Rocky moving to a new home

John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 4, 2006 at midnight

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The Rocky Mountain News begins moving this weekend into a new building four blocks east of the 400 W. Colfax Ave. site it has inhabited for more than 50 years.

Although it's less than a half-mile to Colfax and Broadway, the move speaks volumes by every measure - economically, symbolically and culturally.

A $100 million investment in the new building, combined with a $135 million new press facility under construction by the Denver Newspaper Agency, represents what may be the biggest capital investment by a newspaper organization in the country at this time.

And it appears to be by far the largest private capital investment by a company in the Denver area, said Tom Clark, vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

"I can't think of anyone else investing even $100 million," Clark said. "Frankly, I think this is a national story, it is so significant. That's the kind of number that would snap back anybody's head."

Or as John Temple, editor and publisher of the News put it, "We are making a big statement."

By the end of September, about 1,300 people from the News; The Denver Post; the DNA, which runs the business operations for both papers; and MediaNews Group, the corporate parent of the Post, will be in the new building at 101 W. Colfax Ave., a former parking lot at Colfax and Broadway.

Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps owns the News, which is the joint owner with MediaNews of the DNA. The News and Post are in a joint operating agreement, in which they remain independent and editorially competitive. But business aspects - such as printing, circulation and advertising - are run by the DNA.

The building cost about $88 million to construct. When equipment and furniture are included, the investment approaches $100 million.

Harry Whipple, who in May became the president and CEO of the DNA, was asked about such a huge expenditure at a time when the newspaper industry is struggling nationally and locally from lower circulation and declining ad revenues.

"The question is actually the answer," Whipple said. "We have two very smart and very intelligent owners. They would not be investing a quarter of a billion dollars unless they saw a future return from their investment.

"That says that the newspaper industry is not dying," Whipple said. "Everyone asks me why I would want to run a newspaper organization. I tell them this is the most marvelous time in transition and change in the newspaper industry in the last 40 years."

Newspaper analyst John Morton said the Denver investment demonstrates that despite all of the "doom- and-gloom" reports about the industry, "the fact remains, it is still a big business. It shows that the newspaper business is still here and its owners still believe there is a future for printed newspapers, even though it may be diminished from what any of us would have imagined 10 years ago."

The city of Denver bought the Rocky Mountain News site, which will house a new jail as part of a $378 million Denver Justice Center.

The Colfax and Broadway building is the 12th home of the News since it was founded in April 1859. The News is the oldest continually operating business in Colorado.

Temple said he believes the new building site is the "greatest" in Denver because it is across from the Civic Center and between the state Capitol and the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office building.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said he couldn't be more pleased that the building is replacing a parking lot at a key entrance to downtown.

"It's a great site to get built," Hickenlooper said. "It has sort of been the missing tooth from the smile that is Civic Center Park. It also is symbolic to have the newspapers there because they play such a key role in our form of government. They are sort of the sentries, almost the watchdogs, between the city government and the state government."

Tami Door, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership, agreed.

"First and foremost, there is the symbolism when you have the free press in the heart of the city," Door said. "It -really sends a message that this is a place where the community voice is important. Secondly, it is a really strong anchor at that end of downtown. It is important to have strong anchors at both ends of downtown."

It was inefficient to have two buildings for the jointly operated newspapers, Temple said. The Post rents several floors at 1560 Broadway.

It would have been cost-prohibitive to modernize the News' existing building, expanded in the mid-1980s, which has seen better days, he noted.

Instead of constructing a building tailored to its needs, the DNA also considered leasing space downtown. But the DNA estimates it would have cost $3 to $5 more per square foot to lease and retrofit existing office space, and it would have ended up with something vastly inferior to the new building.

Temple said that newspapers in JOAs almost always share a building. He worked at a JOA in Albuquerque before coming to Denver and said housing two newsrooms in one building made no difference in the competition.

"The newsrooms stay separate and competitive," he said.

The new 318,400-square-foot building will include a 200-seat auditorium on the ground floor for use for public events and an electronic news ticker on the Broadway side of the building, Temple noted. The building has far more meeting space and the latest technology, including phones so complicated that employees were required to attend two-hour training sessions to learn how to use them. The building also is a wireless zone.

Although News employees gripe about the cost of parking, which is going to quadruple for some, they will still pay less than the going rate for covered parking downtown.

"We could have made parking a profit center, but we didn't," Temple said, noting that the DNA needed to recover its construction costs for parking.

It also will be easier for News employees to take public transportation at the new building, he said.

"I will miss the history," Temple said. "A lot of great people have done great things here. I'll also remember people like (the late columnists) Gene Amole and Greg Lopez."

Indeed, if the walls of the building could talk, they would sound like gossips trading tales across a fence.

They would remember not only the big things - such as the four Pulitzer Prizes, journalism's top award - but the little touches, such as the time that former "critter columnist" Becky Jones brought in 30 cats for a photo shoot of a look-alike contest for then-President Bill Clinton's cat, Socks - a move that literally led to cat fights.

Or the time Abigail Van Buren, better known as Dear Abby, came into visit her friend, Editor Ralph Looney, and was appalled that the bathrooms were stocked with rolls of newsprint instead of paper towels, something that Looney remedied the next day.

Or the afternoon tornadoes were sighted downtown and dozens of employees stood on the patio to get a better view of the funnel clouds, joking that they were standing next to a huge plate-glass window.

Sports columnist Sam Adams' strongest memories include being trapped - twice - for about 30 minutes each in stalled elevators. The second time, reporters took pity and fed him food between cracks in the elevator doors.

One of the more poignant memories was the marriage of columnist John Coit to Susan O'Malley in the News lobby on New Year's Eve 1985.

"There were tiny white lights in the Christmas tree and around the lobby, and it was beautiful, and so was Susan," recalled projects editor Carol Hanner. "Ten days later, John died of a heart attack at age 38. I still think of him sometimes when I walk through the lobby."

To contact us

The Rocky Mountain News begins moving into a new newsroom and building Saturday. Our new address is Suite 500, 101 W. Colfax Ave., Denver, CO 80202. All of our department e-mail addresses remain the same, and we prefer that you contact us by using them:

• business@rockymountainnews.com

• letters@rockymountainnews.com

• metro@rockymountainnews.com

• newsdesk@rockymountainnews.com

• photoed@rockymountainnews.com

• sports@rockymountainnews.com

• spotlight@rockymountainnews.com

Some of our phone numbers have changed. The following departments can now be reached at these numbers:

• John Temple, editor, president and publisher 303-954-5102;

fax 303-954-2568

• Business 303-954-5157;

fax 303-954-2835