alleged buyer,” Fantl said. “Scripps bent over backwards to meet every demand. . . . That’s the reason it took six months.”
The prospective buyer, an Albuquerque public relations firm, withdrew its offer last February. Scripps shuttered the Tribune three weeks later.
Scripps gave five months’ notice before the Dec. 31, 2007, closure of its Cincinnati Post after the expiration of a joint operating agreement with Cincinnati Enquirer owner Gannett.
Staffers at Scripps’ Birmingham Post-Herald learned one day in advance of the paper’s demise in 2005.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com
