Report: Anschutz explores resurrecting Rocky Mountain News

Billionaire investor Philip Anschutz is exploring the possibility of resurrecting the Rocky Mountain News, a daily newspaper in Denver that was shuttered in 2009 after nearly 150 years in operation, according to a newspaper report.

The Denver Business Journal was the first to report Tuesday that Anschutz’ Clarity Media Group has posted a prototype newspaper online and is researching the feasibility of once again publishing the Rocky. E.W. Scripps Co. closed the newspaper in 2009, citing losses that reached $16 million the previous year.

Ryan McKibben, president and CEO of Clarity, tells the Denver Business Journal that readers can comment on the prototype, but no decision has been made to republish the Rocky. He says Anschutz owns the rights to use the newspaper’s nameplate, its Internet address and other “intellectual property.”