creative loafing
retail ben eason creative loafing atlanta creative loafing inc. media industry mergers & acquisitions southcomm
tags: financial, management, creative loafing (atlanta), creative loafing (charlotte), creative loafing (tampa), cl, inc. , ben eason
glassdoor has 18 creative loafing newspaper reviews submitted anonymously by creative loafing newspaper employees. read employee reviews and ratings on glassdoor to decide if creative loafing newspaper is right for you .
southcomm acquired the creative loafing media group in 2012 and will retain the tampa - based creative loafing and washington city paper .
this just in: we' ve got a new owner. that would be
we ,
as in creative loafing tampa and creative loafing charlotte .
tags: creative loafing (charlotte), southcomm, inc. , charles womack
a message from ben eason, chairman and ceo of creative loafing, inc. :
southcomm acquires two publications from creative loafing | southcomm, inc. | a diverse media portfolio
pssst. byblos cafe has kicked off its... - creative loafing tampa | facebook
about cl inc. : cl inc. owns six of americas leading city weeklies  creative loafing charlotte, the chicago reader, creative loafing atlanta, the washington city paper, creative loafing tampa, and creative loafing sarasota. its holdings also include websites associated with those newspaper properties, the straight dope (straightdope. com) and urltoken sites, and the digital advertising network .
creative loafing, inc. | 3 - 14 - 2012 05: 28 pm | industry news
southcomm inc. announced today it has acquired creative loafing charlotte and creative loafing tampa from cl inc. , the parent of the chain of alternative newspapers. terms of the transaction were not disclosed .
cover story: south end has lost a lot of... - creative loafing charlotte | facebook
local publishing company and nashville post parent southcomm has sold creative loafing of atlanta to the former ceo of creative loafing inc. , who also is a member of the family that founded that company 45 years ago .
bogdan acknowledged that even his new employees, especially creative loafing' s journalists, will be highly skeptical .
the reader was certainly showing major signs of stress when creative loafing bought it. the weekly, which launched in 1971, was losing money and advertising. creative loafing stopped the bleeding through several rounds of job cuts, new printing and distribution arrangements, shared resources with other creative loafing papers and a transformation into a smaller tabloid .
walsey, deborah and elton eason are the principal shareholders of creative loafing, while the children own nonvoting shares .
southcomm will hang onto creative loafing' s tampa, fla. edition, as well as the washington city paper .
southcomm inc. , the parent of nashvillepost. com, announced today it has acquired creative loafing charlotte and creative loafing tampa from cl inc. , the parent of the chain of alternative newspapers. terms of the transaction were not disclosed .
under terms of the offer, accepted june 30, creative loafing co - publisher scott walsey will be publisher of five atlanta papers: creative loafing, gwinnett loaf, the topside loaf, the scene and motorsport america, a monthly publication .
creative loafing is making the purchase with an investment from bia digital partners, a private investment firm in chantilly, va .
tags: creative loafing (tampa), miami new times, new times broward - palm beach, michael e. miller
creative loafing inc. of tampa retains control of its six papers, including the reader, a bankruptcy judge ruled tuesday in tampa. atalaya, a capital management firm owed about $ 32 million by creative loafing, had asked to be awarded the papers, arguing in court that ben eason, who is creative loafing' s ceo, was running the company into the ground .
atlanta alternative weekly newspaper creative loafing in december will take on groupon, scout mob and other online deal services with loafdeals. com .
tags: financial, management, cl, inc. , chicago reader, creative loafing (atlanta), washington city paper, besha rodell
the shareholders of atlanta - based creative loafing inc. have accepted a bid for the company from the children of its founder, it was announced today. the purchase agreement calls for creative loafing to merge with weekly planet inc. , which operates weekly newspapers in tampa and sarasota .
alternative newsweekly creative loafing is going back to its roots - literally. ben eason, son of the original owners, has purchased back the brand .
creative loafing inc. owns a group of america’s leading urban weeklies — the chicago reader, creative loafing atlanta, and the washington city paper. its holdings also include websites associated with those newspaper properties, the straight dope (straightdope. com) and urltoken sites, and the digital advertising network .
in a tangentially related but also noteworthy transaction, southcomm business media' s parent company, southcomm inc. , sold the atlanta edition of alternative weekly creative loafing back to ben eason, former ceo and son of creative loafing' s original founders, deborah and chick eason, according to reports .
here' s a report from creative loafing tampa blogger wayne garcia. he writes that judge caryl delano explained from the bench she' d heard no evidence
that creative loafing’s woes are anything beyond those being experienced by all newspaper and news media companies in this recession .
but as for creative loafing' s counterargument that the company' s value had doubled since it filed for bankruptcy last september, the judge said that
just defies belief. ”
creative loafing media was founded in 1972 by eason’s parents while he founded the creative loafing titles in charlotte and tampa in the late 1980s. the family lost control of their company in a 2009 chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. eason then founded an agency that markets digital programs for daily and specialty publishers across the country .
deborah and ben eason are discussing her role in the new company. in recent years, she has led creative loafing inc.' s foray into online publishing. an online subsidiary, creative loafing ntwrk, publishes global websites on music, movies, dining and other subjects, and offers links to other alternative newspapers .
creative loafing' s acquisition of the reader and city paper also solidifies the status of florida' s tampa bay area as an unlikely media capital of sorts .
about cl inc. creative loafing inc. owns a group of america’s leading urban weeklies — the chicago reader, creative loafing atlanta, and the washington city paper. its holdings also include websites associated with those newspaper properties, the straight dope (straightdope. com) and urltoken sites, and the digital advertising network .
( charlotte, july 6, 2010)  wendy goldstein, a senior advertising executive with mcclatchy newspapers, has been named associate publisher of creative loafing charlotte .
atalaya took control of the reader and five other alternative weeklies after florida - based owner creative loafing inc. filed for bankruptcy. the remaining assets - - washington city paper and creative loafing in atlanta - - are both up for sale, according to brad bulkley, president of bulkley capital, which is managing the transactions .
the purchase agreement calls for creative loafing inc. to be merged with the weekly planet inc. , which operates a weekly in sarasota, fla. , as well as the tampa paper. in addition to its atlanta newspapers, creative loafing inc. operates weeklies in charlotte, greenville, s. c. , raleigh and savannah .
southwest atlanta is back in the news again thanks to the atlanta beltline. creative loafing’s staff has picked the atlanta beltline southwest trail as the “ best urban hike: atlanta beltline’s southwest trail ” for their 2013 “ best of atlanta ” selection. thank you creative loafing for putting westview and southwest atlanta in the spotlight with this award !
tags: tribune company, editor & publisher, david radler, conrad black, sun - times media group, creative loafing inc. , allison hantschel, fritz & jen
o' shea said he is confident the new ownership will fund growth at creative loafing' s six titles, despite the advertising downturn that has plagued the entire industry .
on wednesday, representatives of ben eason, whose family started creative loafing more than 30 years ago, appealed to a judge to block its largest creditor from winning the auction .
new york hedge fund atalaya capital management were the winners in a bankruptcy auction in tampa today to see who would control the creative loafing newspaper chain, owners of the washington city paper and other alternative weeklies, reports the st. petersburg times. atalaya was creative loafing' s largest creditor by far, and they took control of the company by significantly outbidding a partnership made up of now former loafing ceo ben eason and another hedge ...
creative loafing inc. , the owner of washington city paper, announced this morning that it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. in a conference call with top company officials, ben eason, the company' s ceo, said that the step would allow the six papers in the creative loafing portfolio to establish a greater online presence while the company reorganizes its operations .
creative loafing atlanta has been purchased by southcomm inc. , a nashville - based media company. the sale also includes cl' s sister publication washington city paper in d. c. (here' s wcp' s write - up of the sale .) once the transition to new ownership is complete, creative loafing inc. will no longer exist as a company .
creative loafing inc. completed an acquisition on monday that nearly doubles the size of our company. two of the nationâs most outstanding alternative newsweeklies â the pa - st. petersburg and sarasota .
eason expressed a desire to expand late last year when creative loafing entered the venture capital market, one of several chosen presenters for the annual florida venture forum conference in boca raton last january .
walsey, deborah eason and chick eason are the principal shareholders of creative loafing inc. , while four other individuals own smaller shares. the children already own non - voting shares in the company .
he' s an incredible multi - media guy ,
said eason .
he got his start at creative loafing doing podcasts. he' s very fluent in the digital world .
nashville, tenn. — southcomm inc. announced today it has acquired creative loafing charlotte and creative loafing tampa from cl inc. , the parent of the chain of alternative newspapers. terms of the transaction were not disclosed. the charlotte and tampa publications are the fourth and fifth alternative weeklies under the southcomm umbrella. the company also owns the nashville scene, leo in louisville and the kansas city pitch .
“we will miss having atlanta creative loafing as part of the southcomm family, ” said chris ferrell, ceo of southcomm. “but we are thrilled to have the brand reunited with its founding family. ”
court documents show that the reader' s loss of classified revenue sent it into the red shortly before creative loafing bought it. the new company restored cash flow by cutting editorial staff, outsourcing some operations and reformatting the paper into a tabloid. but after rounds of cuts and layoffs at its various papers, creative loafing filed for chapter 11 protection in september 2008, with atalaya as its biggest creditor .
“by combining elements of surreal, personal narratives and her quasi - brazilian - style strum, adron’s songs [ are ] at once baroque and hypnotic, ” writes music critic chad radford at creative loafing .
andisheh nouraee, a columnist for creative loafing from 2000 to 2010 who now works at the non - profit care, said people he has spoken to who are still working there are
cautiously optimistic .
on tuesday, a new york - based hedge fund took control of the reader' s parent, creative loafing inc. , by winning a bankruptcy court auction against the weekly chain' s founding family .
charlotte — chris ferrell, ceo of southcomm, inc. announced today that the company had reached an agreement with charles womack of womack newspapers, inc. to acquire the assets of creative loafing charlotte. womack is the founder and publisher of yes! weekly, the alternative newsweekly based in greensboro, north carolina. southcomm will continue to own and operate its creative loafing papers in atlanta and tampa. “charles has had a long interest in the creative loafing paper in charlotte and has a successful track record of running a similar paper in the triad. i think the publication will have a bright future under his watch, ” said ferrell .
the paper' s first african - american editor in chief carlton hargro s tarted last month. he oversaw cl' s cultural coverage in the mid - 2000s and ran the charlotte creative loafing for several years .
without a mountain of debt, creative loafing is generating positive cash flow, he said, and that makes it feasible to
put the resources in place and do our best to make the papers grow .
creative loafing, an alternative weekly newspaper published in atlanta, tampa and charlotte, n. c. , is preparing to launch an orlando edition.'' we' re just doing groundwork,'' said tom ferme, a former longwood stockbroker now heading the orlando effort. neither ferme nor deborah eason, publisher of creative loafing in atlanta, the company' s headquarters, would give details about their plans for orlando. ferme, formerly publisher of the orlando funnies, a small humor and comic monthly, said he did not know when the first editions of creative loafing would appear in orlando but said it would be january at the earliest .
said eason :
i do think that the reader and washington city paper and creative loafing are all far better off today together, given the footprint and given what we' ve been able to accomplished digitally .
several key people have left creative loafing in recent months including former editor - in - chief deborah michaud (now at care), former news editor thomas wheatley (now at atlanta magazine) and music writer rodney carmichael .
caleb j. spivak (cjs) is the founder of what now atlanta (wna). he was featured in the new york times, creative loafing' s
20 people to watch ,
named
lifestyle blogger you need to know
by rolling out magazine and highlighted as atlanta' s metropolitan male in fashion magazine, 944. wna has been named
best of atlanta
by creative loafing, and atlanta and jezebel magazines .
the deal is a transfer of ownership from parents to children, said ben eason, the major stockholder of the weekly planet. he is the son of creative loafing founder deborah eason, who started the company in 1972 with the help of her husband, elton eason. deborah eason' s role in the new company has not been determined, but she recently has led the charge into online publishing, creating a subsidiary called creative loafing ntwrk .
the sun - times media group filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy tuesday, joining the tribune company, which is already there, and also creative loafing inc. , which owns the reader. all the best newspapers ...
funding for the acquisition includes an investment from bia digital partners, a virginia - based private investment firm. gregg johnson will represent bia digital on creative loafing' s board. specific terms of the deal were not released .
the washington business journal has a rather curious update on the bankruptcy proceedings for creative loafing, the owner of the washington city paper, among other publications. judge caryl e. delano will decide whether the tampa chain will remain under control of publisher ben eason or atalaya capital management, which says it’s owed $ 31 million in loans used by the paper to purchase washington city times and chicago reader in 2007, according to creative loafing ...
creative loafing' s margarita wars friday, july 28th | tpepin' s hospitality centre vip: 6 p. m. to 10 p. m. | ga: 7 p. m. to 10 p. m .
creative loafing was launched in atlanta in 1972 before expanding to charlotte in 1987, tampa in 1988 and sarasota in 1999. the tampa and sarasota papers spent years known as weekly planet but reverted to their former name last year .
some of you remember the beginning of these newspapers. weâve been a part of atlanta since my folks, debbie and chick eason, founded the first creative loafing in atlanta in 1972. we expanded to charlotte in 1987, tampa in 1988 and we expanded into sarasota in 1999. we are a minority investor in the birmingham weekly. my sisters, taylor and jennie, work with me at creative loafing, and this is still very much a family business .
creative loafing owns papers in atlanta, tampa, charlotte, sarasota, chicago, and washington. it acquired the last two in july 2007. the company, however, disavows a causal link between those acquisitions and the bankruptcy filing .
it' s not yet clear whether creative loafing, an atlanta alternative newspaper chain, will wind up as owner of the orlando edition of the weekly. but creative loafing has been spending money. in march, it bought an alternative paper in savannah, ga. - its third. scott walsey, loafing' s associate publisher who was at the weekly' s offices tuesday, said friday,'' there is no done deal... . i hope to know something this week.'' mario sgroi, the weekly' s ceo, said there might be an announcement wednesday .
creative loafing encourages a healthy discussion on its website from all sides of the conversation, but we reserve the right to delete any comments that detract from that. violence, racism and personal attacks that go beyond the pale will not be tolerated .
in this case, bogdan and his hedge fund, atalaya capital management, lent $ 30 million in 2007 to a smallish tampa company called creative loafing inc. so it could take over the struggling chicago reader and its sister washington city paper .
now, after winning a bankruptcy court battle against creative loafing' s founding family last week for control of the company, bogdan has joined the ranks of money men searching far and wide for a newspaper business model that can survive the digital age .
creative loafing, a chain of alternative newspapers based in atlanta, wednesday announced plans to launch a print and pay - per - call entertainment guide in orlando next month. the free pocket - sized guide, with information on area restaurants, clubs and events, will be published quarterly, said eva goss, an atlanta public relations specialist hired by creative loafing. the telephone guide, offering the same type of information, will be updated weekly, she said. callers would pay 99 cents a minute .
creative loafing chief executive ben eason said the acquisitions of the reader and city paper will give his company a presence in three of the top 10 media markets, which he argued will help pitch all of its publications to advertisers, particularly on the web .
delano said creative loafing has
an uphill battle
ahead of it, garcia reports, because atalaya can vote against any reorganization plan the company submits .
delano suggested mediation for the two sides ,
writes garcia ,
but after a 30 - minute recess in which the two sides' lawyers talked by telephone, the idea of having a mediator appointed was tabled... at least until april 20, when creative loafing reveals more details of its reorganization plan, including possible new investors .
tampa' s eason family, which founded creative loafing and bought the chicago reader in 2007 with a $ 30 million loan from atalaya, argued to the court that the hedge fund would seek to liquidate the chain of six papers to recover its money .
the recent wave of consolidation in the u. s. alternative press took a somewhat surprising turn tuesday with the sale of two of the industry' s most venerated titles, the chicago reader and washington city paper, to creative loafing of tampa, fla .
( from left) glen nocik, maria nocik and jeffrey barninger are partnering to expand the creative hub that is c3 lab .
october 10, 2011 to: all cl employees fm: cl, inc. board of directors re: sale and organizational announcements the board of director’s of cl, inc. would like to inform you of the sale of creative loafing tampa and creative loafing charlotte to southcomm inc. , parent company to nashville scene and kansas city pitch. the sale is effective today. southcomm’s expertise in operating mid - market alternative weekly publications in the southeast makes them a strong and strategic owner of the tampa and charlotte markets. in conjunction with the sale of tampa, marty petty has resigned as ceo effective today. we thank marty for her hard work, passion and commitment to creative loafing over the last two years. alison draper has been named vp / group publisher and will remain publisher of the chicago reader. tammy bailey remains as vp / cfo. alison, tammy, and the board will work in partnership to lead the company going forward. alison and tammy will report directly to the board. washington city paper publisher, amy austin, and creative loafing atlanta publisher, sharry smith, will report to alison regarding strategic planning, revenue performance and marketing initiatives and to tammy for operational and financial matters including expenses, cash management, contract negotiations, it, and human resources. the sale of the charlotte and tampa properties now positions cl, inc. to focus on brand value, audience and revenue growth for its flagship publications: chicago reader, creative loafing atlanta and washington city paper. further communication will come from alison and tammy. sincerely, the creative loafing board
in an unusual merger between a community paper and an alternative newsweekly, two savannah, ga. , weekly publications have become one. connect savannah, a community newspaper that is a part of morris multi - media inc, and creative loafing, formerly of the creative loafing inc. chain, folded into one weekly paper on october 1 .
both papers were growing and both were doing ok ,
says kyle sims, formerly co - owner of creative loafing .
but we looked at the market and we figured that we could expedite the growth process. that was the motivating factor .
connect will incorporate many of the former creative loafing' s columns as well as its standard alternative take on city politics, arts and entertainment, sims says. in addition, the new paper will use half of creative loafing' s freelancers and its one full - time editorial staffer. connect will remain a free paper with a circulation of 40, 000 .
we tried to take what creative loafing was doing and expand on it while also utilizing what connect had to offer ,
says sims. no staffers at creative loafing lost their jobs as a result of the merger, but three at connect were laid off. sims, who remains publisher of connect savannah, says all three were given
fairly large severance packages .
for several months before the merger went into effect, sims and his partner debbie eason had been talking to the owner of connect savannah, charles morris, owner of morris multi - media inc. , which operates 94 different publications, four television stations, and a handful of radio stations. sims says that once he, eason and morris were at the table, they
realized that teaming up made a lot more sense than competing against each other .
eason was a co - founder of the creative loafing chain and was its ceo until last summer, when she sold the company to her children. she and sims also recently teamed up again to buy creative loafing greenville, s. c. , along with its publisher lori coon. nearly three weeks into the merger, sims reports that he had heard only a scattering of complaints .
what we want to do is provide readers with the best possible alternative to the daily paper that we can .
matt pulle is a staff writer for the nashville scene .
this is all about a fresh start ,
stated eason, who hastened to add that the filing entails no liquidation, no layoffs, and
no terrible, terrible things .
all creative loafing employees and vendors will be paid on schedule, he said .
via editor & publisher, the washington city paper, along with the chicago reader, which the city paper owns, has been sold to atlanta - based company creative loafing, publisher of four other alternative weeklies in atlanta, tampa, sarasota, fla. , and charlotte, n. c. the city paper name will remain in place, despite the other four papers all carrying the
creative loafing
name. in a post to the city paper' s staff blog, city desk, senior editor mike debonis said ...
loaf deals is two - pronged. first, there’s the “deal of the day” available for purchase for 24 to 96 hours. second, there is a discount gift certificate program that gives retailers a chance to leverage their products or services in a barter partnership with creative loafing .
the good news is that creative loafing is starting fresh. atalaya agreed to wipe out more than half its claim against the company, and what' s left it now owes to itself. the $ 5 million atalaya paid to take control also will resolve claims by trade creditors .
about cl charlotte: creative loafing charlotte and its website, www. clclt. com, are charlottes leading sources of information about life in the carolinas largest city. the newspaper was founded in 1987 and reaches more than 90, 000 readers weekly. it is owned by cl inc .
atlanta - - the children of the founders of the creative loafing publishing chain have a deal to buy a majority of the company from their parents, deborah and elton eason, and co - publisher scott walsey. it is unclear what role deborah eason, the co - publisher and editor of the atlanta - based chain of alternative publications, will have after the sale. she and her husband founded creative loafing in 1972 .
we are just in conversations about what her role is ,
said ben eason, the couple' s 35 - year - old middle child .
creative loafing inc. now has a total circulation of over 500, 000 papers and more than 10 million page views online every month. we think weâll be more attractive to national advertisers than we were separately, and it will be a real advantage to combine forces in expanding our web publishing .
it' s likely a positive development ,
he said .
there' s no doubt ben loves creative loafing and wants it to succeed. i think the paper needs that. the mission is more relevant than ever. it' s the advertising business model that' s troublesome .
creative loafing' s former chief executive, ben eason, warned that as a financial buyer, atalaya would only seek to liquidate the company to recover what it could. but bogdan said that even if that' s what he wanted to do, it simply wouldn' t make any business sense .
founded in 2004 in a garden apartment by travis sawyer and cale hall, creative approach is the realization of a dream for a lo ...
i am excited about joining henry and the rest of the cl charlotte team,  goldstein said.  creative loafing plays an important role in the life of the city, a role that we intend to expand in coming months to cement our position as the source of information about life in charlotte. 
the acquisitions will bring creative loafing' s total circulation to just under 500, 000 weekly and more than 10 million page views per month on the papers' various web sites, company officials said. it also will expand the company' s offerings into the third and eighth largest media markets in the country .
i am seeing some incredible trends particularly back to local publishers ,
eason said in an interview today from the home of his parents in morningside where the paper began in 1972 .
i thought it was time to get back into publishing again. and creative loafing is such a part of the fabric of atlanta .
in 1987, the same year rick died, i moved back to atlanta to become editor of creative loafing for the second time. i was glad to be home but horrified to realize that aids here was catching up with houston. i dreaded watching another group of friends die while surviving friends wandered in the blackness of grief .
launched in 1971 by a group of carleton college graduates, the free paper' s business model was built in large part on its wide - ranging classified ads. that model proved less viable in the digital age as classifieds migrated online, sending the weekly into the red shortly before creative loafing bought it, according to court documents .
compared to the tribune company' s $ 13 billion debt, the $ 600 million or so the stmg owes the internal revenue service is chump change. the investment bankers that creative loafing owes $ 31 million to don' t expect to ever see that money, and to make up for it, they' ve been trying to take over the reader and the five other weeklies creative loafing controls; it would be interesting - - if perhaps unlikely - - to see the irs go the same route. imagine the sun - times and the other papers in the media group federalized, supported by tax dollars. they could end up the only newspapers still publishing in america .
the deal raises the profile of creative loafing, which publishes weeklies of the same name in atlanta and in the far smaller markets of tampa, sarasota and charlotte, n. c. those four publications claim a combined average circulation of nearly 275, 000, compared to 135, 000 for the reader and 80, 000 for city paper .
i may have competed them for years but i really hope he can bring some passion to the brand ,
said patrick best, who owned rival the sunday paper from 2004 until 2011 but also worked at creative loafing 1999 to 2004 during its heyday .
i hope he can come in and reinvigorate the staff. more power to him !
creative loafing inc. has acquired chicago reader and washington city paper, adding to publications it already owns in tampa, sarasota, atlanta and charlotte, n. c. the deal also includes the rights to the
straight dope
syndicated news column, whose associated web site receives nearly 2. 3 million page views a month, company officials said .
?? rather than disengaging, he says, the creative community should be
asking the hard questions of commercial developers and holding elected officials' feet to the fire .
“creative loafing is a very strong brand and these two papers are well read and well run, ” ferrell said. “we look forward to having them as part of the southcomm family of publications. we are excited to grow in charlotte and tampa, which are very good cities for us to build out our model of having multiple niche publications in each market. ”
word of the sale of creative loafing of atlanta comes shortly after southcomm sold its ems world division to a pennsylvania - based publisher and event producer specializing in health care. gulch - based southcomm is the nation’s second - largest publisher of alternative weeklies and one of the largest publishing companies serving chambers of commerce. it also runs a portfolio of more than 30 b2b publications .
with the help of her husband, former georgia state university math professor elton
chick
eason, deborah eason founded the newspaper in 1972 as an arts and culture publication. walsey, who joined the company in 1979, has concentrated on advertising sales. with a distribution of 120, 000, creative loafing / atlanta is now the state' s second most widely circulated newspaper .
actor’s express theatre advertising research foundation aicba accenture ace (insurance) aflac american express american lung association atlanta testing & engineering the americasmart the architect’s collaborative, inc. barclays bbdo boar’s head blue cross / blue shield callaway gardens carter’s cfa institute chase manhattan bank cheerwine choicepoint cibavision cigna cingular wireless citibank conagra comcast cox communications cramer - krasselt creative loafing ceasarstone del monte deloitte consulting ddb donnelly doremus dyson empire city
creative loafing bought the reader and its sister washington city paper in 2007 to fulfill ceo ben eason' s dreams of building the second - largest publisher of alternative weeklies in the nation. he already had four titles: in tampa, atlanta, charlotte, n. c. , and sarasota, fla. adding chicago and washington doubled the company' s circulation to almost 500, 000 copies weekly .
like mainstream daily newspapers, alternative weeklies are wrestling with the shift of readers and marketers to the internet. but they haven' t been subject to the same cost - cutting pressure as many dailies have, thanks to lower operating costs and the fact that even consolidators like village voice media and creative loafing remain privately held and are willing to put up with smaller profit margins than those demanded on wall street .
court documents show that eason' s management team was estimating that a restructured creative loafing would finish 2009 with about $ 27 million in revenue and $ 1. 2 million in operating cash flow. they predicted a drop in revenue in subsequent years to between $ 22 million and $ 23 million. declining print revenue would be partly offset by increased online revenue. cash flow would be maintained by cost cuts .
the announcement was shared with staff today. “to say i am excited about this deal would be an understatement, ” said womack. “i have been a reader and huge fan of creative loafing for many, many years. the paper has a strong, recognizable brand and serves one of the fastest growing cities in the country. i sincerely want to thank chris ferrell for working through this deal with me and i look forward to learning the in’s and out’s of the charlotte market from the loafing crew. ” the transaction is expected to close by the end of the month. terms of the transaction were not disclosed .
bogdan, 33, joined the firm in 2006 after graduating from the university of pennsylvania and working for several other financial firms, mostly in private equity. when the creative loafing deal came along the next year, he said the numbers seemed to support combining the company' s alternative weeklies in atlanta, tampa, charlotte, n. c. , and sarasota, fla. , with the reader and washington city paper .
here' s a little secret: when this paper started, hardly any of us really knew what we were doing. creative loafing had been a presence in atlanta for 17 years when founder deborah eason decided to bring an alternative newsweekly to charlotte. it was the company' s first expansion into another city, and the nuts and bolts of how to do it, more often than not, were up in the air .
our expansion into chicago and washington reflects our confidence in the future of alternative publishing - - in print, on the web and in other media as they emerge ,
said ben eason, creative loafing' s chief executive, in a release .
while others may be looking at publishing companies through the lens of old print media, we are pioneering the opportunities offered by convergent print, web and new media applications .
david clapper, who used to work at 97. 1 / the river and works part - time at rock 100. 5, came aboard last month as an ad executive .
it' s pretty exciting ,
he said .
this gives us an opportunity to bring some fun stuff back to creative loafing that has been missing a bit... . i felt like having corporate ownership chained us down a little bit .
as has been the case with union shop, nocik has dedicated c3 lab to showing more experimental pieces and installations, like chrysalis, a recent exhibit by local artist and performer lara americo originally inspired by her photo essay trans & queer in the workplace, which ran in creative loafing. chrysalis included three - dimensional busts done by americo, a rare medium in local exhibits but one the c3 team would like to showcase more often in the new space .
i love the fact that it' s just more of a collective creative work space ,
clousher said .
everybody' s got a lot of creative energy. everyone' s working and doing different stuff around you, so that' s kind of cool. if i don' t know how to do something i can always ask somebody else. i' ve definitely learned some stuff since i' ve come here .
the easons founded the weekly, which typically covers local culture, entertainment, and dining, in atlanta in 1972, before expanding the operation over the next 40 years to encompass a network of weekly publications stretching from raleigh, n. c. to sarasota, fla. a troubled partnership with cox enterprises and one great recession later, mounting debt forced creative loafing into bankruptcy. the remaining properties were eventually acquired, in multiple parts, by southcomm in 2011 and 2012 .
yesterday creative loafing, the owner of the washington city paper, announced it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. in a post on city desk, city paper editor erik wemple quoted loaf ceo ben eason playing the filing off as not as bad as it sounds, since bankruptcy will give the company the breathing room it needs to finish a structural reorganization directed toward the internet. urltoken' s the feed blog dug into the loaf' s financials, ...
the washington city paper will continue to be owned by creative loafing inc. , thanks to a ruling handed down today by u. s. bankruptcy judge caryl e. delano in tampa. ceo ben eason will retain control of the alternative newspaper chain despite an attempt by creditor atalaya to take over the company, reports wayne garcia from loaf hq in tampa, who was careful to get the name of the d. c. publication correct this time. eason ...
here is what is great about creative loafing. not only is it a great weekly, but they do giveaways quite often and you have to go down to the office to pick up the passes. the staff is always super friendly and they have a little sitting area with plenty of magazines to peruse while you wait. i will say that the address is deceiving as it is an 18th street address, but the office doors are actually on market street (hiding behind h & m) .
last week creative loafing wrote an article about invest atlanta, the city of atlanta’s economic development arm, voting to purchase the westside trail land from the georgia department of transportation (gdot) for $ 1. 64 million. the atlanta beltline westside trail comprises of former railroad land that goes from washington park to adair park (including westview !). the board’s vote to acquire the land puts the $ 43 million atlanta beltline trail project one step closer to starting construction in the fall of 2014 .
the toronto sun publishing corp. , which never made money on the orlando edition of the weekly, thursday announced the sale of the publication to metrotimes inc. , an alternative newspaper publisher in detroit. neither the sun nor alan turner, associate publisher of metrotimes, would give the sale price; however, one source close to the negotiations said it was less than $ 250, 000. creative loafing publisher debbie eason, a losing bidder, estimated the sale price at slightly less than $ 200, 000 .
the orlando edition of the weekly, a free tabloid owned by the toronto sun publishing corp. , could be sold within a few days, mario sgroi, the weekly' s chief executive officer, said tuesday. sgroi said tuesday that four potential buyers had approached the publication, two with written offers. he would not identify the parties, but representatives of creative loafing, an atlanta alternative newspaper chain with editions in atlanta, tampa and charlotte, n. c. , were at the weekly' s winter park offices tuesday .
after saying it would launch an orlando publication, creative loafing, an alternative weekly newspaper based in atlanta, has begun to backtrack.'' at this point, we' re just doing research in this area,'' said sharon kraun, promotions director. for months, the newspaper had been rumored to be on the verge of starting an orlando edition. and in october, the newspaper hired a former longwood stockbroker, tom ferme, to research the orlando market. he began approaching businesses and nonprofit groups, asking for event information .
nothing else save for c3 lab, the creative hub that nocik opened with his wife maria in april 2015. over the last two years, the lab has operated as a coworking space, gallery, art studio, music and event venue and home for the nociks' sign business .
creative loafing, the alt weekly news firm, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, the first in the long line of smaller newspaper companies that may likely do so over the next year or so. about a year ago the company announced an undisclosed amount of mezzanine funding from bia digital partners, the media pe firm, when it also bought two of the industry' s most venerated titles, the chicago reader and washington city paper. it has papers in tampa bay area, charlotte, n. c. , birmingham, ala. , atlanta, chicago and washington d. c .
in addition to hosting the corporate offices of creative loafing, the region is home to the main offices of famed newspaper designer mario garcia, who oversaw the recent redesign of dow jones' wall street journal; the st. petersburg times, one of the nation' s largest independent daily newspapers, and its nonprofit owner the poynter institute; the headquarters of the regional media group of the new york times co. ; and the corporate offices of software vendor saxotech, which provides web publishing platforms for regional newspapers and trade journals published by gannett, the new york times, crain' s communications and other media companies .
this is a big step for us. iâm confident it will enhance our mission: to help urban explorers enrich their lives and strengthen their communities. we are thrilled that cl will be in a better position to lead our industry of alternative newspapers into the excitement of new local search, the next model for online classifieds and better ways to connect with people who share similar passions for culture and life. we hope youâll continue to push us to meet your needs for content and that youâll continue to share our hopes for the future of our civic life. this is the essence of what creative loafing is all about .
having done their deeds during this year' s legislative session, state lawmakers are set for a hot and heavy campaign season... and we' re baaack. in partnership with dad' s garage and hands on atlanta, creative loafing will host its next political party, a live talk show, on wed. , april 12. leading politicians will field questions about upcoming the elections from our host, cl senior editor john sugg, and from the audience. guests include rep. tyrone brooks, d - atlanta; sen. curt thompson, d - norcross; and sen. chip rogers, r - woodstock .
adron is rapidly being recognized as one of the most uniquely gifted songwriters and vocalists of this generation. named best songwriter of 2012 by the atlanta - based arts and culture magazine creative loafing, she has managed to unite audiences from wildly far - flung backgrounds, age groups and subcultural scenes with her universally communicative and infectious music. in a style nearly impossible to describe using the terms of conventional genres, she playfully blends brazilian samba, bossa nova and tropicália with classical harmony, the sincerity and thoughtfulness of singer - songwriters like joni mitchell and harry nilsson, and the full - bodied rhythms of 1970’s pop and r & b. ;
?? while malone and creative director courtney hammond are hustling to keep dashboard afloat in a city where arts funding is notoriously tight, appleton tends to strategize on an entirely different fiscal scale, she says .
i can' t even tell you how much i' ve learned from his crazy ambition .
?? page? ?? as appleton continues the tour of wonderroot' s future home, he talks about how much the organization has changed over the past decade. it parallels his own personal maturation from the creative writing major who wore dreads for three years and had a penchant for following phish around on tour .
?? in addition to lobbying for increased arts funding, a pac would also prioritize the collective concerns of artists. with the recent boom in mixed - use development, the creative community is feeling the pinch as the third wave of gentrification hits the city. rising rents have turned affordable housing into a democratizing concern .
?? he sees the formation of a local arts pac, which would also vie for an increase in overall arts funding, as one tactic among many. he also questions the notion of creative placemaking, in which arts and culture is leveraged to reignite communities. increasingly across the country, commercial developers are co - opting that process and leaving artists hard up .
the release announcing garcia' s resignation hinted at a future partnership between the two organizations that has now morphed into a consolidation effort: during the past year, she and the maacc staff partnered with the atlanta regional commission conducting major research on creative industry data and co - hosting public forums on the value of arts and culture in economic development, regionalism, education and quality of life. plans are underway to conduct the first regional cultural master plan, through the arc .
?? ?? former wonderroot creative director maggie ginestra, who started the organization' s notable walthall fellowship before leaving the role in 2014 for philadelphia, values appleton' s ability to be both altruistic and business - oriented .
he really lives in those two mindsets and can make them talk to each other in a way that a lot of people can' t ,
she says, attributing his ability to craft a coherent narrative as one of his main leadership strengths .
his power for transformation lies in his ability to craft story, honor story, and uphold story. he' s a storyteller .
as usual, the common refrain throughout the arc' s press release was the notion that a vibrant arts and culture scene is
a true economic driver and quality of life measure for our residents .
a popular talking point these days, but also a true statement, and backed by plenty of studies. just last month, in fact, a study by americans for the arts' creative industries research project revealed that atlanta is home to the most arts - related businesses per capita in the nation. but funding for the arts, i noted in an april column, is ridiculously meager compared to other top - ranking cities.
creative loafing , also known as cl inc. , was an atlanta-based publisher of alternative weekly newspapers in the united states , including several creative loafing titles , which operated 1972 – 2012 . the atlanta creative loafing launched the career of best-selling author and american humorist hollis gillespie by debuting her weekly column " moodswing , " which first appeared in 2001 and ran for eight years . jill hannity , the wife of sean hannity , was the managing editor of the newspaper 1993 – 1996 until their move to new york city , which commenced sean hannity 's television career . creative loafing began as a family-owned business in the 1970s , expanding to other cities in the southern united states in the late 1980s and 1990s . in 2007 it doubled its circulation with the purchase of the chicago reader and washington city paper ; the $ 40 million debt it incurred , along with an economic recession , forced the company into bankruptcy one year later . by 2012 it had sold all of its properties to other publishers . 
creative loafing, also known as cl inc., was an atlanta-based publisher of alternative weekly newspapers in the united states, including several creative loafing titles, which operated 1972 – 2012. the atlanta creative loafing launched the career of best-selling author and american humorist hollis gillespie by debuting her weekly column " moodswing, " which first appeared in 2001 and ran for eight years. jill hannity, the wife of sean hannity, was the managing editor of the newspaper 1993 – 1996 until their move to new york city, which commenced sean hannity's television career. creative loafing began as a family-owned business in the 1970s, expanding to other cities in the southern united states in the late 1980s and 1990s. in 2007 it doubled its circulation with the purchase of the chicago reader and washington city paper; the $ 40 million debt it incurred, along with an economic recession, forced the company into bankruptcy one year later. by 2012 it had sold all of its properties to other publishers.
creative loafing, also known as cl inc., was an atlanta-based publisher of alternative weekly newspapers in the united states, including several creative loafing titles, which operated 1972 – 2012. the atlanta creative loafing launched the career of best-selling author and american humorist hollis gillespie by debuting her weekly column " moodswing, " which first appeared in 2001 and ran for eight years. jill hannity, the wife of sean hannity, was the managing editor of the newspaper 1993 – 1996 until their move to new york city, which commenced sean hannity's television career. creative loafing began as a family-owned business in the 1970s, expanding to other cities in the southern united states in the late 1980s and 1990s. in 2007 it doubled its circulation with the purchase of the chicago reader and washington city paper; the $ 40 million debt it incurred, along with an economic recession, forced the company into bankruptcy one year later. by 2012 it had sold all of its properties to other publishers.