What will become of Rocky Mountain News readers?

It was the million-dollar question - or close to it - on Thursday for advertisers of the Rocky and The Denver Post.

"Where do they go, and how do we reach them?" asked Jim Shpall, president of Applejack Wine & Spirits.

Subscribers to the Rocky will automatically get the Post starting Saturday. But history has shown that when one paper in a two-newspaper town closes, subscribers to the shuttered paper don't always make the leap to the one that's still standing.

Plenty of other options, from the Internet to television to radio, are vying for their attention.

"We're a little in the dark about where that will be," Shpall said.

Advertisers were among the first to learn of the Rocky's closure Thursday.

In a letter to them, Denver Newspaper Agency General Manager Dave Murphy said most ad rates will remain the same when the Rocky closes. The agency handled business operations, including advertising, for the Rocky and the Post.

Post Publisher William Dean Singleton reiterated that plan at an afternoon news conference.

"This is no time to increase rates," he said.

"Dealing Doug" Moreland, one of the biggest auto dealers in the Denver area, said he's concerned that won't last for long.

"They're going to control the market," said Moreland, who has five new-car stores in Colorado and sells Dodges, Mitsubishis, Kias and other vehicles. "It's just human nature for them to raise the rates."

He said the Rocky and the Post attracted different readers, with Rocky subscribers tending to be longtime native Denver residents while Post readers are a little more "cosmopolitan."

"I don't think you can assume that Rocky readers are going to want to transfer over to the Post," he said.

Moreland said his dealership spends the most on TV ads, with about 30 percent of its spending going to newspapers. He doesn't anticipate shifting more ad dollars to the Internet with the demise of the Rocky.

"People tend to look at ads in the paper when they're in the mood to buy a car," he said.

But John Medved, who owns Medved Autoplex, said the closure of the Rocky will just accelerate his move to other advertising outlets like mobile phones and the Internet rather than sticking with newspapers.

He currently advertises about two to three times a week in the Post and Rocky, compared to every day about seven years ago. He isn't sure if he's going to keep his media buying about the same or scale back when it's just the Post.

"We're going to have to look at what the cost is relative to circulation, and right now we don't have an idea of what the circulation will be," Medved said.

He also said the rules of the game are changing. While advertisers used to be able to spend a set amount of money and count on a certain amount of business in return, that's no longer the case.

"In order to advertise, you have to semi-dominate a particular media," Medved said. "We haven't been able to do that with the cost of newspaper because it's expensive relative to the cost of declining circulation. It no longer gave advertisers a good return on their investment."