E.W. Scripps, owner of the Rocky Mountain News, said Wednesday its attempts to sell the newspaper could stretch beyond Friday into at least next week.

In the meantime, unions representing workers at The Denver Post and Denver Newspaper Agency have been examining the agency's financial statements, after being asked by MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton to agree to concessions by Friday.

All parties are struggling for solutions as the newspaper industry, both in Denver and nationally, continues its steep decline. Newspaper revenue here and in other major metro areas has fallen by double digits, and Scripps and MediaNews are losing millions of dollars each quarter on the Rocky and the Post.

The two companies halted their newspaper war in 2001, forming a joint operating agreement that allowed them to combine business operations while maintaining separate and competitive newsrooms.

When Scripps announced its plans to sell the Rocky on Dec. 4, it said it "intended to entertain offers through mid-January" for the paper and would examine other options "if no acceptable offers emerge in the course of that period."

That's led to local speculation that the Rocky's last day of publication could be Saturday.

In a statement released late Wednesday to the Rocky, Scripps said it's asking interested parties to submit their bids for the newspaper by the close of business on Friday.

"Any bids will be carefully evaluated as quickly as possible, but there's no specific timetable for completing that process," said spokesman Tim King.

King would say only that "a handful" of potential buyers have requested the information packet that Scripps prepared for a potential Rocky sale, but he said that packets were still being sent out last week. He would not say whether Scripps already had received what it considered an "expression of interest."

Days after Scripps' announcement, Singleton requested $18 million of concessions from the agency and $2 million from the Post newsroom.

Newspaper agency officials followed with a letter saying they needed new labor contracts to be concluded by Jan. 16 so the agency could attempt to renegotiate $130 million of debt.

But little progress has been made and no substantial contract negotiations, union representatives said.

The Communications Workers of America, which represents three of the six agency unions, just started looking at the agency books on Tuesday and hasn't made a decision on whether to reopen contract talks.

Teamsters, which represents two unions, has looked at the books, and Local 961 business agent John Hennelly said a bargaining team will begin discussions with DNA officials today. A sixth union, a small platemakers union, has refused to participate in the process.

Agency spokesman Jim Nolan has declined repeatedly to comment on why the debt needs to be renegotiated and whether the Friday deadline is firm. "I have no news for you on deadlines or otherwise," he said Wednesday.

Union officials also have said they haven't been told why the loan, which has a favorable interest rate and isn't due until October 2010, must be renegotiated.

In December, agency officials warned the unions that the agency "will have to consider all options available to it" if it failed to win the concessions.

Finance Editor David Milstead can be reached at milstead@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2648.