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Scripps puts Rocky Mountain News up for sale
(AP Online Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) DENVER_The Rocky Mountain News, Colorado's oldest newspaper, was put up for sale Thursday after its owner, E.W. Scripps Co., said it lost about $11 million on the business in the first nine months of the year.
Cincinnati-based Scripps said in a statement that if no acceptable offers emerge by mid-January it will examine "other options" for the newspaper, suggesting the paper might be closed down if there isn't enough interest in buying it.
Scripps has owned the News since 1926. Since 2001, the newspaper has been in a joint operating agreement with The Denver Post, owned by Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc.
Rich Boehne, president and CEO of Scripps, said the company's 50 percent share of the joint operating agreement cash flow "is no longer enough to support the Rocky, leaving us with no choice but to seek an exit."
The News joins a crowded marketplace, with a number of other papers already up for sale at a bleak time for the industry. Advertising revenues are plunging amid the economic slump, and online rivals such as Craigslist are competing with newspapers for lucrative classified advertising.
Landmark Communications Inc. said in January it wanted to sell nine daily newspapers but has found that buyers are having trouble getting loans amid the credit crisis. Cox Enterprises Inc. is trying to sell its newspapers in Texas, North Carolina and Colorado, and in November Journal Register Co. said it plans to close up to 13 of the newspapers it owns in Connecticut if it can't find a buyer for them.
Scripps said the joint operating agreement, known as the Denver Newspaper Agency, has about $130 million in long-term debt from a recently completed consolidation of production facilities with new printing presses and other upgraded equipment.
The News was founded in 1859, and Scripps' announcement that the property is for sale came amid a series marking the paper's upcoming 150th anniversary.
The 2001 joint operating agreement ended a long and heated newspaper war with The Post. The News said its daily circulation reached more than 400,000 in the final years of the battle.
Circulation is currently 210,000 daily and 457,000 on Saturday.
The News publishes Monday through Saturday and The Post publishes Sunday through Friday.
In July Scripps split off a cable TV network operator as a separate company called Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., which includes HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living Network.
Scripps operates newspapers in 15 markets and has 10 TV stations. It also operates United Media, which distributes the Peanuts and Dilbert comic strips and 150 other features.
Copyright ? 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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