Monopolies no more
Antitrust bust leads to renewed competition for SF Weekly parent company New Times and Village Voice Media

By Camille T. Taiara

Thanks to quick action by the U.S. Department of Justice to reverse a horse-trading deal between the country's two largest alternative weekly newspaper chains, Village Voice Media and New Times Media (parent company of the SF Weekly and the East Bay Express), will soon face renewed competition in Los Angeles and Cleveland.

Those cities had seen competition between the two media giants until last fall, when the companies colluded to shutter VVM's Cleveland Free Times and New Times' New Times Los Angeles (see "Bad Times," 10/09/02). The deal left VVM with a monopoly in Los Angeles and New Times with sole control over the Cleveland market, leading the Justice Department and local attorneys general offices to pursue an antitrust case against both companies.

The case was settled out of court when the corporations agreed to sell off the defunct papers' assets, including their news racks, computer and office equipment, and rights to the folded papers' names, logos, Web sites, and client lists.

Now, just six months after the deal between the two companies, publishers in both cities have stepped forward to fill the gap.

Southland Publishing, owner of the Pasadena Weekly, the Ventura County Reporter, and the San Diego CityBeat, won the bid for New Times LA's assets. Southland group publisher David Comden announced he intends to launch two newsweeklies in New Times LA's place by this summer: CityBeat LA and Valley Beat.

In Cleveland, a group headed by former Cleveland Free Times publisher Matt Fabyan and former Cleveland Free Times editor in chief David Eden announced its intent to resuscitate the paper, name and all, following its successful bid to acquire the paper's assets from VVM. The purchase is being financed by FT Acquisition, a new investment group over which Fabyan presides as chief executive officer.

Of the 49 full-time staffers employed by the Free Times before it was closed Oct. 2, 2002, 35 have agreed to return to the now independent paper, Fabyan told the Bay Guardian. He said he doesn't plan to make any drastic changes in the weekly's content or focus, yet he doesn't foresee any difficulties in keeping the paper alive despite competition from New Times' Cleveland Scene.

"It's a different business model I'm using this time around than under Village Voice," said Fabyan, who reports they have already been contacted by former advertisers eager to switch back.

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