NEW: Conservative billionaire Phil Anschutz to launch the Denver Gazette, an online daily, continuing to expand the @csgazette brand. Anschutz’s media company has the rights to the former Rocky Mountain News but is using the Gazette name instead. #9News https://www.9news.com/mobile/article/news/local/next/denver-gazette-an-interactive-newspaper-launching-in-september/73-297faf0a-55f7-4fc7-8a04-a5a0163f8250

The Denver Gazette, launching September 14, will go behind a $9.99/mo paywall after three months. It will include daily archival content from the Rocky. It promises a full newspaper experience online, not a niche product.

I asked publisher Chris Reen why they decided not to revive the Rocky brand. “We have invested an enormous amount in the Gazette brand, in our journalists, in our journalism,” Reen said.

The Denver Gazette will mirror the conservative editorial tone of Anschutz’s @csgazette. “We are going to present really well thought out arguments every single day and we think the Denver market is looking for an alternative voice,” Reen said. Our conversation airs on #HeyNext.

The Gazette is printed in Denver - and while Reen sidestepped a question about whether they *considered printing a physical paper, he made clear the Denver Gazette will be an online-only product: “Those are all legacy costs that we don’t think we need in a new venture like this.”

Unlike many media startups, the Denver Gazette aims to cover everything from breaking news to sports to politics. That’s an expensive proposition but they can rebrand work done by @csgazette and @colo_politics writers. Reen said there are new hires but declined to say how many.

The timing of the launch of the Denver Gazette, which will not go behind a paywall until after Election Day, offers Anschutz’s Clarity Media Group an additional platform for its staunch defense of @SenCoryGardner and longtime criticism of @Hickenlooper in their Senate race.

Reen says the Denver Gazette will feature a daily editorial on Colorado issues as well as a national editorial (presumably from the @dcexaminer, a sister publication).

Wrapping up with disclosures: Clarity Media’s @colo_politics is a content sharing partner of 9News and Clarity Media’s @csgazette has described me as a “liberal political activist.” Chris Reen, publisher of Clarity Media’s Denver Gazette, is my guest on #HeyNext tonight.