The Rocky Mountain News and its competitors, including The Denver Post, resorted to gasoline giveaways and other promotions in an attempt to boost circulation.

It was saved by then editor Jack Foster when he convinced Scripps to approve changing the newspaper from a broadsheet format to a tabloid design.

It became an instant favorite among readers and was soon adopted in many other newspapers, paving the way for advice columnists such as Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren.

[9] On December 4, 2008, E. W. Scripps put the News on the market, with industry analysts saying the move was possibly a prelude to shuttering the paper.

[4] Although Brian Ferguson, a private equity investor from Texas, contacted Scripps to express interest, that deal fell-through for reasons that included complications of the joint operating agreement.

[11][12] Two years after the shutdown of the Rocky Mountain News, Scripps would re-enter the Denver market when it purchased the broadcasting assets of McGraw Hill, which included ABC affiliate KMGH-TV.

At the time, the Federal Communications Commission prohibited cross-ownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same market, meaning Scripps would have either been forced to sell the Rocky Mountain News or KMGH-TV had the company never shuttered the paper.

On March 16, 2009, several former Rocky Mountain News staffers announced a plan to develop a new on-line, real-time local newspaper, with a staff of about 30 journalists.

As of October 2013[update], the three co-founders Kevin Prebuld, Brad Gray, and Ben Ray, editor Steve Haigh, and contributors Drew Litton and Ed Stein were the only remaining staff from the original venture.

[18] In December 2014, Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz was reported to be exploring the possibility of reviving the Rocky Mountain News; he had placed a prototype online and was conducting market research to assess the feasibility of a relaunch.

[21] Anschutz launched a Denver edition of the Colorado Springs Gazette in 2020, which publishes material from the Rocky Mountain News archives daily.

[citation needed] In 2006, Jim Sheeler of the Rocky Mountain News won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his "Final Salute" special report, the story of a Marine major assigned to casualty notification and how he helps families with fallen relatives in Iraq cope with their losses.