Citing the need for new and younger leadership, Art Zimmer has sold the alt-weekly to local entrepreneur William Brod, who took over operations Wednesday morning. Zimmer, who is 71 years old, purchased the paper in 1984. In a letter to the staff, Zimmer says he's had "several opportunities to sell the paper (and for more money), but most included out of town people. I feel local ownership of media, especially like the New Times is very important." Brod says he doesn't expect any layoffs as a result of the ownership change; in fact, he says he plans to hire new staff soon to beef up New Times' web presence. "I think the New Times is in a unique and the most unique position to speak to the community in a way no other media organization can," Brod says. "We can be proactive, go to people, bring people together we can follow up and push politicians and heads of organization or in authority to do what they should do or said they were going to do."
"Twenty years ago, when I ended my anniversary note with 'I look forward to the second 20 years,' I had no idea how fast the second two decades would go," writes publisher and owner Art Zimmer. "I feel the next 20 years will be even bigger and better for The New Times and all of Central New York. Sure, things are down right now, but those of us who have been around 40 years or more (like The New Times) have seen these down cycles several times already."
The Associated Press, which has used Verve for mobile publishing since May, led the way in the company's second round of financing, the New York Times reports. "Mobile is actually a better way to reach people than print or even web. It's versatile, immediate, travels and is just as compelling," Verve CEO and former Village Voice Media president Art Howe says. One analyst tells the Times that newspapers need to tap into the fast-growing mobile market before it's too late. "It's important and smart for newspapers to get out in front on the mobile phenomenon and not make the mistake they made in waiting too long to embrace the internet," says Greg Sterling, who studies the mobile internet for Opus Research.
The fifth alternative newsweekly founded in the U.S. began as the Orange Pennysaver in 1969 and took its present name the next year in recognition of the end of old established times and the birth of a new counterculture era. The paper risked being shut down in 1984 but was rescued when the current publisher, a Syracuse-area businessman named Art Zimmer, bought it in part as a vehicle to publish his skiing column. The paper celebrates its anniversary with an airy new design and an overview of the paper's history.
A subsidiary of the Erie, Pa. company, formed in March to invest in alternative newspapers and headed by Art Howe, acquires Louisville's alt-weekly only months after its purchase of Cleveland Free Times. Pam Brooks, a longtime Louisville resident and publishing executive, is the new publisher, replacing Blanche Kitchen Brewer, who is retiring. "It was time," explains LEO Executive Editor and co-founder John Yarmuth. "My concern is the best interest of this paper, and it supersedes all personal agendas."
Former Village Voice Media President Art Howe is now CEO of a holding company formed by the Mead family of Erie, Pa., which owns the daily Erie Times-News, to pursue purchases of alternative newsweeklies. Cleveland Free Times is the first investment the company has made in an alt-weekly. The management team headed by former Free Times Publisher Matt Fabyan "has been made significant partners," Howe said.
Art Howe claims in a lawsuit that his former partners at Montgomery Publishing Co., members of Philadelphia's prominent Rock family, owe him at least $2.5 million. That's what his lawsuit says is a conservative estimate of Howe's share of a sale of Montgomery, valued by investment bankers at $28.4 million, to Trenton-based Journal Register Co., the Philadelphia Business Journal reports. The lawsuit claims the Rock family -- who still own AAN-member Philadelphia City Paper -- drained the company of cash, eroding its value. Howe left Montgomery in 1999 and went to Village Voice Media as president.
