Atalaya Capital Management said in court this morning that if it assumed control of the six-paper chain, it would continue to operate the newspapers "as a going concern" and put more money into the company rather than sell it off, Wayne Garcia reports. Atalaya, CL's biggest creditor, is seeking to wrest ownership of the company from CEO Ben Eason because it has "lost confidence" in his management. MORE: Later in the day's hearing, an expert on valuation testified that CL's value as a company had dropped more than $7 million in the three months after it declared bankruptcy. CL will make its case in court on Thursday.

Continue ReadingCreative Loafing Back in Bankruptcy Court Today

There's "a bona fide resurgence of interest in the Vietnam-era radical press," David Downs writes in CJR, noting the Village Voice's scanning of its archives and a new book on "the graphic design of radical press." Underground press vets Abe Peck and Todd Gitlin tell Downs how the forebears to today's alt-weeklies came and, in many cases, quickly went. "For all their flaws, they captured the period," Peck says. "They were innovative in terms of their display and in terms of the prose that wasn't jibberish. Some of it was very smart. Some of it was very weird." MORE: For about a year, Voice editors have been working their way through old issues of the paper, posting excerpts on a daily basis. They're now up to Sept. 1962.

Continue ReadingReflections on the Underground Press of the 1960s

Google will begin showing ads today to web users based on their previous online activities -- a practice known as behavioral targeting, the New York Times reports. Google will also give users the ability to see and edit the information that it has compiled about their interests. Like some of its rivals, Google also offering an option to opt out from what it calls "interest-based advertising."

Continue ReadingGoogle Starts Behavioral Targeting With a Hint of Transparency

As more consumers adopt the use of smartphones for web browsing, the digital marketing industry is developing new ways to serve highly tailored ads to users, the New York Times reports. Mobile users can be sorted by demographic makeup and even by income; if the user downloads an application that uses a GPS tracker (like Urban Spoon), then there is potential for ads to be served based on exact location and travel patterns as well. Some privacy advocates have expressed concerns about the tracking, but the Times notes that "as long as advertisers don't use personally identifiable information, there is no current regulation or law" against such tracking.

Continue ReadingIn Mobile Ads, A Vast Potential to Micro-Target

On Friday night, the alt-weekly teamed up with record store Amoeba Music, art collective Off Space and the de Young Museum to bring the pop artist's famed Manhattan art studio to the East Bay for a free party attended by "as many as 4,000 people." Rotating crews of 15-30 people spent more than a month transforming the recently vacated warehouse -- Express sales and marketing director Terry Furry himself spent two weeks building the red couch, and another week making a proto-disco coffee table from 1,800 tiny mirrors. "When I was in art school, Warhol was mainly frowned on for being commercial and marketing himself," Furry says. "But he kind of set the tone for what artists need to be to thrive. They need to market themselves as well as their art."

Continue ReadingEast Bay Express Helps Recreate Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory

The State Bar has dismissed the final two complaints pending against Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, including one about his handling of the 2007 investigation of Phoenix New Times that ended with the arrests of Village Voice Media executive editor Michael Lacey and CEO Jim Larkin. "No one in their right mind has ever looked to the Arizona Bar as a beacon of courage, and it has certainly upheld its longstanding reputation with this dismissal today," Larkin says.

Continue ReadingComplaint Against Attorney for New Times Probe is Dismissed

Lawyers representing Baptist Hospital East in a malpractice lawsuit filed by the family of hip-hop artist Static/Major contend that the privacy law known as HIPAA protects the identity of a patient who shared a room with the musician the day he died. To buttress their claim, the hospital points to a LEO Weekly cover story about the incident as an example of why the roommate's identity should be shielded. "If this patient becomes a witness to this suit, he will be subjected to similar to scrutiny (sic), and potential embarrassment," the defendants argue in a recently filed court document.

Continue ReadingHospital Cites LEO Weekly Story as Reason to Shield Witness