DENVER - Neither The Denver Post nor the Rocky Mountain News will adopt the Berliner format once the Denver Newspaper Agency’s production plant upgrade is completed in 2007. But The Post expects to exploit its new production foundation by launching new products, which could include a free tabloid aimed at younger readers.

Post Chairman and Publisher William Dean Singleton, whose MediaNews Group is an equal participant with E.W. Scripps Co. in the joint operating agreement that publishes both papers, flatly rejected converting either the broadsheet Post or tabloid News to the Berliner format, but did say The Post will contract slightly to a 21-inch cutoff and 48-inch web width.

Left to right, Kirk MacDonald, chief executive officer, Denver Newspaper Agency; William Dean Singleton, chairman and publisher, The Denver Post; and John Temple, editor, publisher and president, (Denver) Rocky Mountain News.
Photo: Newspapers & Technology

Condensing either paper to the smaller Berliner format would conflict with the standard advertising unit-oriented sales philosophy now in place at DNA, he said, speaking last month at a forum discussing the five-year anniversary of the Denver JOA.

“It just wouldn’t work,” he said.

$150 million project

DNA is spending more than $150 million to bolster its production capabilities, adding five GeoMAN presses from MAN Roland Inc. and upgrading its postpress operations. The agency is spending another $100 million to build a downtown office to house the editorial and administrative offices of the two papers.

The new presses, Singleton said, will give DNA additional flexibility and the ability to entertain the prospect of launching “more products.”

One of those products could be a free tabloid aimed at younger readers, he said. The Dept. of Justice in December gave MediaNews the green light to launch a free edition of The Post, saying such a publication wouldn’t violate provisions of the JOA.

Singleton said he’s “looking carefully” at rolling out such a publication, but that no decision has been reached.

“It will take a different product to reach that target (audience),” he said, adding that he’s studied Metro and free editions now published by The Dallas Morning News and the Chicago Tribune. “We think there is an opportunity there.”

Hailed JOA

Singleton, who appeared on the panel with News Editor, Publisher and President John Temple, Post Editor Gregory Moore and DNA Chief Executive Officer Kirk MacDonald, lauded the JOA, saying the agreement ensured the financial health of both Denver papers.

“I know both papers are stronger and better and that we are spending more money to maintain them,” he said. “I am comfortable we kept our promise and when I go to my grave, (I’ll know one of my) proudest accomplishments in my life was creating the Denver JOA.”

In the year before the JOA was formed, the News lost more than $25 million and both papers were offering annual subscriptions at only a tiny portion of what they should have been charging, said Singleton. “Today, both newspapers are profitable.”