You may have heard about the Denver Post staffers' revolt against their hedge-fund owner. If someone doesn't answer their desperate plea for help, the 125-year-old newspaper will cease to exist. But is there hope on the horizon?
Surviving on roughly a third of the robust newsroom staff it used to have -- and with 30 more layoffs and cuts imminent in the coming days -- some brave editors at the Denver Post decided to use their greatest tool: the newspaper itself. [caption id="attachment_35959" align="aligncenter" width="469"] Courtesy of The New York Times[/caption] The editorial board spoke out boldly against its New York-based hedge-fund owner Alden Global Capital on Friday, April 6, publishing a series of headlines and editorials on the Denver Post opinion page that all basically said the same thing: "Somebody, save us.""We call for action," the editorial board's main editorial reads. "Consider this editorial and this Sunday’s Perspective offerings a plea to Alden — owner of Digital First Media, one of the largest newspaper chains in the country — to rethink its business strategy across all its newspaper holdings. Consider this also a signal to our community and civic leaders that they ought to demand better. Denver deserves a newspaper owner who supports its newsroom. If Alden isn’t willing to do good journalism here, it should sell The Post to owners who will."The articles quickly went viral, garnering the attention of other newspapers across the country who also weighed in on the issue, including The New York Times, who reported that since the news and opinion sections are considered separate, the Denver Post's chief editor, Lee Ann Colacioppo, was not informed of the editorial board's plans to speak out. Nor were executives of their parent company Digital First Media (Alden Global Capital's subsidiary) told what was about to go down. In 2010, Alden Global Capital bought Digital First Media and the chain of 97 publication brands that it manages. In addition to the Denver Post, some of the more high-profile newspapers include the San Jose Mercury News, the Orange County Register, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and the Boston Herald. But in the years since it took over, Alden has hacked mercilessly and repeatedly at the Denver Post newsroom, cutting it down from nearly 300 staffers, to a skeleton crew of less than 100 -- despite Denver's explosive growth as a city. In March, staffers were informed that another 30 jobs would be cut before July, with 25 of those occurring in April.
The editorial argues that it's nearly impossible to run a successful newspaper for a city of this size on such a small staff. For instance, even the much-publicized error of using a photo of a Philadelphia ballpark instead of Coors Field before the Colorado Rockies' Opening Day on April 6 could be attributed to a shortage of staff proofreaders and fact checkers.
Chuck Plunkett, the editor of the editorial page (and the one who led the charge of scathing articles against the bossman), says that Alden is blaming the cuts on an evolving digital market -- despite the staff's adaptations and innovations that have successfully increased the newspaper's online reach. And other newspapers in smaller markets seem to be surviving just fine while retaining nearly double the staff members of the Post.
In addition, he's concerned that Alden is intentionally mismanaging funds -- that any profits that the Denver Post and other newspapers make are being used to support Alden's less-stable side investments -- to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. There's even a lawsuit against Alden to that effect, filed back in March.
"One of the things I wanted to do is just let the community know so that if they want to voice their discontent. If they want to demand better, they're fully informed," Plunkett said in an interview with NPR's Audie Cornish.The Denver Post's other news reporters jumped on board, taking to Twitter to help add strength to Plunkett's case. And so far, the Colorado community seems to be rallying behind them, too. Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock posted a message of support on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/5280mayor/posts/2097674866916889 Even Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper weighed in on the situation in a recent interview with RollingStone. Click here to read his thoughts about the need for honest journalism to keep governments in check. What it comes down to, plain and simple, is that The Denver Post needs a newspaper owner who actually cares about news reporting. But who would that be? On April 12, a Colorado Springs-based civic group called Together for Colorado Springs (T4CS) came forward to announce that they have assembled a committee that is actively reaching out to investors from around the state in an effort to collectively pool their resources and purchase the newspaper. Thus far, they've gathered a total of $10 million in pledges from local leaders. Some of those said to be involved include Alan Gottlieb, John Goede, Perry Sanders, Ralph Touton, Marcy Morrison, John Street, Jennifer Furda, Deborah Mahan, Chuck Murphy, Jim Stewart, and John Weiss.
“According to industry reports, the Denver Post is currently profitable,” T4CS chairman John Weiss said in a press release. “But it is not making enough money to satisfy its current, out-of-state, hedge-fund owners. Cutting core staff — not just in the newsroom, but in circulation, marketing, accounting, and throughout the paper — will never lead to the journalism Colorado deserves.”
Could T4CS's efforts be the answer? Could a group of local investors put up enough money to convince Alden to sell the Denver Post? We can only hope.
“We believe that The Denver Post is vital for Colorado,” Weiss said in an interview, according to The New York Times. “It should be owned by people in Denver but it should also be owned by people statewide because it’s a statewide paper, not just a Denver paper.”
[caption id="attachment_36004" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The Denver Post's former building downtown, before they moved to Adams County (courtesy of YouTube)[/caption]
For 125 years, the Post has been a pillar of journalistic integrity in Colorado. It has won nine Pulitzer Prizes in its long history, one of which was for the coverage of the Aurora movie theater shooting in 2013. As the city's second newspaper (the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News was founded first, back in 1859), the Denver Post emerged on the scene in 1892 under the name "The Evening Post." The newspaper later evolved into the "Denver Evening Post" and, finally, into the "Denver Post" by 1901.
It boasts a circulation of 170,000 on weekdays, with 8.6 million unique monthly visitors online, though that number is sure to plummet given Alden's latest implemented strategy to require an online subscription to view Denver Post content.
In light of the staffing cuts being made left and right, Plunkett's public plea to save the Denver Post was indeed a bold move.
After the editorials went live online last Friday, Colacioppo received a call from Digital First Media COO Guy Gilmore to discuss a potential response from the company, the New York Times reported. It was decided that the articles would not be taken down, that the Sunday print edition would still publish, and that Plunkett would stay in his position.
"Certainly, I'm at peace if I lose my job over doing what I think is right," Plunkett told NPR. "But on the other side of that, I really hope that I don't. I so wanted to be the editorial page editor. It was something that I worked very hard to do. But if I don't stand up and say something about it just for fear that I might anger the owner and lose my job, the reality is that in a few years, we're going to be writing our obituary."What do you think about the Denver Post editorials? Do you believe honest journalism is vital for a thriving, growing community? Who do you think should save the newspaper? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! Please weigh in below!