Atlanta Magazine's Steve Fennessy reports that during Wednesday's bankruptcy proceedings, Creative Loafing's lenders "fired a shot across the bow" at CEO Ben Eason, "saying in court papers that the bankruptcy filing was a gambit by Eason to preserve control of the company and 'dodge' the lenders' 'bargained-for rights to have a say in corporate governance.'" The lenders, Atalaya Funding and BIA Digital Partners, filed a motion (pdf) to reverse the earlier court injunction against them, which prevented them from seizing CL's assets. However, according to Washington City Paper, the judge struck down that motion on Wednesday. "It was a legal maneuver they were doing to get more control," Eason says. "When we filed the bankruptcy, there was a concern that Atalaya or BIA might use the collateral as a part of the bankruptcy to come in the backdoor and use the shares to basically foreclose on the shares and function as the board of directors." MORE: Former Creative Loafing (Atlanta) publisher Michael Sigman weighs in.

Continue ReadingCreative Loafing Bankruptcy Battle ‘Getting Testy’

The Weekly celebrates an historic milestone with a special 20th anniversary issue that hit the streets (and the web) yesterday. The 200-page issue, which is saddle stitched and features the Weekly's first-ever glossy cover, "takes a long backwards glance at the people, the institutions, the buildings, the parties and the natural disasters that have helped shape the community" since Coast Weekly (the paper's original name) debuted in the fall of 1988. "The community support has been fantastic for this issue, in much the same way it has been for the last twenty years," says founder and CEO Bradley Zeve.

Continue ReadingMonterey County Weekly: Looking Good at 20

Playing off of parent company Creative Loafing's recent filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Washington City Paper says in a spoof news release and court filing that it has filed "voluntary petitions for content reorganization, citing diminished staff and the flagging confidence of its readers." The release notes that the paper "will continue to publish under court protection from its readers, who have wielded an unreasonable degree of power over the publication's future."

Continue ReadingCity Paper Files for ‘Chapter 86 Content Bankruptcy Protection’

The American Mustache Institute's (AMI) first ever "Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year" contest recognizes "the most impactful Mustached American of the past year." Among this year's nominees are Bob Barr, Jason Giambi, and the staff of the Boston Phoenix. The alt-weekly made the cut for implementing "a mandatory mustache policy" earlier this year, and for its overall "commitment to the Mustached American movement." Voting will be open to the public until Oct. 17, and the winner will be announced Oct. 25.

Continue ReadingBoston Phoenix Staff is Up for Mustache Award

The executive publisher of Southland's Los Angeles CityBeat and executive vice president of sales for the chain's other AAN papers announced yesterday that he's leaving on Oct. 17 to join the Barack Obama campaign as a fundraiser and committee leader for California and Nevada. "As a life-long Republican I am seen as a crucial leader in the fight to win votes and raise money for the Senator amongst undecided Republicans and Independents, particularly in the States of Nevada and Colorado which are key Western battleground states," he wrote in an email to colleagues. Gerencser was also a member of the AAN Marketing Committee. As for life after the campaign, he notes that he's applied to two doctoral programs for admission as early as Spring 2009.

Continue ReadingCharles Gerencser Leaves Southland Publishing for the Obama Campaign

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton this week dismissed some, but not all, of a suit filed in April over the arrests of New Times founders Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin last year. Bolton dismissed the allegations of racketeering and negligence against special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, in addition to dismissing County Attorney Andrew Thomas entirely as a defendant, New Times reports. However, she left claims of gross negligence, malicious prosecution, and false arrest and imprisonment to be handled by Superior Court, unless facts presented in an amended complaint persuade her otherwise (New Times has until Oct. 31 to file such a complaint). Saying that Bolton's ruling "is not a surprise," Lacey writes in a blog post that "her ruling in the current case is consistent with her scant regard for the First Amendment and the rights of a free press."

Continue ReadingJudge Dismisses Parts of Phoenix New Times’ Lawsuit

Joe Glisson, who has been New Times' political cartoonist for 25 years, is celebrating with a new retrospective book, Seems Like Old Times. "I had done the first book [1986's Dome Sweet Dome] a number of years ago, and I thought that I would like to have a companion to it," he says. "And this is the 25th year that I've been doing this, so I thought it was an appropriate time to do a retrospective. I don't know if anybody else feels that way, but I wanted to do it." Read more from Glisson in a Q&A posted at AltWeeklies.com.

Continue ReadingSyracuse New Times Cartoonist Releases Second Book