The Denver Newspaper Agency's near- term future amid a deepening recession will be difficult, even with the closure of the Rocky Mountain News.

The Denver Post and Rocky had been losing roughly $4 million a quarter each, with revenues continuing to deteriorate because of the economy and the ongoing loss of advertising and readers to the Internet.

But operational efficiencies from publishing only one newspaper, a tentative agreement on union wage and benefit concessions, and the potential restructuring of $130 million in debt all will help.

The agency handled the business, circulation and advertising operations of the two newspapers under a joint operating agreement, while the newsrooms were separate. With the Rocky's closure, the agency now will handle operations just for the Post.

"We will survive," Denver Post publisher and MediaNews Group CEO William Dean Singleton told reporters Thursday. He maintained the Post will become profitable again "very soon."

Some of his optimism is based on the belief that a large majority - Singleton boasts nearly all - of Rocky subscribers will become Post readers.

Currently, only 14,000 subscribers take both newspapers, Singleton said. Rocky subscribers will start receiving the Post this Saturday and will continue to receive it unless they expressly cancel their subscription, he said.

Singleton didn't disclose cost-savings estimates.

But he said the obvious: "It costs a lot more money to put out two newspapers instead of one."

MediaNews and agency officials have been working since December to squeeze $20 million of concessions out of agency and Post union workers, concessions the agency has said it needs in order to renegotiate its debt.

On Wednesday, the unions representing most of the workers at the agency and The Denver Post reached tentative agreements on wages and benefit cuts.

The agreements vary slightly, but both call for about a 7 percent wage cut, the suspension of the 401(k) match, unpaid furlough days and increases in health-insurance and dental premiums. The agreements also call for similar concessions from management.

Singleton said a new debt agreement would be completed "soon after labor contracts are wrapped up." He said the agency was never close to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

E.W. Scripps, owner of the Rocky, and Singleton's MediaNews signed a separation agreement just minutes before Scripps CEO Rich Boehne told Rocky newsroom staff that the paper's final edition would be today.

Boehne said Scripps didn't pay anything to exit the market, but it gave up its right to share in any future profits generated by the agency.

"I think it's a fair trade," Singleton said.

In a December letter obtained by the Rocky, Scripps had alleged the Post had borrowed $13 million from the agency to cover its newsroom payroll. Scripps didn't try to recover its share of that money.

Boehne said Scripps, knowing Singleton needs to restructure the debt, wanted in part to help make sure at least one newspaper survives in Denver.

"We're trying to give the Post a good head start out of the gate," Boehne said.

"Nobody won here, nobody lost here," Singleton said.

But he said the economics made it impossible for both newspapers to survive and that the Post is the most logical survivor given that it published the Sunday paper, which he said generates nearly 50 percent of the revenue.

"We believe this market can support one good newspaper," Singleton said.

smithje@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5155