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Cincinnati Post Prints Final Edition

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By DAN SEWELL, The Associated Press

Published: January 1, 2008

CINCINNATI - The Cincinnati Post said goodbye with its final edition Monday - its presses stilled after 126 years.

"-30-", a symbol traditionally used to signal the end of a dispatch, was the front-page headline in the last Cincinnati edition, about an hour before the printing of its sister Kentucky Post marked the final run for the daily newspapers.

In a front page story about the closing, editor Mike Philipps said: "It's a sad day, but we're going out with heads high. This paper made a difference in the community."

The Post and its sister Kentucky Post edition have struggled for decades, like other afternoon newspapers, in a climate that has challenged even the nation's most storied dailies.

E.W. Scripps Co., based in Cincinnati, decided in July to close The Post newspapers when a joint operating agreement with Gannett Co. expired. Joint operating agreements allow newspapers to combine business operations when one faces financial ruin.

Gannett, which owns The Cincinnati Enquirer, notified The Post three years ago it would not renew the 1977 agreement when it expired at the end of 2007.

Philipps, a 30-year veteran of The Post, said final editions were focused on the newspaper itself. About 9,000 copies were to be printed in addition to the standard weekday circulation of 27,000 papers.

"We're going to make ourselves count right to the end," he said.

The staff will now clean out drawers, turn in keys and laptops, finish their paperwork and turn off the phones.

"It'll be like it always is at The Post: We'll be too damn busy," Philipps said. "It's not going to really hit until the next day."

The Post was known for colorful journalism, investigative pieces and crusades against political cronyism and calls for civic reform. The paper has launched many notable careers in journalism, communications and education.

Originally called The Penny Paper in 1881, it was renamed The Penny Post by E.W. Scripps, who assumed control in 1883. The newspaper became The Cincinnati Post in 1890, when its Kentucky Post edition was first printed.

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