Ownership and Editorial Changes Since 2001
The Colorado Daily was owned by Front Range Publishing, Inc., an employee-owned company, until 2001, when that company declared bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was triggered by the alleged embezzlement of more than $250,000 by its finance manager, who in 2003 pleaded guilty to a single count of falsifying an income-tax return. The bankrupt newspaper was purchased by Randy Miller, formerly of Lee Enterprises, who returned the paper to profitability. Upon taking ownership, Miller named himself editor, sparking the departure of former editor-in-chief White. The newspaper had an estimated daily circulation of 23,000 copies at the time.
Miller told newsroom employees the newspaper would take a less confrontational approach to the university while focusing intensely on local affairs. The latter marked a shift from the newspaper's recent coverage of protests against free-market globalization including 1999's "Battle in Seattle" and the 2000 presidential campaign.
The increased emphasis on local affairs was exemplified by the Daily's edition the day after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Instead of featuring a photo of the burning World Trade Center towers on its front page, as most newspapers did, the Daily ran a picture of people donating blood at the local Red Cross branch. Miller's emphasis on the bottom line was also on display as he cut several of the articles reported and written by his own staff in the hours after the attacks, citing a lack of space in the paper. This contrasted with the rival Daily Camera's decision to distribute a free special edition in the afternoon of September 11. In the Colorado Daily's front-page photo the next day, the volunteers donating blood could be seen reading the rival newspaper's extra edition.
On September 26, 2005, Miller announced he was selling the newspaper to the E.W. Scripps Company of Cincinnati, then the owner of the Daily Camera and the Rocky Mountain News. Miller left the newspaper in 2007. Scripps later shut down the Daily's freestanding office, moving operations to the Camera's headquarters on Pearl Street in Boulder. Scripps sold the Camera and the Daily to MediaNews Group, which also publishes the Denver Post, in 2009.
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