The owners of The Denver Post said Wednesday that if the Rocky is sold, they intend to take control of the Denver Newspaper Agency and publish only The Post.

The unsigned statement from the Denver Post Corp. was a response to an article in Wednesday's Rocky that said executives at E.W. Scripps, the parent of the Rocky, had accused The Post of violating their joint operating agreement by using agency loans to pay for The Post's payroll.

The Post owed the agency $13 million by the end of November, Scripps executives claimed in a letter obtained by the Rocky.

The Post's statement Wednesday called the article "irresponsible," said there is no violation of the JOA, and said any amounts it owes to the agency will be canceled once it takes over.

Rocky Editor John Temple said the paper stands by its story.

With regard to the future of the Rocky, The Post statement said: "If the Rocky Mountain News is sold, The Denver Post intends to exercise its options to buy all of Denver Newspaper Agency, and Denver Newspaper Agency and The Denver Post will be consolidated.

"In either case, The Denver Post and the Denver Newspaper Agency will become one organization and will publish only The Denver Post. At that time, the intercompany balances between The Denver Post and the Denver Newspaper Agency will offset, and the combined company will be recapitalized with a plan to successfully move The Denver Post into the future."

The Post statement suggests that anyone who might buy the Rocky will be left without printing presses or an advertising or circulation staff, all of which are currently provided to The Post and Rocky by the agency.

Scripps declined to comment Wednesday on the Post statement. The Scripps letter was dated Dec. 9, five days after Scripps announced it would try to sell the Rocky, with closure an option if no buyers were found. The company said it accepted bids through Jan. 16 but has not offered an update on the sale process.

The Justice Department, which approved the 2001 JOA between The Post and News, would have to review any sale transaction.

Tracy Simmons, administrative officer of the Denver Newspaper Guild, said Wednesday, "I'm no attorney, but my understanding is that you can't separate the newsroom from the (Denver Newspaper Agency) without being in violation of the JOA.

"The rationale for the JOA was to preserve two independent editorial voices, and any move to compromise that raises questions for the Justice Department."

Mark Fitzgerald, editor-at- large of newspaper industry trade publication Editor & Publisher, had a different take.

"I don't think Justice would have much to say about it," he said. "It approved the agreement that allows MediaNews right of first refusal. I don't see any standing (by Justice) to say that you've got to be a partner with somebody you don't want to."

Fitzgerald cited the case of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, which wanted to shut down in the mid-1980s. Although Justice told the newspaper's owners that they had to look for a buyer, regulators didn't force the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to accept that buyer as a joint operating partner.

The Post statement said the Wednesday Rocky story was "full of so many inaccuracies."

"The story irresponsibly suggests that The Denver Post Corporation is incapable of funding its payroll," the statement said. "That is simply not true, and E.W. Scripps executives have been told the facts on numerous occasions."

The Post did not deny it owed the agency money for payroll, however, and confirmed that the agency has been paying the Post newsroom costs.

The agency had been subtracting the costs from The Post's monthly cash distributions from the agency.

Scripps said this week the agency has not made any distributions to the partners since June, and the Rocky has incurred $10.6 million in payroll costs since that time. In the letter, the Scripps executives say Post management unilaterally had the agency borrow from its banks to cover The Post costs, and now the agency's lenders won't extend any more credit.

Temple said: "The Post statement does not cite a single error in the story. The Rocky correctly reported the contents of the leaked letter and how the JOA allows either paper to have the agency fund its newsroom. It also extensively quoted a Post executive's views."

In December, Dean Singleton, publisher of The Post, requested $18 million in concessions from agency union employees and $2 million from Post union employees. He told unions the cuts were necessary in order to renegotiate the bank loan.