Two old friends and business partners, David Cohen and Dan Pulcrano, complete their amicable divorce, splitting their alternative and community newspaper businesses. Metro Newspapers’ plans no major changes immediately and hopes for $10 million in revenues this year, CEO Pulcrano says.
David Schneiderman, CEO of Village Voice Media, wants to move LA Weekly/OC Weekly into "a larger media world in terms of advertising," he tells AAN News. He says asking Michael Sigman to resign as president and publisher last week was "not fun" and says the decision to cut the 20-year veteran loose was not driven by VVM investors. "My goal is to bring in as much revenue as possible so that I can keep putting money back into editorial and grow the editorial quality," he says.
Alternative newsweeklies across the country have bucked the trend of unquestioned support for the president and the new war in Afghanistan. They’ve also paid the price for their criticism, with retribution ranging from yanked ads to death threats.
Charles Gerencser, former publisher of New Times Los Angeles, has been named publisher of Pasadena Weekly, one of the seven papers that were admitted to AAN last month. Gerencser comes to the alt pub from NuSign Industries and will help lead Ventura Newspaper Inc.'s efforts in the Los Angeles suburbs, says Group Publisher David Comden.
Earlier this month, Weekly Alibi laid off three editorial employees, effectively eliminating the paper’s news department. There's no word yet whether they'll be replaced.
