After having lost about US$11 million on The Rocky Mountain News in the first nine months of the year, E.W. Scripps Co. put the newspaper up for sale Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

If acceptable offers are not put on the table by the middle of January, the company stated it may have to close down The Rocky Mountain News, the oldest newspaper in Colorado.

The News has been in a joint operating agreement with The Denver Post since 2001. Scripps CEO Rich Boehne said the company's 50 percent share in the joint operating agreement "is no longer enough to support the Rocky, leaving us with no choice but to seek an exit," the AP reported. The Denver Post is owned by MediaNews Group.

MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton told The Rocky Mountain News that although he expects MediaNews to end up with the joint operating agreement interest, "it would not be practical to publish two newspapers."

MediaNews will "insist Scripps fulfills its obligations when it leaves Denver," Singleton said. "I'm not sure there will be a long line of people to buy a paper that's losing money at a rate of $1.5 million per month."

Singleton added that the joint operating agreement "does not generate enough profit to support two newspapers ... The Rocky has been dragging the agency down for four years - not because it's not a great newspaper, but because of the (advertising sales)," The Rocky Mountain News reported.