AAN News
New Twist in VVM/Bay Guardian Case
While last year's verdict in favor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian in its predatory pricing lawsuit against SF Weekly and Village Voice Media is being appealed, the Guardian claims VVM is ducking its debts and hiding its assets in an effort not to pay the $15.6 million it owes in damages. VVM executive editor Michael Lacey says that's not correct. "The case is on appeal. You are not entitled to a penny," he writes in a blog post.
San Francisco Bay Guardian | SF Weekly |
04-14-2009 8:16 am |
Industry News
Tim Redmond: Cleveland Merger Marks a 'Curious New Chapter'new
The San Francisco Bay Guardian executive editor offers his take on the deal announced last week that will merge the Cleveland Free Times and Cleveland Scene under new owners Times Shamrock. He wonders why "VVM couldn't create a monopoly, [but] another newspaper outfit apparently can." He's referring to when the Justice Department nixed a similar 2002 deal between New Times and Village Voice Media (then two separate companies) that shuttered the Free Times. Justice forced the sale of Free Times to a group of investors, and the paper reopened in May 2003. "I'll leave it to you to speculate on why we couldn't do this deal, but Times Shamrock could," VVM executive editor Andy Van De Voorde says. Redmond says the Justice Department has yet to respond to his request for comment.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
06-27-2008 8:33 am |
Industry News
Two More Guardian Witnesses Take the Stand in Trial Against SF Weekly
Executive editor Tim Redmond and former ad director Jody Colley were called as witnesses yesterday in the predatory pricing trial against the Weekly and Village Voice Media. Redmond's testimony centered on local ownership and the crucial matter of editorial spending. The Guardian is arguing that the Weekly was trying to put them out of business because it refused to cut editorial spending while it lost money overall. On the other hand, the Weekly reports that Redmond said he has had to struggle with laying off writers and editors over the past few years. "If [ad] revenue goes down, I have to cut costs. The Weekly editors don't have to meet that kind of budget; they can just get more money from headquarters," Redmond writes on the Guardian's blog. Colley, who is now the publisher of the East Bay Express, testified mostly about the Weekly's dealings with concert promoter Billy Graham Presents, which the Guardian claims is an example of illegal below-cost pricing. Her testimony will continue when the trial resumes this morning.
SF Weekly | San Francisco Bay Guardian |
01-31-2008 12:32 pm |
Industry News
Bay Guardian: Newspapers Blow Story on MediaNews/Hearst Rulingnew
"The Bay Guardian and Media Alliance have succeeded in getting about 90 percent of the previously secret records in the (MediaNews/Hearst antitrust) case opened to public review," says editor Tim Redmond (pictured). "But you wouldn’t know that from reading the news stories in the monopoly dailies that the suit challenges." The San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press both botched the story, claims Redmond, because they ignored the fact that, among other things, the newspaper chains immediately agreed to surrender most of their secret documents when the Bay Guardian and its non-profit partner filed a motion to unseal the records in the case. The Associated Press reporter admitted his mistake, Redmond says: “I plead guilty to leaving out the background,” David Kravets told Redmond, who says the inaccuracies are emblematic of the "monopoly media world of the Bay Area, 2007."
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
01-26-2007 3:34 pm |
Industry News
Is 'Corporate' Ownership Good for Newspapers?
That was one of the questions asked last night during a panel discussion in San Francisco on "The Coming Media Monopoly: Concentration of Press Ownership and Its Effects on Democracy." It will surprise few AAN members that panelists Stephen Buel, editor of Village Voice Media's East Bay Express, and Tim Redmond, executive editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, didn't see eye-to-eye on the matter. According to the "alternative online daily" BeyondChron, Buel said the Express' sale to VVM-predecessor New Times allowed the paper to hire more staff, purchase new computers and rent more office space. "In the past year, I've seen members of an alternative newsweekly buy houses in the Bay Area, and I think that's cool,” Buel said. Redmond disagreed, arguing that conglomeration results in homogenization of content and the pricing out of any true independent press.
06-02-2006 1:02 pm |
Industry News
Bloggers Reject Tim Redmond's Craigslist-is-Wal-Mart Argument
In a Feb. 1 editor's note, the Bay Guardian's executive editor responded to Craig Newmark's AAN West keynote by arguing that the Craigslist founder's "building community" rap is "bullshit," and that his creation is the online-classifieds equivalent of Wal-Mart. The blogospere responded quickly. Tech exec Anil Dash says he lost his job at the Village Voice when the paper's classified revenue was decimated by Craigslist: "I am exactly the person Redmond is ostensibly arguing on behalf of, and so I can say with certainty that he's profoundly wrong," writes Dash. At BuzzMachine, Jeff Jarvis calls Redmond's editorial "jealous whining," then seizes on his example of Burlington, Vt., as a community where Craigslist's arrival could hurt locally-owned media. After doing a quick once-over on Seven Days' Web site, Jarvis declares the Burlington alt-weekly insufficiently digital, which leads to comments from Seven Days writer and blogger Cathy Resmer (who blogged about Redmond, too) and co-publisher and editor Paula Routly, who writes, "If we're behind Craig Newmark technologically, it's because we’ve been busting our asses for ten years trying to put out an excellent newspaper that serves, and reflects, this community." Click here to watch the blogosphere stomp on Redmond in real-time.
02-06-2006 8:59 am |
Industry News
Bay Guardian on Craig Newmark's AAN West Keynote Speechnew
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
02-01-2006 6:25 am |
Industry News
Bay Guardian Debuts 40th Anniversary Redesignnew
San Francisco Bay Guardian is planning a year-long anniversary celebration, starting with a strikingly different look. In the Jan. 11 issue, Executive Editor Tim Redmond calls the new design "both far more modern and in keeping with the historical mission of this newspaper." The Bay Guardian was founded in 1966 by Bruce B. Brugmann and his wife Jean Dibble; Brugmann is still the editor and publisher, and Dibble is the associate publisher. The paper has also re-adopted its original logo; Redmond says the move demonstrates that the vision Brugmann and Dibble had "when they started the Guardian is still what we're about today: Printing the news and raising hell."
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
01-11-2006 8:48 am |
Industry News
Right-Wing Media Embraces Bay Guardian Executive Editornew
Tim Redmond got a call from Bree Hocking, a reporter for Roll Call, asking his opinion about House minority leader Nancy Pelosi. He told Hocking that Pelosi isn't the typical "San Francisco liberal" that some have called her, and Hocking included his comments in an article. The article drew the attention of a producer for Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, who invited Redmond to appear on the show. His appearance went so well that he was later invited to discuss politics on Laura Ingraham's radio program.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
02-16-2005 2:44 pm |
Industry News
Editors Do More with Less in San Antonio
Jared Jacang Maher |
07-06-2004 2:55 pm |
Association News
Bay Guardian Challenges SF Weekly Over "Anticompetitive Practices"new
In an article penned by Executive Editor
Tim Redmond, the 35-year-old
weekly announces that it has "launched
the first stage of a legal offensive
to stop" its New Times-owned competitor
"from engaging in anticompetitive
business practices that may violate
federal and state (antitrust) laws."
Redmond also details a settled
lawsuit in which the Bay Guardian
charged a sales rep who had decided to
jump ship with secretly
downloading
over 1,000 pages of sales records
and providing them to her then-new
employer, SF Weekly.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
03-11-2002 11:57 pm |
Industry News
Medill Workshop Attendance Battered by Economy, Terrorism
Seminars more interactive than ever
(FULL STORY)
AAN Staff |
09-26-2001 7:46 am |
Association News
San Luis Obispo Writer Wins International Award
SLO New Times' Jeff McMahon awarded Golden Quill for second straight year.
(FULL STORY)
Christine Iwan |
06-27-2000 11:51 am |
Industry News
