"The appointment of Jim Warren as publisher of the Reader has made the position of associate publisher redundant, in the view of the Reader's owners, and Steve Timble, who held that position and has been acting as publisher, has left the paper," Michael Miner reported in late October. (Ed: We missed this news when it broke; our apologies.) Timble, who was also the founding publisher of Time Out Chicago, had held the associate publisher position since September 2008.
Managing partner Michael Bogdan tells the Chicago Tribune that without the crushing debt, Creative Loafing is now generating positive cash flow, which will allow the individual papers to hire new employees "to fill holes where they need to grow." He acknowledges that despite all the promises, employees at the six-paper company will likely remain skeptical of Atalaya. "I don't expect people to trust me right now," he says. "The proof's in the pudding." MORE: Chicago Reader associate publisher Steve Timble discusses the sale and the new media landscape on WTTW's Chicago Tonight TV show.
Reader media columnist Michael Miner reports that publisher Michael Crystal resigned from the paper yesterday. The interim publisher is Kirk MacDonald, who is chief operating officer of Creative Loafing, Inc. He expects to spend three days a week in Chicago, according to the Reader. Steve Timble, the founding publisher of Time Out Chicago, has been named the new associate publisher, and is "Crystal's heir apparent," according to Miner. Crystal, who had been publisher since 2004, will move back to Seattle. "[He] was an unruffled sort of executive whose manner recalled the good old days at the Reader, when there was nothing much to get ruffled about," Miner writes. "Those of us who remember those days remember them fondly." In other Reader news, this week the paper launches a pullout music section and additional design updates.
