Fresh Loaf

Our colleague Wayne Garcia at CL’s sister paper in Tampa reports:

And it will be on Aug. 25, during a hearing in downtown Tampa that will start at 10 a.m. Federal Bankruptcy Judge Caryl E. Delano today approved a disclosure statement for Creative Loafing’s reorganization plan after a week of intensive talks between the chain’s owners, in the form of company CEO Ben Eason, and its largest creditor, Atalaya Capital Management LP.

Atalaya is the investment fund that was owed $31 million from financing CL’s 2007 pay-down of debt and purchase of the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper. As part of the negotiations, Atalaya has agreed to write-down its promissory note to $12 million, which would be repaid at 8 percent interest-only for five years and balloon due at that point.

According to the terms of the reorganization plan and promises made in court today, all CL creditors would be paid in full with two exceptions: Atalaya and BIA Digital Partners, which provided additional lending in the 2007 deals. BIA is now part of an Eason-led equity group that will bid for ownership against Atalaya.

…

“We are on board and supportive of moving forward under this process,” Atalaya’s lawyer, Tyler Brown, told the judge via telephone during the noon hearing.

That means that Atalaya is supporting the reorganization plan and auction process. It remains, however, interested in owning the nation’s second-largest [alternative] newspaper chain and has put in what is called a “stalking horse offer” of $2 million that will be the first bid up during the Aug. 25 equity auction, at which anybody can essentially bid to own the post-bankruptcy Creative Loafing.

Continue reading “Bankruptcy judge sets auction date for ownership of Creative Loafing alt-weekly chain” …

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Awash in red ink, the AJC recently cut a third of its news staff

Much like the overall economy, the Fourth Estate seems to be in free-fall. Advertising revenues have dropped 23 percent over the past two years. Newspaper stocks are close to worthless. Big-city papers across the country have slashed staff, cut coverage areas, closed bureaus, quit publishing on certain days and even shut down altogether.

Far from being an exception, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is among the hardest hit. For reasons that have been the subject of fierce speculation, the AJC has suffered from one of the steepest declines in paid readership among major dailies. And earlier this year, in prefacing the need for cutbacks, its new publisher revealed that the AJC was losing $1 million a week, which placed it in the company of the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle and other papers perilously close to going belly up.

That’s the background for last week’s sweeping downsizing and reorganization of the AJC newsroom. The paper is in the process of shedding 78 veteran editors, reporters and other journalists through voluntary buyouts — its third such program in three years — and another dozen or so graphic artists, news researchers and customer care employees as a result of a round of post-buyout layoffs. Two weeks ago, more than 40 part-time newsroom employees were told by phone that they no longer had jobs.

In the flush times of a decade ago, the AJC was home to about 500 full-time journalists; when the buyout dust settles, that number will have been pared back to slightly more than 200, most of whom will have heavier workloads and fewer resources than ever before.

Whatever your opinion of the AJC’s virtues, the newspaper going forward can’t escape being a diminished version of its former self. The question is: What kind of news coverage can Atlanta still expect from its daily newspaper?

(more…)

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The Washington Post reports President-elect Barack Obama has asked CNN’s Sanjay Gupta to become the next surgeon general. Gupta, who does a commendable job performing heart surgeries neurosurgery (thanks, mom!) when he’s not practicing journalism, lives in Atlanta with his family.

From the Post:

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.

UPDATE: Rick Sanchez has been asked to accept the role of New Media Czar. Wolf Blitzer to become deputy undersecretary of beards! We just might get some Atlanta folk in this administration!

(Thanks to Andisheh for bringing this to my attention.)

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Rick Sanchez, the CNN anchor who is the living, breathing embodiment of truth and hope, says via Twitter that his account was hacked. Also targeted: President-elect Barack Obama (”What is your opinion on Barack Obama? Take the survey and possibly win $500 in free gas.”), Fox News (”Breaking: Bill O Riley is gay”) and Britney Spears (”HI Yall! Brit Brit here, just wanted to update you all on the size of my vagina. Its about 4 feet wide with razor sharp teeth.”) Valleywag says posters at 4chan are claiming credit for the Spears hack.

Below, the “hacked” Sanchez update. Honestly, I thought this would’ve cleared up some of his earlier tweets. (Kidding! We love ya, Rick! And kind tip of the sombrero to Waxmuseum for the find.)

After the jump, Sanchez’s tweets reacting to what happened. (”Something about crack? great??”)

(more…)

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He always struck me as more of a film noir type. Interesting.

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He goes out quoting Mark Twain:

Mark Twain famously said it was a terrible death to be talked to death. He also had this to say about journalists who feel compelled to write valedictories when they end their careers: “If there is anything more uncalled for … it is one of those tearful, blubbery, long-winded “valedictories” —- where a man who has been annoying the public for ten years can not take leave of them without sitting down to cry out a column and a half.”

My last day at the newspaper was Friday. It has been a pleasure over a 37-year career to have had a chance to annoy you, first as public editor and more recently as an editorial columnist, for the last eight years. Thanks to the newspaper for the platform and to you for reading.

King has been a familiar voice on education and issues affecting Cobb County, where he lives. Earlier this year, he penned a poignant column about his wife Anne’s sudden death. (Full disclosure: I went to high school with King’s children.)

If you want to get in touch with him, his personal e-mail is listed at the bottom of his final column.

(Hat tip to Doug at Live Apartment Fire)

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Effective Jan. 11, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says it will shrink its circulation area to 27 counties and cut 156 jobs. The affected counties are mostly located along the Alabama and North Carolina borders (full list is available through the link). Jobs slated to be cut appear to be in the circulation department. (If I’m mistaken, please correct me in the comments or via e-mail. Anonymity guaranteed.)

From the report:

The move will reduce daily and Sunday circulation about 5 percent. But it will not significantly affect overall readership — a measure of readers rather than the number of copies — because that is based on a 28-county area, the AJC said.

The company said 215 employees have been offered involuntary severance packages as part of a restructuring of the circulation department, but that they may apply for 59 jobs created by the changes. The net reduction is 156 full- and part-time positions.

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Cox Newspapers, a subsidiary of Cox Communications and owner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says it will shut down its national and international news bureau in Washington, D.C. on April 1, 2009.

A company memo posted on Romenesko says the AJC and Dayton Daily News will “manage their own Washington and international newsgathering independently following the national bureau’s closing through dedicated correspondents in D.C.” Eligible employees of the D.C. bureau will be offered “generous” severance packages and continued employment until March 31. Bureau chief Andy Alexander will retire at the end of the year.

“The Washington news bureau and its chief, Andy Alexander, have an impressive and storied history in Washington and in our company,” Sandy Schwartz, Cox Newspapers president, said in the memo. “For more than 30 years, the reporters of this bureau have broken an untold number of stories that have had an impact on the lives of our readers in cities and towns all across the U.S. The Cox Washington bureau has won or shared virtually every major American journalism award, including the Pulitzer Prize.”

After the jump, read the entire memo. It includes details about Alexander’s career — it’s been an impressive one — and information about the international bureau.

(more…)

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StoryCorps — the independent nonprofit that’s recorded the stories of more than 40,000 people — is celebrating the first annual “National Day of Listening” today.

This holiday season, ask the people around you about their lives — it could be your grandmother, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood. By listening to their stories, you will be telling them that they matter and they won’t ever be forgotten. It may be the most meaningful time you spend this year.

It’s warm and fuzzy and will get you into heaven. But it’s also a great idea. I talked to my grandmother last night on the phone and she told me about the prejudice she faced as a young German immigrant in New York City. That and that “everything’s going to get worse, Thomas.” Love ya, nanny!

For more info about “National Day of Listening,” visit the site. They’ve got a do-it-yourself kit posted as well as a guideline.

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I <3 U 2, Rick.

(Screenshot from Sanchez’s Facebook profile)

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Online newshound — and self-styled gumshoe — Matt Drudge continues to scare the hell out of office lackeys and far-right keyboard commandos with today’s giant headline reporting a Russian analyst’s comments that the United States is in the throes of collapse and will eventually dissolve into six parts.

[Russian political analyst Igor Panarin] predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts – the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong.

He even suggested that “we could claim Alaska – it was only granted on lease, after all.”

We’ll see what the governor says about that on Monday, Mr. Panarin.

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In a move that stunned staffers, Creative Loafing Atlanta Publisher Luann Labedz announced this morning  that Editor Ken Edelstein was fired. A tearful editorial staff followed him out of the building to say goodbye.

Labedz said Edelstein’s firing was a “confidential personnel matter” and that she could not elaborate. A call to Edelstein reached his voicemail.

“This was an involuntary termination,” Edelstein told the AJC. “I feel very comfortable that I did the right thing, and I love my staff.”

Atlanta Magazine senior editor — and former CL staffer — Steve Fennessy has been covering CL’s ongoing Chapter 11 filing and has more details on Edelstein’s firing, including comments from John Sugg, a former CL editor.

Edelstein joined CL’s staff as a senior writer and became managing editor in 1998. Two years later, he was named editor of the paper. Prior to joining CL Edelstein worked 10 years for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer and was a freelance journalist in Washington, D.C., Australia and Mexico.

During his decade leading the editorial staff, the paper has won more than 30 regional and national awards for investigative reporting, news writing, columnists, criticism, food writing and other categories. While at the helm, Edelstein helped shift the paper’s focus on listings to more hard news and investigative journalism. Recently, Edelstein has led a dedicated effort to increase CL’s online presence despite budget restraints and cuts to his team.

No word yet on Edelstein’s replacement.

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Ever had to reject someone’s advances in less than 140 characters? CNN anchor Don Lemon has.

Over at Atlanta’s homegrown 24-hour news channel, it seems like everyone is on the microblogging service. Rick Sanchez, whose Facebook updates once confused the hell out of us, uses Twitter to field show suggestions. Lemon, the host of the afternoon “CNN Newroom,” uses it to interact with viewers.

And God would I love to know what provoked this update from the anchor:

(Hat tip to Christa at PecanneLog and Wonkette)

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Just an update: Matthew Cardinale, who broke the story about blogger Andre Walker’s payments from U.S. Rep. David Scott, responded late last night to my inquiry about Walker’s own response to his story.

Walker argued yesterday that Atlanta Progressive News, where Cardinale is news editor, was being hypocritical because APN took campaign ad money from three candidates it endorsed.

Here’s Cardinale’s response:

Dear Ken,

… These were all ad purchases. Creative Loafing sells ads too, right?

The difference is our readers can see exactly who is advertising when the ads run and if they feel ads affect content they can take that into consideration.

To insinuate ads affect endorsements, our recent slate of endorsements laid out a number of principled issue positions with which we made our decisions.

Also, Atlanta Housing Authority can advertise on our website if they want to (really, we’ll take their money), but we’re not going to all of a sudden stop investigating them. David Scott can advertise too and he’s still a corporate centrist.

(He’s referring to AHA and Scott because APN’s written critically about both of them.)

I pretty much agree with Cardinale — though you could accuse me (as one commenter to my last post basically did) of saying so because we take ads. Just as Matthew said about APN, ads don’t affect what we write in our articles — though what we report has occasionally affected advertising. Around this whole conflict of interest standpoint, ads at least have the benefit of being right out there for everyone to see, so they can judge for themselves if they feel as if a story matches a special interest; payments from political candidates might be disclosed on campaign reports, but how many people pour over them?

‘NOTHER UPDATE: Andre Walker posted a mea culpa of sorts on Georgia Politics Unfiltered this morning. I apologize that this is coming so late. As noted elsewhere, we had awful Internet problems today in the office, which kinda hampered things.

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SEE UPDATE here.

A leading Georgia political blogger is being accused of conflicts of interest for doing work for politicians and failing to disclose it. The issue raises a couple of broader questions about ethical standards for political bloggers.

Atlanta Progressive News released an investigative article early this morning that details work done by Georgia Politics Unfiltered’s Andre Walker for U.S. Senate candidate Vernon Jones and incumbent Congressman David Scott, as well as a long list of favorable posts on Scott.

(more…)

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Mike Boettcher, a Peabody Award-winning journalist who’s covered conflicts in the Middle East and Africa for NBC News and CNN, is launching a Web venture called NoIgnoring. He’s channeling the ghost of Ernie Pyle and venturing off to Iraq and Afghanistan to tell soldiers’ stories from the warzones.

“We have 200,000 U.S. men and women in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. The U.S. has seemed to have forgotten about them. We talk about the war, but we’ve forgotten the soldiers and what they are doing,” Boettcher said.

He’s not traveling solo, either — Boettcher’s 21-year-old son Carlos will join him. The two plan to embed with the Fourth Infantry Division and mimic their tours — 15 months in the field, 18 days at home — and post blogs and video reports to the site. The reports will be free for television stations to post on their websites, Boettcher says.

According to various blog posts about the venture, father and son left in late May or June. Interesting fact: Boettcher filed one of the first reports for Ted Turner’s 24-hour news network.

Full disclosure: Boettcher is a friend of mine, but I haven’t spoken with him in months. I googled his name for kicks the other day and came across this news. I wish him and Carlos all the best and look forward to their work.

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That Other Paper has a terrible habit of not printing our name. We’ve come to accept it here and find it almost laughable. The monolith decides what to acknowledge, we know.

So I was floored this morning while reading a Gay Talese-esque profile of John Woodham, the attorney who successfully battled the Beltline all the way to state Supreme Court.

During a recent weekday afternoon, an unshaven Woodham, dressed in an old fleece jacket and battered ballcap, returned from lunch carrying a piece of Fellini’s pizza and a Creative Loafing. He drives a Land Rover adorned with a “W” bumper sticker with a slash through it.

Emphasis added out of sheer amazement. This made me feel like an auto worker in Detroit who gets name-dropped during the State of the Union. When the editors opted to leave that reference in, did papers fly around the office? Did a portal to another dimension open, the fabric of time tear? Did Henry Grady rise from the ground and start high-kicking on Julia Wallace’s desk? The article also references comments made here.

But then again, since Woodham wouldn’t talk to the AJC, maybe saying that he was holding a copy of our paper was a clever way to describe him as a knowledgeable, astute, well-rounded man of immeasurable talent. Or a left-leaning badass.

Nice bumper sticker, too, John.

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You should know that I’m in a really dark place right now. Decatur Metro passes on word that Flip Spiceland, my man crush, is stepping down after seven years at 11 Alive News, NBC’s Atlanta affiliate station. My admiration and sheer wonder for this man has been well-documented, so I just would like to be brief and let Flip know … Spice … buddy … thank you.

In honor of the man, here’s a hilarious piece in the Morning News, a Brooklyn-based online magazine, about weathermen with awesome names. Flip is ranked No. 1.

(Photo courtesy of 11Alive)

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Quill, the official publication of the Society for Professional Journalists, has an insightful piece by Ed Avis on the changing landscape of alternative newsweeklies. Creative Loafing’s Ben Eason is heavily quoted in the piece, naturally, in part because of the recent acquisitions of the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper. In part Eason talks about the “generational shift” in the industry.

The article thoughtfully lays out many of the challenges facing alt-weeklies, including the Internet and the subsequent impact of Craigslist on classified-ad sales, and how consolidation is one of the responses to that challenge:

At least 18 media companies in the United States own two or more alternative weeklies, including Review Publishing, which owns the Philadelphia Weekly and Atlantic City Weekly, and Village Voice Media, which owns 16 papers, including the Riverfront Times in St. Louis, Westword in Denver and New York’s Village Voice.

“Does the corporatization of those papers mean there will be less enterprising reporting? I’m not sure,” said Medill’s [Charles] Whitaker. “In the corporate model, there is an emphasis on producing a lot of stories, which can hinder enterprise. People can become concerned with filling space. But it hasn’t played out yet.”

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Friday was a rough day at the Loaf, perhaps even rougher at our new brethren papers in Washington and Chicago.

In Atlanta, we laid off four sales people, a marketing assistant, a sales assistant and our wonderful assistant distribution manager — seven employees total. No Edit staff member was among those cuts, but that’s partly because we have a couple of open positions right now.

The edit departments at the Chicago Reader and the Washington City Paper – altweeklies that Creative Loafing Inc. bought last August — were hit a bit harder. Reader Editor Alison True had to lay off John Conroy and three other highly respected, longtime staff writers on Friday. City Paper editor Erik Wemple laid off four writers and an editorial assistant. (Even though he mocked us as “unfortunately named,” NYT media columnist David Carr, who happens to be a former City Paper editor, had an interesting take on the Chicago and D.C. layoffs.)

Why is this happening? Did CL overextend when it purchased City Paper and the Reader?

Not according to CL CEO Ben Eason. Eason’s always argued that small players such as Creative Loafing Inc., which he runs out of our Tampa headquarters, will only be able to compete in today’s highly competitive media environment by becoming effective platforms for national advertisers, in addition to the local advertisers who traditionally provide the bulk of the revenue for altweeklies. In his view, he had little choice but to seek out the financing to expand. And the merger gave CL a presence in three of the country’s top 10 markets.

It’s no secret that City Paper and the Reader already were struggling before the purchase. Neither is it a mystery that our existing papers — Atlanta, Tampa, Charlotte and Sarasota — face a lot more competition than we have in the past both in print and online.

We’re not alone. CL’s going through the same sort of difficult transition that’s hitting other media companies. For the last few years, ad dollars have been moving at an accelerated pace to the Web. Classified ads, which must now compete with free online sites such as Craigslist, are in the toilet. Now the economy’s soft (to put it politely), which has particularly hit real-estate advertising.

You hear a lot more about such struggles at the dailies — because, well, they’re much, much bigger, so they make bigger news. The AJC’s print circ keeps dropping and despite pretty strong online numbers, it’s been forced to undergo some drastic restructuring. As CL’s Scott Henry reported, AJC Editor Julia Wallace cut her staff by around 80 people last spring.

The real question for me, and I suspect for most readers, is how we can do as good or better a job under such circumstances at giving Atlanta the great journalism it deserves — whether that’s in the form of investigative stories, local news coverage, great criticism or basic listings. And tied to that: Will all the effort we’re putting into blogs, podcasts, reader-submitted columns and other Web-only content help us serve our readers even better?

From an audience-building perspective, I’ve seen some encouraging numbers recently: Our October page views jumped 58.6 percent over last October’s numbers, and November’s year-over-year growth topped 90 percent. How that audience growth translates into ad dollars is the business question that Ben and the folks on the sales side of our business are going to have to grapple with for a long time — and continuously.

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Conventional wisdom dictates one loves or loathes Fox News because of the network’s politics.

I think what differentiates Fox from CNN or ABC, however, isn’t that it’s the place where Republicans and not-liberals go for TV news they like.

I think the secret is sensationalism.

All TV news sensationalizes. Fox sensationalizes with an intensity and shamelessness that other news outlets do not. Every moment of Fox News is calculated to get people worked up.

Example:

Yesterday afternoon in Phoenix, a toddler died after apparently being left in a hot car by his mom while she worked as a server at Hooters.

National news outlets are all over the story — because it’s tragic, and because the mother’s employment at Hooters provides an opportunity for networks to show scantily clad women, and for armchair phony moralists to make snide comments about “Hooters girls.”

ABCNews.com’s headline for the story is Forgotten Toddler Dies Inside Hot Car.

The Arizona Republic’s website headlines the sad death 17-Month Old Found Dead In Car.

FOXNews.com puts all of the story’s sensationalistic appeal right in the headline:

Toddler Dies After Hooters Mom Forgets Child in Hot Car.

The image they chose for the story is of 16 women in Hooters outfits at a convention in Las Vegas.

Fox looks at a dead child and a grieving family and sees tits and ass.

Yet it’s the preferred network of self-proclaimed family-values, traditional conservatives.

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Last month, the disappearance and murder of 26-year-old pregnant Ohioan Jessie Davis attracted international news coverage. Her face was on the front page of CNN.com so often that I can still picture it. The news coverage was so extensive that she’s the first hit if you Google “Ohio pregnant.”

Last week, two men were kidnapped on Glenwood Avenue in East Atlanta and held hostage for 14 hours while their kidnappers went shopping with their credit cards. The two victims were rescued by police and, two days later, flew to New York to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Last Thursday night, DeKalb County police believe Monica Renee Bowie was kidnapped from her Lenox Park Apartments home. Lenox Park is just outside Atlanta city limits in DeKalb County, near Lenox Square mall. Neighbors say they heard a woman screaming for help at around 11 that night.

Local TV news stations reported the abduction fairly quickly, but compared to Jessie Davis and the East Atlanta kidnappings, relatively little attention has been paid to Bowie’s disappearance.

No national news outlets have mentioned her.

The AJC didn’t report her disappearance until Sunday.

Her face doesn’t even appear on the DeKalb County Police Department’s missing persons web page.

Why do think that is?

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