The company, which owns Creative Loafing papers in Atlanta, Charlotte, Sarasota and Tampa, as well as the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this morning, the St. Petersburg Times reports. City Paper editor Erik Wemple reports that CEO Ben Eason discussed the filing with top company officials in a conference call this morning, and said that the bankruptcy filing would allow CL's six papers to establish a greater online presence while the company reorganizes its operations. A corporate memo on the filing says it "has little to do with the acquisition" of the Reader and City Paper last year. Eason also said that the move entails no liquidation or layoffs. In fact, the Chapter 11 filing will roll back editorial staff cuts at the papers, Wemple writes. MORE: Read more about the move from Creative Loafing (Tampa), the Reader, Crain's and Bloomberg News.
The Georgetown Voice's nearly 3,000-word story on the alt-weekly looks at how it is evolving under the ownership of Creative Loafing, and how the paper is fighting to maintain its identity -- and market share -- despite having fewer resources. "You want to create a rich environment and then bring it down into the print," says CL CEO Ben Eason, who is currently focused on uniting the company's six papers as a national web presence. "Without a doubt, the web is a far richer environment than print." Editor Erik Wemple says he sees the paper a year from now as being "very, very, very much a web machine." But publisher Amy Austin adds that, while online advertising revenue is quickly growing for City Paper, it still only makes up approximately 5 percent of the paper's total revenue, which has been in decline. By 2006, the paper's net revenue -- traditionally around 15 percent -- had fallen to 4.7 percent.
DCist reports that City Paper's parent company Creative Loafing needs to cut the paper's budget by $170,000. The belt-tightening could lead to additional layoffs at the alt-weekly (some production and editorial staffers were laid off after CL purchased City Paper and the Chicago Reader last year). "Like a lot of media companies, we are going through an exceptionally rough period, and indeed we are discussing how to cut expenses," editor Erik Wemple tells DCist. "I don't want to cite any figures at this point because we are trying our best as a company to minimize the impact. But yes, layoffs are part of the discussion."
The Washington City Paper operated a dunking booth at the Adams Morgan Festival in D.C. on Sunday. Fishbowl DC reports that Editor Erik Wemple and columnist James Jones both volunteered to get wet, and there are photos of the latter.
Erik Wemple's coworkers at Washington City Paper had been "excited about the opportunity" for him to become editor of the Village Voice, he tells Mediabistro's FishbowlDC a week after changing his mind about taking the position. That doesn't mean they were anxious for him to leave: "Proof of Wemple's worth to the City Paper can be found in the fact that you'll be hard pressed -- and trust us, we've tried -- to find a CityPaper employee who's not pleased to have Wemple back in the saddle," FishbowlDC Editor Patrick W. Gavin writes. Wemple does acknowledge that "there are clearly legitimate questions about whether my head is in the game at this stage" -- questions that he intends to answer by doing solid work.
Village Voice Media announced this afternoon that Erik Wemple (pictured) had "changed his mind" and decided to remain in his current position as editor of the Washington City Paper: "Although Wemple accepted the job of editor-in-chief of the historic Voice -- even introducing himself to the staff -- subsequent discussions revealed disagreements over newsroom management," VVM explained. Executive Editor Mike Lacey said Wemple's reservations were "not unreasonable." Wemple released his own statement, saying that he continues "to believe that the people at Village Voice Media are committed to a great editorial product, as evidenced by the great newspapers that they publish across the country."
