Wednesday, April 21, 2004

New Times on the Block?


New Times, the publisher of 11 "alternative" weekly newspapers from San Francisco to Miami, including The Houston Press, has terminated the employment of 38 workers across the country, leading to further speculation about the financial health of the Phoenix-based chain.

The rumor in alternative newspaper circles is the chain may be for sale and that a venture capitalist would very much like some of his money back.

Who'd buy it?

Supposedly Clear Channel, Knight Ridder and The Village Voice
are sniffing around. That's just rumor.

Clear Channel, the San Antonio-based radio/concert promoting behemoth that is the bane of the political Left, would be a stunningly weird suitor. It's hard to imagine CC would continue with the sex industry advertising, a vital source of revenue for the New Times chain.

What might this mean for The Houston Press? No idea. They already whacked veteran political reporter Tim Fleck, a termination that puzzled media observers who found his reportage top-notch, even if it did sometimes deal a bit much with inside-baseball-type intrigue.

The New Times is heavily populated with alumni of the dead Houston Post: Rick Barrs was made a bigwig in Phoenix after New Times bailed out of the LA market, John Mecklin runs the show in San Francisco and Margaret Downing took over in Houston after Jim Simmon's editor epaulets were stripped from his broad shoulders by the NT brain trust in Phoenix. All four of the ex-Posties had the foresight to leave The Post before Dean Singleton sold the paper's assets to the Houston Chronicle, which now enjoys a monopoly on the H-town daily newspaper market.

Silly us, we thought Libertarians were pro-marijuana


An intern to U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, Republican (wink-wink-nudge-nudge) of Surfside, resigned after arrest at the Cannon House Office Building for pot (and bong) possession, according to Roll Call.

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