"We've received so many overtures over the years and they’ve never come to pass," Bob Roth tells Reader media critic Michael Miner. "[But] we got a better offer than I expected." Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason tells the Washington Post it was an "eight-figure sale" and that he tried to buy the Reader's minority stakes in the Stranger, the Portland Mercury and the Amsterdam Weekly, but that Roth wouldn't sell. Miner tells the Chicago Tribune that the Reader staff is "discombobulated" at the moment. "This has been a very insular paper," Miner says. "We've seen other papers buffeted by change that hasn't affected us until now." Miner also reports that Reader publisher Mike Crystal and editor Alison True will remain with the paper, but production will be moved to Atlanta, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times. Production of City Paper will also be moved to Atlanta, where all four of Creative Loafing's papers are currently produced. Back in Washington, editor Erik Wemple says that budget cuts that had already begun will continue, but "there's no fat in our newsroom that I can identify and so this is difficult process. I refuse to pay freelancers less money, and so we'll have to get terribly, terribly creative." MORE COVERAGE: Forbes; Crain's; St. Petersburg Times; Chicago Public Radio.
The Reader and City Paper, which were both controlled by the founders of the Reader, were acquired today by Creative Loafing Inc., which owns alt-weeklies in Atlanta, Tampa, Sarasota and Charlotte. "Our expansion into Chicago and Washington reflects our confidence in the future of alternative publishing -- in print, on the web and in other media as they emerge," CEO Ben Eason says in a statement. "We've had a great ride," the Chicago Reader Inc. owners say in a separate press statement released by president Bob Roth. "Now we're happily handing the keys to a new generation, Creative Loafing and their CEO Ben Eason. We're confident they will build on what we've established and carry it ably into the future." The Reader statement also notes that most of the company's shareholders will retain their minority interests in The Stranger, Portland Mercury, and Amsterdam Weekly through a company to be called Quarterfold, Inc. MORE: City Paper's Mike DeBonis reports that Eason told the staff that publisher Amy Austin and editor Erik Wemple will remain in their posts but some financial, technology, and production operations will be shifted to offices in Atlanta and Tampa.
Variety reports that Jailhouse Rock will be based on the true story of an "American Idol"-like singing contest held in an Arizona jail, first reported in L.A. Weekly by Joshuah Bearman. Brian Robbins (Starship Dave, Coach Carter) has been tapped to direct the film, and he will share production duties with David Klawans (Nacho Libre). "Like Coach Carter, which came from a newspaper article we read, there's nothing better than real-life drama," Robbins says. This is the second Bearman article to be optioned by Klawans, according to Variety -- the first has become Escape From Tehran, a drama Klawans is producing with George Clooney.
"Perhaps figuring that pop-up ads have desensitized the public to intrusions on their reading space, more and more newspapers across the nation are opting to move advertising to the front page, above the fold, in the form of annoying post-it notes," Evan Brown writes in the Advocate. The Advocate's parent-paper the Hartford Courant is already running the ads, and, according to Advocate publisher Joshua Mamis, the alt-weekly is looking at ways to "creatively" use them.
Started as City Squeeze by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch in 1977, the alt-weekly has "evolved from monthly to bi-weekly to weekly, switched back and forth between free distribution and paid distribution before finally settling on free distribution as it is today," according to a press release. A special 30th anniversary issue will hit the streets of Baltimore Aug. 1.
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