Colorado Springs group wants to buy Denver Post, pledges $10M

An organization led by the owner of the Colorado Springs Independent has pledged at least $10 million toward buying the Denver Post, which has been beleaguered by staff cuts under its current hedge fund ownership.

Together for Colorado Springs announced Thursday that it was “rallying residents from across Colorado to join with us to buy the Denver Post.”

The organization is chaired by John Weiss, who owns the Independent, the Colorado Springs Business Journal, and five other weekly papers. The group also boasts the membership of Perry Sanders and John Goede, two wealthy Springs businessmen who own The Antlers Hotel and The Mining Exchange.

It’s a move that follows an editorial by The Post’s own staff lamenting large staff cuts to the newsroom by the paper’s owner, Alden Global Capital. The paper has seen its newsroom staff shrink from 250 to fewer than 100 in recent years.

Alden is a hedge fund based out of New York City which manages Digital First Media. There are about 100 newspaper brands under the Digital First Media umbrella, including The Post and several other daily and weekly papers in Colorado.

The post’s editorial says the paper is profitable, but not to the extent that Alden wants.

Together for Colorado Springs said in a news release it wants to buy the Post “to ensure open-minded, journalist-driven print and digital news for decades to come.”

The announcement also comes on the same day that the group is set to talk about the role of ownership on newspaper content at this week’s annual Colorado Press Association meeting. That meeting starts at 5 p.m. Thursday at The Antlers.

We’ll be speaking Weiss later Thursday. Check back for updates.