"There were tears, but no pink slips," Publisher Dan Pulcrano says of the closing of Metro Publishing Co.'s Oakland, Calif.-based Urbanview this week. Some of the staff will shift focus to Metro's Boulevard New Media, a network of 22 e-commerce sites for major cities across the United States. That business has grown rapidly this past year, Pulcrano says.
A new Chicago Tribune tabloid aimed at younger readers could launch by the end of the month, Trib columnist Jim Kirk writes. The newsstand-only tab has a working title of "RedEye" and will feature a combination of entertainment writing and listings as well as shorter news stories than the broadsheet daily, Kirk writes.
The Association of Happiness for All Mankind, or AHAM, based in Randolph County, N.C., leads followers across the country in a voyage of self-discovery -- mostly over the telephone, Linda Ray writes in Independent Weekly. A 72-year-old former appliance salesman named Dee W. Trammell, now known simply as Ramana, guides the faithful through their teleconferenced meditation sessions. "AHAM promises perpetual happiness if you follow its path of self-inquiry," Ray writes. "For some it's the answer to a lifetime of searching ... for still others, it's an addiction ..."
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."
By a two-vote margin, LA Weekly's advertising and promotional staff voted not to join the union that represents editorial employees, the Los Angeles Times reports. The close vote and hard-fought campaign have opened wounds Publisher Beth Sestanovich says she wants to heal.
