"The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 provides for a JOA (joint operating agreement), provided that one of the newspapers qualifies as a "failing paper". Congress passed the law to help keep two newspapers in the same community alive when one was in probable danger of failing."

"Rocky Mountain News April 13, 2001"

What did they know and when did they know it?

Many Coloradans remember the Rocky Mountain News offering subscriptions for a penny and later claimed overwhelming readership. The News also stopped serving certain Colorado cities and neighboring states with economic ties to Denver. Did they stop serving certain cities because of little advertising revenue from those cities? Was it too costly to ship and maintain a sales force in those cities? Would it be effective for the advertiser? How many people in Denver are interested in a lumberyard in Durango? Did the Rocky Mountain News intentionally "run" the paper into the ground as represented by Denver furniture mogul Jake Jabs and the "Coloradans Against Newspaper Monopolies"? Evidently the reward for stupid business practice is Government bailout. Janet Reno and the Justice Department approved the JOA in Denver. Could the people in charge of business forecasting, and in looking ahead 5-7 years, not foresee this possibility?

Is the Post difficult to read?

There has never been the opportunity to evaluate the two Denver Newspapers on the merits. The Rocky Mountain News format is called "tabloid" while the Denver Post format is "fold-out" (broadsheet). Newspaper reading is, in many cases, a matter of convenience. There is a "space requirement" for reading the Denver Post. Anyone who has tried to read the Denver Post on an early morning commute, whether by bus, taxi, light rail or in a restaurant or office breakroom, must allow for the opening, spreading and un-folding of this unwiedly newspaper. 

The Post is aware and has acknowledged this problem but argued their content was better and it would be too expensive to re-tool into tabloid format. C'mon, who believes the Denver Post is a better newspaper because Woody Paige jumped ship? Chuck Green is very lucky the JOA was upheld. If given the choice would Denver keep Chuck Green or Gene Amole? Chuck would qualify as the new editor of the Nebraska Farming News.

Competition is healthy for business?

Denver is not unlike other major cities in which newspaper wars have taken place. Nor is competition for business, in this case advertisers. In fact competition is what drives our competitive marketplace. In the 1980s deregulation of the transportation industry started "rate discounting" wars in which only those companies who could afford to operate at a loss, or lose money the longest could survive. 

  Trucking companies by the hundreds failed due to many of the common reasons, poor management, fuel increases, labor costs etc. but many of them failed because they could not withstand the discount rates that placed them in a revenue losing position.

  Reduced shipping rates were a boon for businesses, except for those in the shipping business. When manufacturing and shipping costs are established, retail prices reflect a certain profit percentage mark-up to consumers. 

  When the retail prices do not escalate but costs go down, (the price for shipping) the profit margin increases. Businesses could not support those trucking companies who had served them well in the past because to do so gave their competitors an advantage for profitability. So while perhaps sympathizing with the plight of shipping companies business is still business and profits are the bottom line. 

   The transportation business as a whole could not hold a convention or meeting with the focus being setting shipping rates at a specific cost for the good of the industry because that is illegal. That is collusion or price fixing and we have laws against this type of business practice. This begs the question; could United Airlines and American Airlines merge into one company and then raise weekend ticket prices %600-%1000 as is the reported result of the JOA? This would mean a one-way $300 ticket from Denver to Chicago to be $3,000! Never mind the legal issues surrounding this, the marketplace would not support this by competition. As long as someone had $300 ticket prices no one would pay $3,000. 

Yes, but its a legal monopoly

  Of course the JOA is a monopoly but the argument is there would have been a monopoly anyway if the Rocky Mountain News went out of business. Under this scenario if the Denver Post was the only paper left standing, they would charge whatever the market would bear. So what? In many other businesses the folding company sells off the assets to pay creditors. Why shouldn't this be the result of very stupid business practice by the Rocky Mountain News? Why is the newspaper business not subject to the same economic business burdens as say, NW Transport? 

   It is stated it is because of the public's right to know and editorial freedom of speech.

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