New owners of the LA Weekly gutted the editorial staff. Voice Media Group sold the paper to a new company called Semanal Media. No information on new owners and backers and cannabis connection.
"The buyer, Semanal Media, is a new entity created for the purpose of this transaction, said Sara April at Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a merger and acquisition firm that is representing Voice Media in the sale. April would not say who owns Semanal or where the company is based."
http://beta.latimes.com/business/la-fi-la-weekly-semanal-20171018-story.html
https://www.google.com/amp/www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-la-weekly-20171129-
story,amp.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/all-la-weekly-editors-abruptly-fired
"Semanal investor and Chief Executive David Welch, a Los Angeles attorney known for representing members of the cannabis industry, declined to comment."
"None of Semanal’s other financial backers or managers have disclosed their identities."
https://www.google.com/amp/www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-la-weekly-20171129-story,amp.html
Hmmmm sounds a tad fishy
ReplyDeleteInteresting that David Welch is involved. He levied numerous lawsuits against cannabis folks. He wasn't representing them, he was suing them for all sorts of things such as operating without permits, failure to pay taxes due, etc.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ocweekly.com/news/the-new-owner-of-la-weekly-is-a-pot-lawyer-8516563
The last guy standing is the Op-Ed editor from the Orange Co. Register, which is (by Humboldt social standards) quite conservative. But the other 2 dozen papers are various alternative weeklies are anything but. Over the years I've worked with (as an advertiser) and met a number of folks from such places as Seattle Weekly and Phx New Times. They're more professional versions of the North Coast Journal, if you will.
It looks on the surface that these guys are shutting down the print part of the businesses and going full digital. The inner conspiracy nut in me says these "investors" are looking for easy property to clear out old press equipment from and turn them into cheap (for them) rent industrial cannabis facilities. Think about it...press rooms are big places with all sorts of drying and air circulation equipment. As well as very high voltage electrical connections.
~TMOB
Time shall tell if your conspiracy theory is right TMOB ��
DeleteBy Humboldt standards, anyone not batshit crazy alt left is conservative, even if you are a true liberal or moderate Democrat. There are many good alternative weeklies all over the nation. They merely have to exist to be more professional than (what a commenter accurately referred to as) the North Coast Urinal. New owners wanting new staff is not the issue, the lack of information on who is behind the curtain is troubling.
Apparently Blogger doesn't like emojis. The ?? is supposed to be a grin emoji.
DeleteAddendum: some of the fired writers speak out. "Red Wedding" is what they're calling it. https://twitter.com/sherlyholmes
ReplyDelete~TMOB
http://beta.latimes.com/business/la-fi-la-weekly-20171201-story.html
ReplyDeleteStill no real info revealed. "Cultural" can mean whatever. If they really wanted a change, should have invested in digital media.
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