"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.
The Atlanta Press Club bestowed the honor on senior writer Mara Shalhoup at their annual gala last week. Shalhoup was cited in part for her three-part series on the rise of the Black Mafia Family, a cocaine-trafficking network with ties to a music label and violent crimes. "Since late 2004, my editor and I knew what an important story the Black Mafia Family's was," Shalhoup says. "Creative Loafing deserves a round of applause for its devotion to publishing the series." She will receive a $1,000 prize.
"Hey, this is cool," Matt Brunson remembers thinking when he was offered the opportunity to write for the alt-weekly in 1988. "I'll be able to earn a couple of extra bucks before this paper folds within the year." Twenty years later, he's Creative Loafing's associate editor and A&E editor. "When this paper started, hardly any of us really knew what we were doing," writes former editor-in-chief John Grooms. "It was [Creative Loafing's] first expansion into another city, and the nuts and bolts of how to do it, more often than not, were up in the air." He says the paper has succeeded because it's "been a source of good writing and quality information, speaking to the reader directly and urging readers to talk back as loudly as they want."
Sharry Smith replaced Amber Abram as publisher on April 1. Smith previously worked for the Florida alt-weekly from 1989-1999, then returned to be advertising director in October 2005. "I found myself longing to return to publishing," she says. "The reason I chose to work here back in 1989 was because I believed that Creative Loafing was in an ideal position to impact our community in a positive way, and I wanted to be a part of that," Smith says. "That's the same reason I chose to return in 2005."
The Atlanta alt-weekly's story on the Stormfront White Nationalist Community web forum, "A Kinder, Gentler Racism," led to a landslide of hateful and nasty comments on the paper's website. The avalanche may have been triggered by a post on the Vanguard News Network Forum encouraging "everyone here [to] take a minute, breeze through the article and comment on the Creative Loafing site about it." Despite charges of censorship leveled by the white nationalists, Web Editor Lea Holland says that only one comment has been deleted, "because the link was dead." The incident highlights the balancing act papers perform while monitoring their sites' comments. "While we all have mixed feelings about this, I think ultimately our readers and the public good are better served by letting these guys show who they are," Editor Ken Edelstein tells AAN News. "I have enough faith in our readers to know that the overwhelming majority will be repulsed by what they see -- but also informed at the same time."
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