We all know that newspapers have been hemorrhaging money over the previous few years.  The only reason to have a subscription is the obituaries and the comics.  Now that the economy is declining things are getting even worse for our local rags.

The Rocky Mountain News has been put up for sale and today the Rocky is reporting that the owner of the Denver Post is requesting that the unions open their collective bargaining agreement to negotiation as they need to cut $20 million from the budget.  Funny, but I have not found that story on the Post website.

Anyway, if you are still reading at this point you are probably wondering why I am writing a post about this.  The story says that the owner of the Post expects the Rocky to fold making Denver a one paper town, but there is also speculation that both papers may go out of business.  

The bottom line is that there are two places I go to get my Denver Nuggets news and it is possible that one or both may become history.  

How do we deal with that?

Maybe a more important question is how would the Nuggets deal with it?  The newspapers provide a great deal of free marketing for the team.  Good news or bad, they keep the team in the public consciousness.  Would the Nuggets beef up Nuggets.com?  Would they hire one of the beat writers to be an online "reporter" and set him up with an internet site?  Would they begin to rely on bloggers to disseminate their information?  Could there be a day where the only media at the Pepsi Center are me and the Nugg Doctor?  Would Andrew from Denver Stiffs move back here from California to cover the team too?  Will they still put out a pregame meal for us?

I seriously doubt that both Denver papers will go away and the answer to their problems seems simple to me.  Stop printing a newspaper and go completely online, but that would require layoffs and good luck getting that done with a union in your face.

The bottom line is whether you have a subscription to one of these newspapers or not what happens will impact the quality of Nuggets coverage and where you get it from.  If there is only one paper in town there is no rush to get your story posted about whether or not Kenyon is playing tonight or news of trade.  You will know that whenever you get around to posting the story, you are the only place to go for the detailed information that the local beat writer will acquire.  

Anyway, that is enough for now for a topic that will not be relevant for months if at all.  But it sure will be interesting to see what transpires.