Rocky Mountain News Going Downhill

In the easiest scoop of the year, the Rocky Mountain News self reported that it is for sale. While its owners and publishers blustered that this is not the end for the Rocky, the Rocky is a failed business. Even without any debt, even if acquired for free, the Rocky cannot cover its operation costs. Typically, when a business is an operational failure, Chapter 11 bankruptcy is not a valid option and liquidation is likely. No sensible investor would want the Rocky, and no bank is likely to back such an acquisition in this desperate financial environment. Combine that with operational agreements that can stymie a third party acquisition, and the Rocky’s demise is inevitable. This is bad news on a few levels, but mostly this is a cautionary tale for businesses that don’t change with the times.

Denver will surely miss the Rocky, and its minority population who sit in the center or right of the political spectrum will be especially disappointed. The Rocky, Colorado’s oldest business, is a center left (i.e. Clintonesque) publication, and is generally in line with the sentiments of the average Coloradan. By contrast, the Rocky’s competitor, the Denver Post is a lower brow version of the LA Times (sharing a common owner), which itself mimics the NY Times for its editorial positions. The Post is a left wing paper, and without the Rocky’s competition, it will feel free to fully embrace its extreme left instincts.

Even with the Post’s new position as the sole Denver daily, things are not rosy for the liberal paper. Circulation and advertising revenues for most daily papers, including the Post, are down sharply. Pundits blame the internet, which is surely an agent of change for the information industry. Others blame cable news networks, but the few exceptions to the overall failure of print news expose some deeper reasons for the Rocky’s failure.

Between cable news and the internet, hardly anyone needs a local daily to follow the news. Indeed, the speed and versatility of TV and the web make for more compelling media than newsprint ever could. Why, then, have papers like the Wall Street Journal and a few others, managed to hold on to their subscribers and advertisers? Unlike the NYT or the Rocky, the Journal has adapted to some new realities.

If people don’t need dailies to get the raw facts, then reprinting AP releases, the Post’s bread and butter, is hardly valuable. Nearly every daily reader knows the latest sports scores and the latest world tragedy before the presses spool up. The Journal’s readers know the closing Dow long before the day’s paper. The Journal, instead, sells analysis and insight into the topics that matter to its readers. Furthermore, since the Journal writes most of its own material, it can protect that content from commoditization. Also, the Journal’s editorial page actually sells papers. Unlike the NYT, the queen bee of left wing commentary, the Journal editorials report and analyze issues of interest. The NYT, and by proxy, most other daily’s simply rattle and grouse about issues of which the average reader is already well aware.

Also, the Journal is a serious publication. The low brow populist sameness of the average daily is a formula that has been bested. A sizable chunk of young America gets its news from comedy shows like the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. These slick, fairly leftist, comedy shows tickle the funny bone and provide a superficial backdrop to the daily news. Considering the huge flank local papers have opened by trying to be entertaining and light, there is no surprise that comedy TV, with its more compelling format, would capture a chunk of the market seeking escape and distraction over serious news.

So the Rocky is soon to be a memory, and the Post’s future is not much brighter. Of course Denver could never support two papers in this modern age, but the reasons for local newspapers’ troubles run deeper. Simply reprinting AP releases and aping Morine Dowd screeds is not providing a unique service. Nowadays, anyone can go to the source for mediocre fact reporting and predictable leftist views. If the Post wants to avoid the Rocky’s fate, it should take these lessons to heart.