Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The Rocky Mountain News, Colorado’s oldest newspaper, will put out its final edition tomorrow after publisher E.W. Scripps Co. failed to find a buyer.

Scripps began seeking offers for the 150-year-old Denver daily in December after declining advertising sales made the publication its only unprofitable newspaper. Shutting down the Rocky, which lost $16 million last year, leaves the Denver Post as the city’s only major newspaper.

The closure signals other publishers seeking to sell newspapers, including Hearst Corp. and Gannett Co., may have difficulty finding buyers. Hearst and Gannett said they may shut down their respective San Francisco Chronicle and Tucson Citizen, in Arizona, if they can’t sell the publications.

“This is not a good time to try to sell a newspaper,” said John Morton, president of Morton Research Inc. in Silver Spring, Maryland. “This deep recession for newspapers doesn’t make these particularly compelling properties to buyers.”

Scripps, based in Cincinnati, will turn over its 50 percent stake in an eight-year-old joint operating agreement with MediaNews Group Inc., owner the Denver Post. Scripps, which bought the Rocky in 1926, had attempted to sell the stake along with the newspaper.

Employees will remain on the payroll until April 28, Scripps said. The Rocky Mountain News won four Pulitzer Prizes in the past decade, according to a statement on its Web site.

San Francisco Chronicle

Tim King, a Scripps spokesman, wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The only party to express interest didn’t make a strong enough offer, Scripps said in a statement today. The deadline for submissions expired in mid-January.

Hearst said Feb. 24 it may close the San Francisco Chronicle if it can’t find a buyer “within weeks” and said last month it may shutter the Seattle Post-Intelligencer or turn it into a Web- only operation if it’s not sold by March. Gannett set a March 21 deadline to unload the Tucson Citizen.

Scripps dropped 10 cents to $1.08 at 2:30 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares had fallen 47 percent this year before today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Bensinger in New York at gbensinger1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 26, 2009 16:11 EST