Del Favero to concentrate on Eastern papers
Seattle Weekly Publisher Alisa Cromer has resigned her post, citing “an insurmountable disagreement” about strategy for running the company between her and owner Village Voice Media.
VVM CEO David Schneiderman says VVM will conduct a national and local search for a new publisher at Seattle Weekly and that he will play a more hands-on role due to another shift within the chain.
Cromer, along with publishers at VVM papers the Nashville Scene, Cleveland Free Times, and City Pages in Minneapolis, had been reporting to VVM Group Publisher Albie Del Favero. However, Scene publisher Bruce Dobie recently stepped down to return to his former post as editor of the paper, and Del Favero will take over again as publisher of the paper he and Dobie founded. That will slightly alter his group publisher role, Schneiderman says.
“He’s still going to oversee other papers,” Schneiderman says. “I’m going to spend more time out in Seattle, because he’s going to spend more time with the closer papers like Cleveland and Minneapolis. I’ll be on the West Coast more, working with LA [Weekly] and Seattle. That’s kind of how we’re going to divvy it up.”
Schneiderman says he plans to spend about a week per month in Seattle.
In a memo to Seattle Weekly staffers sent via e-mail Monday, Cromer said: “After meeting with David this morning, we realized we have reached an insurmountable disagreement about strategy for running the company. Therefore, I am resigning and this will be my last day.”
Cromer, who took the publishing reins at Seattle Weekly 15 months ago, headed the publication during a transition period that included a major redesign and the hiring of a new editor-in-chief, Audrey Van Buskirk.
Prior to her Seattle tenure, Cromer was publisher of Orlando Weekly for four years. She could not be reached for further comment about her Monday announcement.
Schneiderman discussed Cromer’s departure in an interview Wednesday with AAN News.
“[The disagreement] was about leadership and the way the paper was running,” he said from Seattle Weekly’s offices, where he was busy meeting with staff in all departments in the wake of Cromer’s abrupt resignation.
“It did not have to do with any financial, budgetary, or personnel issues. It’s kind of hard to explain leadership-style issues,” he said. “We talked about it for a long time, and we just couldn’t work it out. There wasn’t a key issue. It was an overall sense of how it [Seattle Weekly] was running. “
