Creative Loafing’s Ben Eason talks to Editor & Publisher

Ben Eason, Creative Loafing’s CEO, gets some prime real estate in Editor & Publisher’s Special Report on newspaper bankruptcy.

The most interesting part of the article is Eason’s revelation that he expects CL to emerge from bankruptcy over the summer, at which time “everyone will know the company’s real worth”:

“As time goes on, people are more realistic in what the company can produce going forward. We have an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to suggest to the creditors, to the judge, to everybody involved what we believe the company will look like going forward and then we have the opportunity to suggest what the capital structure is going to be. We are forced to value the company, not as we would like it to be, or what it was, but what it is today.”

Newsweek’s redesign, Pulitzer jokes and Twitter stuff

The Daily Double: Do you take your Newsweek pandering and slightly elitist? Then you’ll love Reinventing Newsweek, wherein Assistant Managing Editor Kathleen Deveny shrewdly sells the news outlet’s upcoming print and Web redesign (emphasis below is mine, all mine):

Our research indicates there is a large domestic audience — 17 million strong — of smart, educated readers who are looking for a publication that can help them put the flood of news into perspective.

Maybe some of those smart readers will pick up on the irony of narrowing one’s audience in an economic climate that has compelled a sickly industry to tout the importance of journalism to an informed democracy (again, emphasis mine):

We will drop our guaranteed circulation from 2.6 million to 1.5 million by next January. We will focus on a smaller, more devoted, slightly more affluent audience. Over time, we will increase subscription prices. I think the new design is sophisticated and airy, and makes the stories we work so hard on seem more inviting.

“Good journalism is expensive to produce,” writes Deveny. The power of the press belongs to those who own one. And, apparently, to those who can afford to buy its content. So this is what niche publishing is all about.

“Oh, snap!” of the day: “Does the Pulitzer give prizes for works of fiction? Perhaps they just got the wrong category” — former Pentagon Assistant Secretary Dorrance Smith, on David Barstow’s Pultizer Prize-winning story, “Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand.”

“Death spiral” is preferred way to describe newspaper industry

In  “‘Death’ of papers seen as oversold” (April 1, 2009), the Washington Times looks at an ongoing journalistic craze with no end in sight: reporters navel gazing over every layoff, furlough and quarterly loss of ad revenue as signs of the coming apocalypse for the newspaper industry:

Each monetary woe — whether it’s the New York Times cutting salaries by 5 percent or layoffs at the Houston Chronicle — is lumped together under the heading “the death of newspapers.”

The exact phrase “death of newspapers” was used to headline or anchor more than 300 separate news stories in the past year, according to a Nexis search — that’s about 25 stories per month that have pronounced the death of the genre. “Death of print” is another favorite.

So is “death spiral,” which made an appearance (via citation) in my recent post Visual proof that newspapers are doomed.

In fact, it was seeing ”death spiral” for the umpteenth time that got me wondering: Is it my imagination, or has the term really been as overused as it appears?

Reactions to Creative Loafing bankruptcy verdict

Wayne Garcia broke the news about the ruling that kept Creative Loafing under Ben Eason’s control. The real fireworks, however, are in the comments.

Here’s former Loafer Alex Pickett’s take on the ruling.

Nothing much shaking at either the Washington City Paper or Chicago Reader blogs. Most I could dig up was this from City Paper City Lights Editor Mike Riggs, who tweets:

Mood at the office in the wake of Creative Loafing bankruptcy verdict: Somber, w/ occasional joke about who will become “chief aggregator.”

Ben Eason maintains control of Creative Loafing

Alex Pickett called me about an hour ago to report that Judge Caryl Delano ruled in Creative Loafing’s bankruptcy case, leaving the company in the hands of CEO Ben Eason.

However, he mentioned other issues remain, including Ben’s proposed reorganization plan and mediation with the lender, Atalaya. Alex told me he will blog about this later today at Alex Pickett.com.

Creative Loafing and Atalaya’s closing arguments

I just read through the written closing arguments by Atalaya and Creative Loafing that were delivered to Judge Caryl Delano with regard to CL’s bankruptcy case.

Here are Atalaya’s closing argument and Creative Loafing’s closing argument.

One of the major points Atalaya makes is that CL’s own valuation of its company ignores its market value:

Creative Loafing: The Terri Schiavo of newspapers?

So says Alex Pickett, former Loaf writer who spent 10 hours yesterday listening to final-day testimony from both Creative Loafing, Inc. and its creditor, Atalaya Capital Management, which is seeking to take over the company. Alex’s analogy:

In the Terri Schiavo case, both her family and husband agreed that Ms. Schaivo was in bad shape. No argument there. She had been diagnosed as being in a permanent vegetative state for years. And, just like in Creative Loafing’s case, both sides knew, no matter what, she’d never be the same woman again.

But while the husband (Atalaya) wished to pull to the plug on the whole matter and start anew, her family (Eason) insisted she wasn’t that bad off and maybe even getting better!

I also worked for Creative Loafing, from August 2006-January 2009.

Creative Loafing featured in State of the Media

With Creative Loafing, Inc. heading back to bankruptcy court later today to keep lender Atalaya Capital Management from taking control of the company, how fitting that CL should also get its close-up in the just-released State of the News Media:

In September 2008, Creative Loafing, which owns six alternative weeklies across the country, filed for projection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.

The filing came a year after the firm, which is based in Tampa, purchased two of the biggest and best-known alternative weeklies in the country, the Washington City Paper and the Chicago Reader.

According to the CEO, Ben Eason, the bankruptcy filing had nothing to do with this acquisition and everything to do with hard economic times.  “I’m filing because the economy sucks, he said.”⁴

Nonetheless, Creative Loafing was hit by hard economic times while it was trying to pay off $40 million in debt, part of which was a $15 million loan to help purchase the two papers. ⁵

A bankruptcy judge is expected to decide in 2009 if one of the largest creditors, Atalaya Administrative, could declare the loan in default and take control of the company.

And Alex Pickett makes three

The circle is now complete.

When, shortly before Christmas, Creative Loafing laid off three members of its Tampa editorial staff — Alex Pickett, Wade Tatangelo and yours truly — Wade dubbed us “The Three Amigos.” Shared adversity forever forged our bond.

Creative Loafing, bankruptcy, Ben Eason and morale

Washington City Paper takes a dig at its owner, Creative Loafing, in this March 13 Morning Roundup by Mike Riggs:

Also, Wayne Garcia of Tampa’s Creative Loafing has a great update from yesterday’s CL bankruptcy case, in which someone–can’t say who–tells a fib or two about the state of company morale.

It’s fairly obvious that Riggs is talking about CL CEO Ben Eason. Here’s the relevant passage from Garcia’s post: