 The May 2, 2011 front page ofThe Denver Post, with headline reporting thekilling of Osama bin Laden | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Alden Global Capital |
| Editor | Lee Ann Colacioppo |
| Opinion editor | Megan Schrader |
| Sports editor | Matt Schubert |
| Founded | 1892 |
| Headquarters | North Washington, Colorado |
| Country | United States |
| Circulation | 57,265 Average print circulation[1] |
| ISSN | 1930-2193 |
| OCLC number | 8789877 |
| Website | denverpost |
The Denver Post is a daily newspaper and website published in theDenver metropolitan area. As of June 2022,[update] it has an average print circulation of 57,265.[2] In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 million page views, according tocomScore.[3]
ThePost was the flagship newspaper ofMediaNews Group Inc., founded in 1983 byWilliam Dean Singleton andRichard Scudder. On December 1, 1987, MediaNews, a national newspaper chain with over 60 daily newspapers and over 160 non-daily publications in 13 states, boughtThe Denver Post fromTimes Mirror Company.
Since 2010,The Denver Post has been owned by hedge fundAlden Global Capital, which acquired its bankrupt parent company, MediaNews Group.[4] In April 2018, a group called "Together for Colorado Springs" said that it was raising money to buy thePost fromAlden Global Capital, stating: "Denver deserves a newspaper owner who supports its newsroom."[5]
In August 1892,The Evening Post was founded by supporters ofGrover Cleveland with $50,000. It was a Democratic paper used to publicize political ideals and stem the number of Colorado Democrats leaving the party. Cleveland had been nominated for president because of his reputation for honest government.
However, Cleveland and eastern Democrats opposed government purchase of silver, Colorado's most important product, which made Cleveland unpopular in the state. Following the bust of silver prices in 1893, the country and Colorado went into a depression andThe Evening Post suspended publication in August 1893.
A new group of owners with similar political ambitions raised $100,000 and resurrected the paper in June 1894. On October 28, 1895,Harry Heye Tammen, former bartender[6] and owner of a curio and souvenir shop, andFrederick Gilmer Bonfils, a Kansas City real estate and lottery operator, purchased theEvening Post for $12,500. Neither had newspaper experience, but they were adept at the business of promotion and finding out what people wanted to read.
Through the use ofsensationalism, editorialism, and "flamboyant circus journalism", a new era began for thePost. Circulation grew and eventually passed the other three daily papers combined. On November 3, 1895 the paper's was name changed toDenver Evening Post.
On January 1, 1901 the word "Evening" was dropped from the name and the paper becameThe Denver Post.
Post reporters includeGene Fowler,Frances Belford Wayne, and "sob sister"Polly Pry.Damon Runyon worked briefly for thePost in 1905–1906 before gaining fame as a writer in New York.[7]
After the deaths of Tammen and Bonfils in 1924 and 1933,Helen andMay Bonfils Stanton, Bonfils' daughters, became the principal owners of thePost. In 1946, thePost hired Palmer Hoyt from thePortland Oregonian to become editor and publisher of thePost and to give the paper a new direction.[8][9] With Hoyt in charge, news was reported fairly and accurately. He took editorial comment out of the stories and put it on an editorial page. He called the page The Open Forum and it continues today.
In 1960, there was a takeover attempt by publishing mogulSamuel I. Newhouse.Helen Bonfils brought in her friend and lawyerDonald Seawell to save the paper. The fight led to a series of lawsuits asPost management struggled to maintain local ownership. It lasted 13 years and drained the paper financially. When Helen Bonfils died in 1972, Seawell was named president and chairman of the board. He was also head of theDenver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA). The Center was established and financed primarily by the Frederick G. and Helen G. Bonfils foundations, with aid from city funds. The majority of the assets of the foundations came from Post stock dividends.
By 1980, the paper was losing money. Critics accused Seawell of being preoccupied with building up the DCPA. Seawell sold thePost to theLos Angeles-basedTimes Mirror Company for $95 million. Proceeds went to the Bonfils Foundation, securing the financial future of the DCPA. Times Mirror started morning publication and delivery. Circulation improved, but the paper did not perform as well as required. Times Mirror soldThe Denver Post toDean Singleton andMediaNews Group in 1987.
In January 2001, MediaNews andE.W. Scripps, parent company of the now defunctRocky Mountain News, entered into a joint operating agreement (JOA), creating theDenver Newspaper Agency, which combined the business operations of the former rivals. Under the agreement, the newsrooms of the two newspapers agreed to publish separate morning editions Monday through Friday, with thePost retaining a broadsheet format and theNews using a tabloid format.
They published a joint broadsheet newspaper on Saturday, produced by theNews staff, and a broadsheet on Sunday, produced by thePost staff. Both newspapers' editorial pages appeared in both weekend papers. The JOA ended on February 27, 2009, when theRocky Mountain News published its last issue. The following day, thePost published its first Saturday issue since 2001.
ThePost launched a staff expansion program in 2001, but declining advertising revenue led to a reduction of the newsroom staff in 2006 and 2007 through layoffs, early-retirement packages, voluntary-separation buyouts and attrition. The most recent round of announced buyouts occurred in June 2016.[10][11][12]
In 2013, just before legalization in Colorado,The Denver Post initiated an online media brandThe Cannabist to cover cannabis-related issues.[13] First led by Editor in ChiefRicardo Baca, the online publication has surged in popularity, beating the industry veteranHigh Times in September 2016.[14] Thirty layoffs were announced forThe Post in March 2018, according to theDenver Business Journal.[15]
On September 7, 2011, John Paton, CEO ofJournal Register Company, was appointed CEO of MediaNews Group,[16] replacing Singleton, who stayed on as thePost's publisher and CEO of MediaNews until his retirement in 2013.[17] He remains non-executive chairman of the organization. With the move, thePost also entered into an agreement with the newly created Digital First Media, led by Paton, that would provide management services and lead the execution of the company's business strategy in conjunction with Journal Register. Paton stepped down as CEO of Digital First in June 2015, and was succeeded by longtime MediaNews executive Steve Rossi.[18]
In the same announcement, the company said that it would no longer be seeking a sale.
In 2017,The Denver Post announced that its headquarters were moving to its printing plant inNorth Washington inAdams County, Colorado.[19]
The operation ofThe Denver Post by Digital First Media, under the ownership of Alden Global Capital, has come under extensive criticism from workers at the newspaper and outside the organization.[20] The hedge fund has made "relentless cost cuts" since taking ownership in 2010, despite the reported profitability of thePost, principally by laying off the newspaper's staff.Margaret Sullivan ofThe Washington Post called Alden Global Capital "one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism."[21] Under Digital Media First, the number of journalists in the newsroom was reduced by almost two-thirds by April 2018, to around 70 people.[22] This represents a drastic fall from the over 250 journalists whichThe Denver Post employed before 2010, when it was purchased by Alden Media Group.[23] At one point before 2009, the joint-operating agreement betweenThe Denver Post andThe Rocky Mountain News boasted a 600-strong staff of journalists, before the bankruptcy of theRocky Mountain News that year.[21]
The announcement of 30 more layoffs in March 2018, which reduced the paper's newsroom from 100 to around 70 people, prompted a denunciation of its owners from the editorial board ofThe Denver Post. The editorial decried Alden Global Capital as "vulture capitalists" who were "strip-mining" the newspaper; it concluded that "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."[21] The editorial board pointed out that the cuts were hamstringing the ability of thePost to provide quality coverage of the fast-growing Denver region, and compared the size of its newsroom unfavorably to those of other newspapers in cities of comparable or smaller size to Denver.[23] Alden's "harvesting strategy" is what prompted Greg Moore, editor ofThe Denver Post from 2002 to 2016, to step down.[21]
The "open revolt" of theDenver Post against its owners garnered support and praise from other newspapers and journalists, includingMitchell Landsberg of theLos Angeles Times andJoe Nocera ofBloomberg View.[22]
In 2020, a documentary,News Matters, was released that follows the bold attempt by Colorado journalists to save the 125-year-oldDenver Post while the hedge fund ownerAlden Global Capital slowly drains profits from the paper and dismissing journalists.[24]
In February 2014,The Denver Post began publishing a section entitled "Energy and Environment", funded by Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (CRED), a pro–natural gas group. The stories in the section are written by outsiders, not by DP reporters. A banner across the top of the section reads "This Section is Sponsored by CRED". Nevertheless, critics express concern that the section risks confusing readers about the distinction between advertising and reporting.[25]
In January 2020,Jon Caldara Libertarian activist of theDenver-basedIndependence Institute, a weekly columnist forThe Denver Post, was fired after publishing two conservative articles on sex and gender.[26][27] In a column arguing for greater openness in public affairs, Caldara criticized the Colorado legislature for avoiding the legally required referendum on a new state tax by repackaging it as a “fee” — and then prohibiting hospitals from listing the fee on patients’ bills. He was also critical of the state’s educational authorities for imposing a speech code forbidding speech considered “stigmatizing”. “In case you hadn’t noticed,” he wrote, “just about everything is stigmatizing to the easily triggered, perpetually offended.” Continuing on his theme of transparency, he also complained that the schools were not doing enough to make parents aware of the contents of their sex-ed curriculum. While Caldara believes his "insistence" on the existence of only two sexes was "the last straw" for his column, he emphasizes "the reason for my firing is over a difference in style."[28] He was officially fired for failing to use "respectful language" and the lack of a "collaborative and professional manner."[29]
Editors ofThe Denver Post include:
Former columnists includeWoody Paige[33] in sports,Tom Noel[34] on local history,Mike Rosen on the commentary page. Other columnists includedDavid Harsanyi,[35]Al Lewis,[36]Mike Littwin,[37] Penny Parker[38] andMichael Kane.[39]
The Denver Post has won nine Pulitzer Prizes:[40]
References not listed below can be found on the linked pages.
Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting (1985–2000) | ||
|---|---|---|
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting from 1985–1990 and the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting from 1991–1997 | ||
| .png) | |
Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting (2001–2025) | ||
|---|---|---|
| | |
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service (1976–2000) | ||
|---|---|---|
| | |