''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in the

Denver metropolitan area Denver is the central city of a conurbation region in the U.S. state of Colorado. The conurbation includes one continuous region consisting of the six central counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson. The Denver regi ...

. it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 million page views, according to

comScore Comscore, Inc. is an American-based global media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, advertising agencies, brand marketers, and publishers. History Comscore was founded in July 1999 in Resto ...

Ownership

The ''Post'' was the flagship newspaper of MediaNews Group Inc., founded in 1983 by

William Dean Singleton William Dean Singleton (born August 1, 1951) is an American newspaper executive. He is the founder and executive board chairman of MediaNews Group, the fourth-largest newspaper company in the United States in terms of circulation, with 53 daily pa ...

and Richard Scudder. On December 1, 1987, MediaNews, a national newspaper chain with over 60 daily newspapers and over 160 non-daily publications in 13 states, bought ''The Denver Post'' from

Times Mirror Company The Times Mirror Company was an American newspaper and print media publisher from 1884 until 2000. History It had its roots in the Mirror Printing and Binding House, a commercial printing company founded in 1873, and the ''Los Angeles Times'' ...

. Since 2010, ''The Denver Post'' has been owned by hedge fund

Alden Global Capital Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund based in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Smith, and is a division of Smith Management LLC. Its managing director is Heath Freeman. By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two ...

, which acquired its bankrupt parent company, MediaNews Group. In April 2018, a group called "Together for Colorado Springs" said that it was raising money to buy the ''Post'' from Alden Global Capital, stating: "Denver deserves a newspaper owner who supports its newsroom."

History

19th century

In August 1892, ''The Evening Post'' was founded by supporters of

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

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 and ''The 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 and owner of a curio and souvenir shop, and Frederick Gilmer Bonfils, a Kansas City real estate and lottery operator, purchased the ''Evening 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 of

sensationalism In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emoti ...

, editorialism, and "flamboyant circus journalism", a new era began for the ''Post''. Circulation grew and eventually passed the other three daily papers combined. On November 3, 1895 the paper's was name changed to ''Denver Evening Post''.

20th century

On January 1, 1901 the word "Evening" was dropped from the name and the paper became ''The Denver Post''. ''Post'' reporters include Gene Fowler, Frances Belford Wayne, and "

sob sister Sob sister was an American term in the early 20th century for reporters (usually women) who specialized in newspaper articles (often called "sob stories") with emphasis on the human interest angle using language of sentimentality. The label was c ...

" Polly Pry.

Damon Runyon Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American journalist and short-story writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway theatre, Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Proh ...

worked briefly for the ''Post'' in 1905–1906 before gaining fame as a writer in New York. After the deaths of Tammen and Bonfils in 1924 and 1933, Helen Bonfils and

May Bonfils Stanton Mary Madeline "May" Bonfils Stanton (April 30, 1883 – March 11, 1962) was an American heiress and philanthropist. She and her younger sister, Helen Bonfils, succeeded their father, Frederick Gilmer Bonfils, as principal owners of ''The Denver ...

, Bonfils' daughters, became the principal owners of the ''Post''. In 1946, the ''Post'' hired Palmer Hoyt from the ''

Portland Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'' to become editor and publisher of the ''Post'' and to give the paper a new direction. 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 mogul Samuel I. Newhouse. Helen Bonfils brought in her friend and lawyer Donald Seawell to save the paper. The fight led to a series of lawsuits as ''Post'' 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 the Denver 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 the ''Post'' to the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

-based

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 sold ''The Denver Post'' to Dean Singleton and

MediaNews Group MNG Enterprises, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado, United States–based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 ass ...

in 1987.

21st century

In January 2001, MediaNews and E.W. Scripps, parent company of the now defunct ''

Rocky Mountain News The ''Rocky Mountain News'' (nicknamed the ''Rocky'') was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. the Monday–Friday ...

'', entered into a joint operating agreement (JOA), creating the Denver 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 the ''Post'' retaining a broadsheet format and the ''News'' using a tabloid format. They published a joint broadsheet newspaper on Saturday, produced by the ''News'' staff, and a broadsheet on Sunday, produced by the ''Post'' staff. Both newspapers' editorial pages appeared in both weekend papers. The JOA ended on February 27, 2009, when the ''Rocky Mountain News'' published its last issue. The following day, the ''Post'' published its first Saturday issue since 2001. The ''Post'' 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. In 2013, just before legalization in Colorado, ''The Denver Post'' initiated an online media brand ' to cover cannabis-related issues. First led by Editor in Chief Ricardo Baca, the online publication has surged in popularity, beating the industry veteran ''

High Times ''High Times'' was an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by Tom Forcade. The magazine had its own book publishing d ...

'' in September 2016. Thirty layoffs were announced for ''The Post'' in March 2018, according to the '' Denver Business Journal''.

Management by Digital First Media

On September 7, 2011, John Paton, CEO of Journal Register Company, was appointed CEO of MediaNews Group, replacing Singleton, who stayed on as the ''Post''s publisher and CEO of MediaNews until his retirement in 2013. He remains non-executive chairman of the organization. With the move, the ''Post'' 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. 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 in North Washington in

Adams County, Colorado Adams County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 519,572. The county seat is Brighton, and the largest city is Thornton. The county is named for Alva Adams, an early Go ...

Newsroom cuts and criticism

The operation of ''The 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. The hedge fund has made "relentless cost cuts" since taking ownership in 2010, despite the reported profitability of the ''Post'', principally by laying off the newspaper's staff. Margaret Sullivan of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' called Alden Global Capital "one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism." Under Digital Media First, the number of journalists in the newsroom was reduced by almost two-thirds by April 2018, to around 70 people. This represents a drastic fall from the over 250 journalists which ''The Denver Post'' employed before 2010, when it was purchased by Alden Media Group. At one point before 2009, the joint-operating agreement between ''The Denver Post'' and ''The Rocky Mountain News'' boasted a 600-strong staff of journalists, before the bankruptcy of the ''Rocky Mountain News'' that year. 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 of ''The 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." The editorial board pointed out that the cuts were hamstringing the ability of the ''Post'' 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. Alden's "harvesting strategy" is what prompted Greg Moore, editor of ''The Denver Post'' from 2002 to 2016, to step down. The "open revolt" of the ''Denver Post'' against its owners garnered support and praise from other newspapers and journalists, including Mitchell Landsberg of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' and

Joe Nocera Joseph Nocera (born May 6, 1952) is an American business journalist and author. He has written for ''The New York Times'' since April 2005, writing for the editorial page from 2011 to 2015. He was also an opinion columnist for '' Bloomberg Opinio ...

of Bloomberg View. In 2020, a documentary, ''News Matters'', was released that follows the bold attempt by Colorado journalists to save the 125-year-old ''Denver Post'' while the hedge fund owner

slowly drains profits from the paper and dismissing journalists.

Controversies

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. In January 2020, Jon Caldara Libertarian activist of the

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

-based

Independence Institute The Independence Institute (II) is a Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian think tank based in Denver, Colorado. The group's stated mission "is to empower individuals and to educate citizens, legislators and opinion makers about publi ...

, a weekly columnist for ''The Denver Post'', was fired after publishing two conservative articles on sex and gender. 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." He was officially fired for failing to use "respectful language" and the lack of a "collaborative and professional manner."

Editors

Editors of ''The Denver Post'' include: * Arnold Miller * Robert W. Ritter, 1989–? * F. Gilman Spencer * Neil Westergaard * Dennis A. Britton * Glenn Guzzo * Gregory L. Moore, 2002–2016 * Lee Ann Colacioppo, 2016–present

Notable columnists

Former columnists include Woody Paige in sports, Tom Noel on local history, Mike Rosen on the commentary page. Other columnists included David Harsanyi, Al Lewis, Mike Littwin, Penny Parker and Michael Kane.

Awards

Pulitzer Prizes

''The Denver Post'' has won nine Pulitzer Prizes: *1964:

Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning Pulitzer may refer to: *Joseph Pulitzer, a 19th century media magnate *Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism, literary, and music award *Pulitzer (surname) *Pulitzer, Inc., a U.S. newspaper chain *Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-prof ...

by Paul Conrad *1967:

Pat Oliphant Patrick Bruce "Pat" Oliphant (born 24 July 1935) is an Australian-born American artist whose career spanned more than sixty years. His body of work primarily focuses on American and global politics, culture, and corruption; he is particularly k ...

*1984:

Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography is one of the American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature recognition, could be a hole, poc ...

by Anthony Suau *1986:

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journali ...

for a series on missing children *2000:

Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting is a Pulitzer Prize awarded for a distinguished example of breaking news Breaking news, also called late-breaking news, a special report, special coverage, or a news flash, is a current issue ...

for its coverage of the

Columbine High School massacre A school shooting and attempted bombing occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 13 students and one teach ...

*2010:

by Craig F. Walker *2011:

Mike Keefe Mike Keefe (born November 6, 1946, in Santa Rosa, California) is an American editorial cartoonist best known for his work at ''The Denver Post'', for which he drew cartoons from 1975 to 2011. His cartoons are nationally syndicated, and have appear ...

*2012:

by Craig F. Walker *2013:

for its coverage of the

2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting On July 20, 2012, a mass shooting occurred inside a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, United States, during a midnight screening of the film ''The Dark Knight Rises''. Dressed in tactical clothing, 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes ...

''References not listed below can be found on the linked pages.''

National and international awards

*2015 and 2016:

Radio Television Digital News Association The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA, pronounced the same as " rotunda"), formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), is a United States-based membership organization of radio, television, and online news dir ...

's Edward R. Murrow awards, including Lindsay Pierce/“Kailyn’s Spirit” in 2016, three in 2015. *2015: Pulitzer Prize finalist in Explanatory Reporting for coverage of Colorado's

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

laws. *2007: Pulitzer Prize finalist in breaking news for ''The Denver Post''s coverage of Colorado's back-to-back blizzards. *2007: Four awards for outstanding business coverage from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) for the newspaper's 2006 series on Colorado's mortgage foreclosure epidemic, titled "Foreclosing on the American Dream". *2007: Former ''Post'' staff writer Eric Gorski was awarded first place in "Best of the West" contest in the Business and Financial Reporting category for "The Gospel of Prosperity", a look at the finances of the Heritage Christian Center. *2007: Visual journalists at ''The Post'' won 10 awards in two international newspaper competitions – nine Awards of Excellence in the 28th annual Society of News Design judging and a bronze medal in the 15th annual Malofiej International Infographic Awards, held in

Pamplona Pamplona (; ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Navarre, Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. Lying at near above sea level, the city (and the wider Cuenca de Pamplona) is located on the flood pl ...

, Spain.

Local and regional awards

*2013: The Carson J Spencer Foundation "Media All-Star" award for responsible reporting on suicide. *2007: ''The Denver Post'' won 22 top awards in two Colorado journalism contests, including the award for general excellence from the Colorado Associated Press Editors and Reporters (CAPER). The staff of denverpost.com was awarded top honors for online breaking news. *2007: The Mountain States Office of the Anti-Defamation League presented ''Denver Post'' editorial cartoonist

with its annual Freedom of the Press award.

References

External links

''The Denver Post'' mobile website

''The Denver Post'' front page (updated)

MediaNews Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denver Post, The 1892 establishments in Colorado Newspapers established in 1892 Daily newspapers published in the United States Mass media in Denver MediaNews Group publications Newspapers published in Colorado Pulitzer Prize–winning newspapers Pulitzer Prize for Public Service winners