Stephen Buel, co-owner and editor of the newly independent Express, tells the San Francisco Chronicle that he will aim for a "better mix" of story lengths and more community and government meeting coverage, and will bring back calendar listings and staff-generated movie reviews. The paper will also be redesigned, in print and online. "Readers won't see the changes next week," Buel said. "But in six or so months, they can decide whether they like them or not."
In a press release issued this afternoon, Village Voice Media says it is selling its Emeryville-based paper to an investment group led by current editor Stephen Buel, AAN veteran Hal Brody, and Express co-founder Kelly Vance. Monterey County Weekly founder and CEO Bradley Zeve is also one of the investors. Brody, who owned Pitch Weekly in Kansas City until he sold it to New Times in 1999, will take over as publisher. The Express, which was founded in 1978, has been owned by New Times/VVM since 2001. "It's great that Hal and Steve will be taking over the Express," VVM chief executive officer Jim Larkin says. "They are amazingly talented people who will devote themselves to continuing the paper's excellence." Editing the Express "is the best job I've ever had," Buel says. "It will be an honor to build upon the legacies left by the founders and Village Voice Media."
Fernando Loughlin, who left East Bay Express in 2005, has been charged with murdering his 3-month-old son, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Loughlin claimed he accidentally dropped the child in a bathtub, but an autopsy determined that the boy's injuries could not have resulted from an accidental fall, according to authorities. Mila Marques, who formerly worked at the Express with Loughlin, says he left the Bay Area weekly in part to spend time with his older son. "He wouldn't have done it," she says. "(He) was the sweetest man on Earth."
The parent company of SF Weekly and East Bay Express hired local litigation specialists Kerr & Wagstaffe to replace Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffein in the predatory-pricing lawsuit brought against those two papers by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Kerr & Wagstaffe is the third firm involved in the defense of the lawsuit, set to go to trial in mid-July, reports Legal Pad, a blog focusing on California law.
A Superior Court Judge has declined to delay the trial in the San Francisco Bay Guardian's predatory pricing suit against its two main competitors, Village Voice Media papers SF Weekly and East Bay Express. The Guardian charges the two weeklies with selling ads below cost in an effort to put it out of business.
"Kevin Keane tore me a new asshole a couple weeks ago," begins the June 14 editor's note from Stephen Buel (here, second item). Keane, executive editor of ANG newspapers, was upset by East Bay Express' unfavorable coverage of his company's prospective purchase of Bay Area dailies. Buel says he stands by the Express' "overall conclusion," but he regrets "a few elements": not asking ANG for comment, using a fake byline on an article that rated reporters and not calling "attention to some of the good work done by reporters at ANG." As part of Buel's amends, this week's issue of the Express contains an interview with Keane.
John Dougherty's "Polygamy in Arizona" investigation for Phoenix New Times won first place in the Nondaily Newspaper category of the 2006 Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism, it was announced today. The awards honor distinguished coverage of disadvantaged children and families. The judges wrote that Dougherty's series "was a tough story to get and the New Times should be applauded for stepping in where authorities failed to go." An honorable mention was given to Jonathan Kaminsky of East Bay Express for "Wounded Warriors," which the judges called "an insightful, unflinching look at a football team in a bleak neighborhood."
Berkeley's alt-weekly dedicated its May 31 cover story to the chain ownership of local dailies, but acknowledged its own corporate ownership in an accompanying piece by John Raeside, who edited the paper for 24 years. (Raeside was also one of the weekly's owners before it was sold to New Times in 2001.) Looking at the "ongoing organizational narrative" of the Express, Raeside notes changes including the elimination of first-person journalism and the inclusion of "the greater East Bay into its editorial mix," but concludes that the paper "continues to rely on good writing and long-form journalism to tell this community's story." He also notes that Judith Moore, who recently passed away, was "in the first rank of the writers whose work has ever graced these pages."
In a May 24 East Bay Express article, Robert Gammon explored allegations of questionable behavior by Alameda County schools Superintendent Sheila Jordan. Two trustees of the Board of Education then notified Jordan by memo that they were concerned she might have misused county resources and would like to see relevant documents, the Web site InsideBayArea.com reports. The trustees told InsideBayArea that their inquiry "was prompted in part" by the East Bay Express article.
