UPDATE: Says Ben Eason: “We’re actually going to host our big Web operations for the company in DC. The production work is what will be done in Atlanta.”
Original post, August 9: When it was announced in late-July that the Washington City Paper had been bought by Creative Loafing, an alternative media publisher, many inside the paper’s newsroom realized that big changes would be afoot.
“We were all worried about our jobs at first,” a staffer there who asked not to be identified told Big Head DC. “I think even Wemple.”
But we now know that Erik Wemple, the longtime City Paper editor who passed up an opportunity to become editor in chief at the Village Voice just last summer, is safe — for the moment at least. However, many members of the newspaper’s advertising and online team will be let go as a result of the sale.
“There will be a slight format change to accommodate our production systems but otherwise, you’ll see not too much on the product side,” Ben Eason, president of Creative Loafing, explained to Big Head DC. “We’re looking to add to our circulation and make the City Paper more available and we’re working on a bunch of new Web initiatives that will be launched over the next 6-12 months.”
Those new operations will largely not be located in Washington — much to the chagrin of staffers who now have to find new jobs. But the change is apparently a necessity in today’s publishing climate.
“I think the biggest challenge facing publishing today is building bridges between the traditional publishing business and the digital information business,” Eason said. “The City Paper has a very smart, active and interested audience that is constantly switching back and forth between the weekly newspaper and the Web site. This audience is incredibly viral and is an early adopter of all kinds of new cool offerings on the web. Our challenge is to maintain the great standards we have for content and journalism and to make sure we’re delivering this content ways that our audience is demanding.”
All of which means the reader shouldn’t see too many visible changes to the newspaper itself. But the inner turmoil, you can bet, is alive and well.
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Jessica Gould, a reporter with the Washington City Paper who gained infamy by stealing food from 