Report: Billionaire Philip Anschutz explores possibility of resurrecting Rocky Mountain News

Billionaire investor Philip Anschutz is exploring the possibility of resurrecting the Rocky Mountain News after the daily newspaper in Denver was shuttered five years ago.

The Denver Business Journal was the first to report Tuesday that Anschutz's Clarity Media Group has posted a prototype newspaper online and is researching the feasibility of publishing the Rocky once again. E.W. Scripps Co. closed the newspaper in 2009 after nearly 150 years in operation, citing losses that reached $16 million the previous year.

Clarity President and CEO Ryan McKibben tells the Denver Business Journal that readers can comment on the prototype, but no decision has been made to republish the Rocky. He says Anschutz owns the rights to use the newspaper's nameplate, its Internet address and other intellectual property.