Hoping for a Resurrection in Houston   

HOUSTON ATTORNEY A. DON FORESTER, was in his office on the Southwest Freeway, literally a stone's throw from the Houston Post , when newspaper owner William Dean Singleton abruptly closed the paper on April 18, 1995. At the time, Forester didn't give much thought to the shuttering of the 111-year-old institution.

Paul Allen, his soon-to-be partner in an attempted resurrection of the Post, didn't think much of it either. At the time, Allen was contemplating another institution--the federal prison in Florida where he was serving a two-year sentence for money laundering, bank fraud and wire fraud.

Since that time, the two men have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the Houston Post--or at least its successor. Their original plan, announced March 18, would have brought the Post back from the dead by introducing an Internet version on May 1. Four months after that they were to publish the Post as a weekend-only newspaper, and then on January 1, 1997, the newspaper was to debut as a daily. Houston would be a two-newspaper town, just like old times.

For Houston newspaper readers, Post alumni and fans of competitive journalism, it was an enticing prospect. But celebrations were premature. The discovery of Allen's criminal record slowed enthusiasm for the plan. Allen and Forester's adamant refusal to discuss any details of their plan further dampened hopes. And finally, Forester's abrupt withdrawal from the project may have been the proverbial nail in the coffin for a second Houston paper.

Allen is currently trying to get their resurrection efforts back on track, this time under the banner "The Houston Daily News." But his will be an uphill battle. There are no success stories of resurrecting a dead daily, at least not lately (the Post actually died in 1894, but was started again a year later).

In spite of odds stacked heavily against him, Allen says he believes Houston can support two daily newspapers. After all, Houston, with a population of 1.6 million, is now the largest city in the country without two dailies. It's a young, reasonably affluent, growing city where more than 287,000 readers have been left without a choice. A second paper, Allen says, is sorely missed.

But obstacles to an additional Houston newspaper are huge. For one thing, Allen exudes a strong odor of ignorance about the news business. Ask him questions, and his answers just don't fly: Who are his investors? He won't say. What's his background? He doesn't like to talk about it. The size and composition of his staff? He doesn't know. Is he worried about competing with Hearst Corp., which owns the Houston Chronicle as well as the assets of the old Post, including its name and trademarked slogans? Allen says the Chronicle, which spent $120 million to bury the Post, secretly yearns for competition.

"I'm not a newspaper person," Allen offers by way of explanation.

What Allen would like to be, at least initially, is an Internet person. He hopes to become a newspaper person by exploiting the Internet's popularity, building name recognition on the Net and then using the advertising revenues from the computer publication to finance a print version.

"The newspaper industry as a whole is in the dumpster, from a financial perspective," says Allen. "You've got to look at a ramped-up start. The Internet is, in my opinion, the first viable place where you can accomplish that."

The problem is, no one is making any money off the Internet just yet. And no one is going to make any money off the Houston Post anytime soon. Last month, the Houston Chronicle obtained a federal injunction against the use of the Post name by Allen's company, CityBeat Inc. Chronicle lawyers say they resent the intrusion on the Post's good name at a time when Hearst is struggling mightily to preserve the Post's tradition of journalistic excellence.

The injunction earned the Post the dubious distinction of being the first major American newspaper to become roadkill not only in print, but also in cyberspace. Allen says he had anticipated that the Chronicle would raise objections, but evidently he didn't plan to be shot down so quickly or decisively. In fact, he signed an agreement to shut down his Web site only one day after Hearst filed its request for the injunction.

Although Allen remains upbeat about the future of a second newspaper, many Houstonians remain skeptical. At a one-year anniversary party of the death of the Houston Post, the paper's former managing editor, Martha Liebrum, who was approached about the top job at the Internet venture, borrowed a line from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" upon Allen and Forester's arrival. "Who are those guys?" she asked.