Apparently Bloomberg’s report yesterday that Denver Post publisher MediaNews Group would be in default of its debt on June 30 got William Dean Singleton’s attention. He made Post business reporter Aldo Svaldi write a 14-paragraph article rebutting the claims. 

Bloomberg has identified Denver-based MediaNews Group as one of the newspaper companies at risk of going into default due to the continued advertising slump. MediaNews owns the Denver Post and approximately 60 other newspapers. According to the article:

Newspapers are selling today for about six times earnings, said Sammy Papert, chairman of Belden Associates, a newspaper consulting firm in Dallas. This is below the 11.5 times earnings that MediaNews and Hearst Corp. paid in a $1 billion deal for the Mercury News and three other newspapers in 2006.

Since then, Denver-based MediaNews, the second-largest closely held U.S. newspaper company by circulation, had its credit rating slashed four levels by S&P to B-, or six levels above default. Debt rated B is likely to become impaired in adverse business, financial or economic conditions, S&P notes.

Singleton expects the company, with average weekday circulation of 2.6 million in fiscal 2007, to remain in compliance with debt covenants, the chief executive officer said in a June 12 telephone interview.

On June 30, if MediaNews has the debt-to-cash flow ratio of 6.53 times it reported on Dec. 31, 2007, it would be in violation of its loans, according to S&P.

Monday business sections have always been a bit light, but the Denver Post is taking this tradition to absurd proportions. Today’s business “section” is two pages that contain a grand total of four articles. And of the four articles, only one is written by a Post reporter (two are from the AP and one from the Washington Post). 

No one exudes sensuality more than a newspaper reporter, so it makes sense that Denver Post feature writer Doug Brown and his wife Annie would appear on the Today Show to discuss his book, Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days (NO EXCUSES!). 

Sharon Linhart ponied up $75 to purchase Denver Post business columnist Al Lewis’ slightly used mask as part of the 2008 Mask Project. 

Denver Post business columnist Al Lewis takes Southwest Airlines to task for its shoddy maintenance practices that are undermining public confidence in the company and reinforcing the notion that airlines have become the Greyhound of the skies.

Weekday circulations at the top 20 U.S. newspapers:

1. USA Today, 2,284,219, up 0.3 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,069,463, up 0.4 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,077,256, down 3.9 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 773,884, down 5.1 percent
5. New York Daily News, 703,137, down 2.1 percent

6. New York Post, 702,488, down 3.1 percent
7. The Washington Post, 673,180, down 3.6 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 541,663, down 4.4 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 494,131, down 1.8 percent
10. The Arizona Republic, 413,332, down 4.7 percent

11. Newsday, Long Island, 379,613, down 4.7 percent
12. San Francisco Chronicle, 370,345, down 4.2 percent
13. Dallas Morning News, 368,313, down 10.6 percent
14. The Boston Globe, 350,605, down 8.3 percent
15. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 345,130, down 7.4 percent

16. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 334,150, down 5.1 percent
17. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 330,280, down 4.2 percent
18. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 326,907, down 8.5 percent
19. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 321,984, down 6.7 percent
20. St. Petersburg Times, Florida, 316,007, down 2.1 percent

Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations (reprinted in the Denver Post)

Denver Post publisher William Dean Singleton has a very public Obama/Osama moment.

If your pitch to a Denver Post reporter is being ignored, you might try sweetening the deal by offering to buy a couple dozen subscriptions.

Sadly, Kacey Fine Furniture president Leslie Fishbein appears to have no chance of recovery. While her family and friends cope with the senseless tragedy, and the investigations as to how this happened continue, the Denver Post still has not explained how it mismanaged the story so badly.

Three days ago, Joey Bunch and Kieran Nicholson at the Denver Post erroneously reported that Fishbein had died, citing a broadcast allegedly made by Fishbein family friend and radio host Peter Boyles. Later, the Post deleted that story and replaced it with news that Fishbein was alive, but on life support. No retraction or correction was issued, and the Post simply acted as though the initial article had never appeared.

Adding insult, the initial Post article’s headline described Fishbein as a “busineswoman, socialite.” While Fishbein was active in the Denver charity scene, so are Pete Coors and Dave Lininger. And I doubt the Post would describe them as “businessmen and socialites.” 

UPDATE: I exchanged emails with Denver Post reporter Joey Bunch, and he was not involved in the erroneous report of Fishbein’s death. I assume his byline was on the piece because he contributed some of the background information.