11 February 2008

Denver Post Slipping

Last week, I learned that the Denver Post is abolishing a separate business section, although they claimed that they would have a similar number of business stories.

Today, the Denver Post consolidated the first section news, the state and local news section (Denver and the West) and the Business section (a mere page and a quarter of news), into a single section. Not only that, for some mysterious reason, they put Grammy Award coverage (as well as the usual relocated celebrity gossip) into the news section rather than the anemic entertainment section (I presume because Mondays are "Fitness" days). The quality of the news offerings has declined so far that I frequently find better reporting and editorial decision making in the free Denver Daily News (which admittedly has horrible copy editing) than I do in the Denver Post a couple days a week.

Today's one section fiasco wasn't the "last straw" that will cause me to cancel my subscription, but it is a definite step in that direction. It follows an increasingly conservative slant in their news coverage and editorials, lousy coverage of breaking news, and a gutted op-ed/columnist staff. I actually like having a paper copy rather than simply online access for many reasons. And, the advertisements and coupons mean that we save as much money from subscribing as we pay for the subscription (although that has grown more expense as well). But, the quality of the Denver Post product has declined markedly in the past six months to a year. I don't love the Rocky Mountain News either, but I may be convinced to switch because the Rocky isn't declining in quality as quickly as the Post.

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