The Lid Is Off: Mile High City Daily Names Marijuana Editor

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Print journalism aficionados who complain newspapers have gone to pot may be onto something--The Denver Post last week named Ricardo Baca to head its marijuana coverage, Politico reported.

Baca, a 12-year Post vet and the daily's former entertainment and music critic, will cover cannabis, along with an as-yet hired freelance pot critic and freelance pot columnist (I.F. Stoner?), according to the Politico post.  Colorado voters in November 2012, passed Amendment 64 that legalized recreational marijuana use for those 21 and older, prompting the Post to augment its coverage and weed out editorial staffers in search of the right journalist to helm its doobie beat.

The Politico article notes that the Post's human resources department said the daily still prohibits workers in the newsroom from reeking of marijuana or ingesting the wacky tabacky in the newsroom itself. A sound editorial move to shore up its marijuana reporting, but "TUOL" can't help but wonder if the Denver Post is comfortable going from a daily paper to a rolling paper?

Citizen Journalism Takes a Hit in Denver After Post Layoffs

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About a third of the staff of YourHub, the citizen journalism oasis of The Denver Post, has been laid off, Editor Greg Moore confirmed.

As reported initially by the Blogs.westward.com blog, the Post is pink-slipping a digital photo editor and five YourHub community managers in a cost-savings move. The Rocky Mountain News launched YourHub in 2005 and shepherded it until 2009.

YourHub will continue on in a more streamlined fashion after the 29 percent reduction in staff, the Post confirmed.

Denver Post Offers Voluntary Buyouts--Staff Cuts Could Approach 10 Percent

Image via WikipediaGregory Moore, Denver Post editor, has confirmed that voluntary buyouts have been offered to editorial staffers in hopes that 15 to 20 will depart, Denver blog Westword reports.

Staff cuts are the next step if the nearly 10 percent of newsroom personnel don't opt out, according to Westword. The MediaNews Group, Inc.-owned Denver Post slashed the daily's budget 4 percent last June in the wake of depressed advertising sales and a shrinking readership.  The cutbacks were visible in the sports and feature sections, which reduced pages. As have many other newspapers, the Post is redirecting its resources toward its Website.

The paper's daily circulation is roughly 255,000.

Colorado High Court Says Public Can't View Ex-Guv's Cell Phone Records

Image via WikipediaBy a 4-2 margin, the Colorado Supreme Court this week held in Denver Post Corp. v. Ritter (Case No. 10SC94) that the personal cell phone records of former Governor Bill Ritter are exempt from disclosure under the Colorado Open Records Act ("CORA") [C.R.S. secs. 24-72-201 to 24-72-206].

Factors influencing the High Court were that Gov. Ritter received no reimbursement from the state for the purchase of the phone, kept billing statements for payment purposes only and did not turn over the statements to any state agency. Writing for the majority in its 28-page opinion, Justice Gregory Hobbs said the Denver Post failed to show the cell phone logs were public records, which CORA defines as: "writings made, maintained or kept by the state...for use in the exercise of functions required or authorized by law."

The Post sought the phone records in 2008. Gov. Ritter produced logs from his state-purchased Blackberry, but declined to turn over his personal cell phone bills. The monthly phone records compiled by the carrier include more than 10,000 calls that indicate the date and length of conversations, but do not identity the parties involved or the substance of the calls.

The majority opinion stated that the newspaper had not shown Gov. Ritter retained the personal cell phone bills in his capacity as Colorado's chief executive and that the burden of proof was not on him to prove that the phone bills were not a public record.  The Court noted that it was the province of  the legislature to amend CORA if it chooses to include personal cell phone bills of elected officials as subject to disclosure.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Nancy Rice said the majority's holding undermines the transparency sought by the enactment of CORA and "provides an incentive for public officials  to shield records of phone conversations about official business by intermingling them with records of personal calls."

A tip of the hat to the Website of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for reporting on this decision.