• Bloomberg, Friday, December 5, 2008 9:30 AM

E.W. Scripps Co. is seeking a buyer for the Rocky Mountain News as well as for Scripps's half of the Denver Newspaper Agency, which manages the RMN and MediaNews Group's Denver Post. The Rocky Mountain News is Scripps' only unprofitable newspaper, say Scripps executives.

The buyer is "likely to be somebody with enormous personal resources and a desire to make an impact, who really wants to commit themselves to Denver for a long period of time," says Mark Contreras, Scripps svp. Other options will be examined if no acceptable bids come in by mid-January.

Scripps, also the owner of 10 television stations, had a third-quarter net loss of $16.8 million, compared with net income of $88.4 million a year earlier. Newspaper revenue fell 17%, dragged down by a 20% drop in print and online ad sales. Last month, Scripps announced it was cutting 10% of the staff of its newspapers and suspending dividend payments.

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