The Denver Daily News and Vail Mountaineer have ceased publication, hammered by the economy and rising newsprint costs.
Kristie Hannon, publisher of the Denver Daily News and co-founder of the Vail Mountaineer, said the double whammy of newsprint costs and falling ad revenue made it impossible to keep going.
“We took a look at everything,” Hannon said. “It didn’t seem like it would be sustainable moving forward.”
The Denver Daily News, a free daily newspaper, ceased publication Monday after 10 years. It published Monday through Friday.
The Vail Mountaineer, started three years ago, published its last paper on Sunday. It published Tuesday through Sunday. Employees of both publications were informed Monday.
Hannon, who co-founded the Vail Mountaineer with Mountaineer publisher James Pavelich, said the cost of newsprint slammed the papers.
She said there has been a steady increase in newsprint costs in the past 18 months and another increase took place last week.
Peter Marcus, assistant editor of the Denver Daily News, said that although the Denver Daily News was “a small fish in a big pond,” the newspaper provided competition vital in U.S. cities, which are increasingly becoming one-newspaper towns.
Hannon said the Denver Daily News represented the desire for free, independent journalism and media “on an intensely local level.”
About 20 people were on the payroll of the Denver Daily News. Howard Pankratz, The Denver Post
