The Village Voice/New Times deal that closed New Times Los Angeles and VVM's Cleveland Free Times, is another sign of an "imploding economy," Cynthia Cotts writes in The Village Voice. She suggests that when VVM's venture capitalist owners start looking to cash out they could find a buyer in a daily newspaper chain or another alternative media company.

Continue ReadingMedia Consolidation, Alternative-Style

Iconoclastic alternative weeklies are doing business like the big boys, former Washington City Paper Editor David Carr writes in the New York Times. Carr reports that New Times received $8 million from Village Voice Media to close its money-losing New Times Los Angeles. "The willingness of the two ferociously competitive chains to make a deal in their common interest could mean that the next big deal by the companies could leave only one standing," Carr writes.

Continue ReadingNew Times/Village Voice Deal: Cutting Losses

Village Voice Media paid NT Media more than $1 million to close New Times Los Angeles, sources tell the Los Angeles Times. New Times paid VVM a lesser amount to shutter Cleveland Free Times, the daily reports. An anti-trust lawyer says the transaction, negotiated quietly over the past three months, "could raise rather interesting antitrust issues."

Continue ReadingNew Times, VVM Cut Deal, Close Papers

Taffy Akner interviews New York Press Editor John Strausbaugh for mediabistro.com and finds it "hard to tell if Strausbaugh is the coolest dude ever... or the world's biggest geek." Conclusion? Whatever, he's a rock star.

Continue ReadingStrausbaugh’s a “Rock Star”

Greek shipping heir Taki Theodoracapolus, who writes Taki's Top Drawer for New York Press, is providing the financial backing for The American Conservative, a new magazine platform for Pat Buchanan's species of conservatism. The new magazine will be printed bi-weekly on newsprint, in a format similar to The Nation, and mailed to likely subscribers.

Continue ReadingNew York Press Columnist Launching New Mag

Preview Connecticut, a free monthly magazine, will be devoted to a first look at Connecticut arts events rather than reviews, says New Mass Media Inc. in a news release. New Mass Media also publishes four AAN-member alt-weeklies, Hartford Advocate, New Haven Advocate, Valley Advocate and Fairfield County Weekly. The glossy magazine will appear the first week of every month and will be distributed statewide.

Continue ReadingNew Mass Media Launches Arts Mag

“This book, I hope, is a book of encounters, none of them predictable,” novelist and music writer Jonathan Lethem writes in his introduction to “Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002.” Seven of the 28 articles in the collection were originally published in alternative newsweeklies, including The Village Voice, Chicago Reader and City Pages (Twin Cities).

Continue ReadingAlt-Weekly Writers Appear in Da Capo Collection

In yet more New Times satire, (most) readers give Phoenix New Times big ups for its parody of the Arizona Republic's recent redesign. Even a Republic staffer who asked not to be named applauded the spoof. "As one of the worker bees who's had to live through it, it was nice to see what most of us in the newsroom have been waiting for you to do."

Continue ReadingReaders React to Arizona Republic Parody

"I hope it gets people to think about the nature of television and the business that it does." So says Tony Ortega, a New Times LA writer who admits that "maybe" he penned a "news story" reporting that NBC is about to cut a deal for "Survive This!" -- a "'Survivor' meets Hannibal Lechter"-style reality series starring the two California teenagers whose recent abduction and rape made the national news. An NBC spokeswoman says there is "no truth" to the story. Another New Times paper, the Dallas Observer, was sued earlier this year by two local officials targeted in a similar spoof.

Continue ReadingNew Times LA’s Spoof Riles NBC