Creative Loafing Inc, New Times, and other pubs--budget cuts, freelancing or blogging for free

If you want to get REALLY bummed:

http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/blog_post.aspx?id=25296&blogid=262

― jigglepanda.gif (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, October 1, 2008 2:59 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dang that article is crazy

In 2006, Mara Shalhoup’s stories on the Black Mafia Family led to a book deal and to her being named Journalist of the Year by the Atlanta Press Club.

the BMF series they did was amazing btw - http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/page?oid=175160

Puffin, when were youat City Paper? I used to freelance for them.

Roundabout 97-99, IfTimi.

Ah, so you knew Glenn? I moved to Seattle in '98; that's when my City Paper stuff stopped.

Glenn, if you're talking about Glenn Dixon, has been doing some writing for the Express for the past few years, the freebie paper that the Washington Post hands out at subway stations and elsewhere Monday through Friday (plus it has a website - expressnightout.com)

http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/resurgens.aspx?id=26864&blogid=262

Wow, someone wants to buy all the Creating Loafing owned papers

chicago reader has gone WAY downhill since the creative loafing purchase. i used to read it every week, now i rarely pick it up

I think this has less to do with Creative Loafing and more to do with the realities of the newspaper industry in 2009. When Creative Loafing took charge, the only thing that really changed was the move to a tabloid format (and Reader staffers claimed, truthfully or not, that that was in the works prior to the takeover). It's gotten worse recently just because so much has disappeared from the paper: writers have been fired, listings have shrunk (first in art, now in music and theater). And I'm guessing that's the result of budgetary decisions rather than a new editorial dictate. (Also, the absence of Jonathan Rosenbaum, regardless of how you feel about him as a critic, certainly lessens the paper's prestige, but I think that was a voluntary retirement once he reached 65 and decided he didn't want to keep up with new releases each week. Although I guess you could argue that the paper's failure to hire another critic to supplement J.R. Jones's work demonstrates a decline of sorts.)

Creative Loafing, which had financial problems to begin with, paid too much for the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper, and guessed wrong regarding how much new advertising they could get by becoming a national chain, and by how cutting expenses and slashing writers would not affect the reputations or readerships of the papers. Yea, the economy for newspapers is bad, but CL's behavior made things worse and thus affected the editorial dictate. Plus, the CL head has made clear statements about editorial dictate, so I don't agree w/ giving him a free ride just because of the "realities of the newspaper industry in 2009." Alt-weeklies elsewhere may be struggling, but not to this degree.

New City actually has a strong issue this week. Cover story is on Googie architecture in Chicago, the reviews are fairly long (though formatted as one long paragraph), and they cover an underground variety show and other non-commercial things going on here. Plus Free Will Astrology.

I'm frankly amazed that New City still exists.

From Creative Loafing's website on March 31, 2009:

Ben Eason, whose family started Creative Loafing in Atlanta in 1972, was vindicated in a federal bankruptcy court in Tampa today, as a judge ruled against a lender’s effort to take control of the nation’s second-largest chain of alt-weekly newspapers.

Judge Caryl E. Delano said despite contradictory (and flawed, in her estimation) reports about the chain’s value since going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2008, there was no evidence given that Eason’s management of the media company is harming its value, as lender Atalaya Capital Management had maintained in its effort to dislodge Eason and the current management.

To the contrary, Delano read from the bench, three days of hearings showed that Eason’s management had done a lot to preserve value, by making budget cuts and introducing an emphasis on web publishing models, including one in Tampa that has produced a sharp increase in web traffic while making the print edition a break-even proposition instead of a money-losing one.

“I find that Atalaya has not met its initial burden of proof and is not entitled to relief [from court stays against it foreclosing on the company's debt] at this time,” Delano said.

For Eason, who has been slagged by some former employees and in anonymous blog comments, the ruling was more than satisfying, even if the company still has a long way to go in winning confirmation and release from bankruptcy court.

“I’m psyched,” Eason said as he exited an elevator on the ground floor of the Sam Gibbons Federal Courthouse. “Just to have it over with. She came to a pretty solid decision at this point.”

http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2009/07/20/ben-eason-discusses-whats-next-for-the-reader

Will Eason be able to hold on to the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper?

Eason lost. Will the new owners hold on to all the papers or sell off some of them? What other changes might they make?

http://tampabay.com/news/business/tampas-creative-loafing-chain-taken-over-by-hedge-fund-atalaya/1030750

http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2009/08/25/chicago-reader-enters-atalaya-era-after-creative-loafing-loses-its-last-bid-in-bankruptcy-courtlast

Guessing about whether things will improve at the Chicago Reader...

Ch-Cha-Changes in Washington at the City Paper plus new arts editor Jon Fischer from Philly

http://dcist.com/2010/04/michael_schaffer_named_editor_of_wa.php#comments

Some folks only do better paying cd reviews for the Washington City Paper (that appear in print and online) rather than also doing Washington City Paper Arts Desk blog posts that pay less

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2012/03/12/city-papers-sister-paper-chicago-reader-for-sale/

the reader's mike miner is skeptical: http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2012/03/12/for-the-readernew-overlords

zings:

We're a little surprised that the Sun-Times, not long out of bankruptcy itself, can afford to buy anybody. Maybe we should buy them first. There's talk here of passing the hat, and if we reach three figures making an offer they can't refuse. More likely though, the money's going to wind up in the March Madness pot. Better chance of a decent return.

Only so many Chicago hipsters, it appears:

Rising competition from Time Out Chicago also has hurt the Reader, Mr. Whitaker noted. Before that weekly magazine appeared on the market in 2005, the Reader's subscriber and advertising base was distinct from many other outlets in Chicago because it had particular appeal to the “hipster” set, but Time Out and others now target that audience, he said.

Bulkley and Atalaya didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Chicago Reader Publisher Alison Draper also couldn't be reached.

Last October, Atalaya sold the other two papers, the Creative Loafing weeklies in Tampa and Charlotte, N.C., to SouthComm Inc., which is based in Nashville, Tenn.

Phoenix-based Village Voice Media Holdings LLC, which owns news weeklies across the country including the Village Voice in New York and the Phoenix New Times, also would be possible candidate to buy the Chicago Reader, said industry observers, who weren't aware of such talks. While SouthComm was also mentioned as a possible purchaser, it has tended to focus on smaller markets.

haha!

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2012/03/14/city-paper-sister-papers-cut-pay-staffing/

Pay was pretty low even before this

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120509/NEWS06/120509736/sun-times-parent-to-buy-chicago-reader-for-3-million

The deal is not final yet. Atalaya slowly selling off alt-weekles they acquired-- they still own the Washington City Paper and other ones.

The Slow, Agonizing Death of National Alt-Weekly CD Reviews

related issue

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2012/05/10/the-bright-side-to-the-reader-sale-we-continue-to-exist

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/219084/nashville-city-paper-to-close/

Aw man

more related discussion below in October 2013 posts

pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)