A Look Back at Denver's Newspaper Future.

• Author: DUBROFF, HENRY
• Position: The Denver Post and the Denver Rocky Mountain News

I'M CONFLICTED. I'M UNEASY. I'M torn right down the middle about the negotiated truce between The Denver Post and the Denver Rocky Mountain News. Part of the conflict has to do with the fact that for a decade, I was a combatant in the newspaper war. From 1985 to 1995, I worked for The Denver Post as a reporter, columnist and then business editor. I pledged my loyalties to two owners, five publishers, and at least a half-dozen editors.

As a reporter, I agreed to a crucial freeze on my unionized wages that allowed the Post to regain financial health. As business editor, I vowed to do whatever it took to get out the paper in case of a strike by the union that once represented me. On more than one occasion, I made calls to sources at two or three o'clock in the morning in order to head off a Rocky Mountain News scoop.

After I became business editor in November 1988, my neck was on the line every day. Beat the Rocky and the heavens opened. But a Rocky scoop on the business beat meant a dark day.

A fight to the finish. That's why I came to Denver in 1985. Victory in a newspaper war is what journalists live for, fight for, commit their talent to. On both sides, we want to see the day when the headline on one newspaper says "We Win!" and the other newspaper says "Outta Here." When Dean Singleton took over as owner in 1988, he made it clear he was playing to win. When I left in 1995, with the paper in strong hands and our financial performance setting records, victory was within our grasp.

So as an editor, I'm not really wild about this deal. A well-fought newspaper war involves the entire community in precisely the way a record-setting sports team keeps a metropolis on edge. But a World Series doesn't end with a 3.5 to 3.5 split. A Super Bowl never ends with a tie. Why should a newspaper war be any different?

Now for the other side of my conflict.

My job description underwent a significant change a year ago. Today, I'm the publisher -- and majority owner -- of a weekly business newspaper in the Santa Barbara-Ventura area of Southern California.

As a business owner, I have just one major responsibility -- make sure there's enough cash coming in to make the payroll every two weeks. My other duties include paying the printer, the office cleaners, the Post Office and our subcontractors. If the money isn't there, we don't have a newspaper. To save a buck, I go to Kmart to buy toilet paper and soap, and sometimes I empty the trash.

We're fortunate in one...