Gannett won't extend operating agreement with Cincinnati Post

CINCINNATI (AP) — Gannett notified The Cincinnati Post on Jan. 16 that it won't extend their joint operating agreement beyond 2007, leaving the afternoon newspaper with an uncertain future. 

Gannett, which publishes the city's morning daily, The Cincinnati Enquirer, has handled business and production operations for the Post and its northern Kentucky edition since 1977, keeping Cincinnati a two-paper town. 

Gannett said the move is necessary because readership habits are moving away from afternoon newspapers.

"As profitability declines and expenses rise, tough decisions needed to be made," said Gary L. Watson, president of Gannett's newspaper division.

The agreement expires Dec. 31, 2007. The Post's circulation has dropped substantially since the agreement took effect, and Gannett was required to give three years' notice if it decided not to extend the arrangement. 

The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 permits newspapers to merge business operations if one of them is in danger of failing financially. 

The E.W. Scripps Co., which owns the Post, said no jobs will be eliminated for now. The Post employs 78 full-time and four part-time reporters, editors, photographers and other editorial staffers. 

"The notification we received today gives Scripps four years to review whatever options we might have in the Cincinnati and northern Kentucky newspaper markets," said Alan M. Horton, a Scripps senior vice president. "We'll take that time to thoroughly evaluate if there is a way the Post can move forward past the expiration date." 

Mike Philipps, editor of the Post, said readers can be assured that nothing will change in the newspaper.

"A key message is that we are not closing this newspaper, and it will continue to be just as scrappy and feisty for the next four years as it has been for the past 123 years," he said. 

Margaret Buchanan, publisher and president of the Enquirer, said it was too soon to predict the effects of the Jan. 16 announcement. 

The Post's paid circulation has declined from 188,000 in 1978, the first year the agreement was in effect, to 42,219 daily and 57,543 on Saturdays last year. The newspaper does not publish on Sundays. 

The Enquirer's circulation is about 218,000 weekdays and 307,000 Sundays.