Three years after leaving as the first president of the Denver Newspaper Agency, which at the time published The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News, Kirk MacDonald returns to guide the company’s sales and marketing departments.
Now publishing only The Post after the close of the News, the DNA faces the challenges beleaguering the entire newspaper industry as revenues dwindle.
“I’m glad to be back,” said MacDonald, 53, whose title is executive vice president.
MacDonald spent the past 18 months as chief operating officer of Tampa Bay, Fla.- based Creative Loafing Inc., a publisher of alternative weeklies including Washington City Paper and Chicago Reader. Creative Loafing filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, from which it is just now looking to emerge.
MacDonald said his return to Denver is a testament to his confidence in the future of the DNA and newspapers.
“My role is very clear here,” MacDonald said Monday after his arrival was announced to DNA staff. “It’s to find the right sales models to approach the visions of the DNA.”
MacDonald reports to DNA president and chief executive Gerald Grilly, who returned to Denver in March. He served as publisher of The Post from 1998 to 2001.
The DNA’s objective, Grilly said, “is to reinvent the business model to explore the paid model” of digital newspapering that consumers are relying on more and more.
After leaving the DNA in May 2006, MacDonald partnered with former Kroenke Sports Enterprises chief operating officer David Ehrlich to form Interactive Marketing & Innovation in Denver, an affiliate of the sports-marketing consultancy Bonham Group.
IM&I closed in April 2008, and Bonham closed in January of this year.
MacDonald has also held executive positions with Hearst Newspapers and the now- closed San Antonio Light. An avid triathlete and endurance bicyclist, he began his career as a sports reporter in 1974 in California.
David Migoya: 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com
