JOA Leads to 318,000-SF Building

"I paid for the dinner in exchange for getting the Sunday paper," joked Singleton. Four years after the JOA went into effect, the Post has the Sunday paper while the News publishes the Saturday paper, with both weekend papers going to subscribers of both papers.

But the JOA not only has meant a 50-50 split of the revenues on the business sides of the two newspapers, but a new building. Kirk McDonald, chief executive officer of the Denver Newspaper Agency, at a recent ground-breaking for the $86-million, 11-story, 318,400-sf building at Colfax Avenue and Broadway, says it is much more difficult to work from two buildings than he had ever imagined. "This is one of the best locations in Downtown Denver," McDonald says.

Speakers at the ceremony included Republican Gov. Bill Owens and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat. Owens notes that if you look at the history of big-city newspapers over the past 30 or 40 years, many cities have gone from having four or five newspapers to two or three and in many cases even only one. But citizens are better served by having more than one editorial voice, he says, so he applauds the effort to keep two strong newspapers in Colorado.

Hickenlooper agrees. Hickenlooper jokes that if one paper attacks him,the other is there to defend him. And he also notes that the newspaperbuilding is strategically located between the State Capitol and the Wellington E. Webb municipal building. Also, it is just across the Civic Center Park from the Denver Art Museum, where a new addition is under construction and is being designed by Daniel Libeskind and the flagship Denver Public Library, whose addition was designed by architect Michael Graves.

The newspaper building is being deigned by Denver-based Newman Cavender & Doane. The general contractor is Greeley, CO-based HenselPhelps. Denver-based Mosher Sullivan is developing it. The building isscheduled to open by Labor Day 2006.