By Tim Redmond
The new owners of the East Bay Express are settling into their offices — and already, the current and former ownership has become something of an issue. The Berkelely Daily Planet last week quoted Express editor Steve Buel — who ran the paper when it was owned by Village Voice Media (formerly New Times) and is now part of the independent ownership group — saying some rather unkind things about his former bosses:
While Buel wouldn’t confirm reports which had the Express alone losing $500,000 every year, but he did say that the previous owner, New Times—which owned the paper outright between 2001 and late 2005 before merging with VVM—“doesn’t do well in places with competition.”
He added, “If you look at the paper in the past year or so, you will see that it has gotten a lot thinner.” The chain does well in places like Denver, Phoenix and Miami, he said, “which are basically suburban markets, which are not competitive. But they didn’t do well here.”
Now, “out from under the ax of New Times, we will be able to make a much better paper,” Buel said.
I was a bit startled to read those comments, since Buel has never said anything harsh about the big VVM/NT chain, and in fact defended chain management at some length when the two of us debated the issue at a forum a few months back.
But of course, Buel is absolutely right: