Cleveland Free Times is no more

The feisty alternative weekly will be shut down due to an agreement between two alternative newspaper companies. This is the memo Village Voice Media CEO David Schneiderman sent to employees:

We have just completed a very significant transaction with New Times. As a result, New Times is ceasing publication of New Times Los Angeles and Village Voice Media is ceasing publication of Cleveland Free Times.
I am very sorry that we will be closing Free Times. It is a well-written, feisty and respected newspaper in the Cleveland community that has been locked in a very competitive battle for some years in which neither side was able to gain the upper hand. It was never our intention to give up that fight, but when the opportunity arose to consolidate and strengthen our position in LA, it was my judgment that the deal was just too attractive to pass up. New Times has assured me that they will be interviewing much of the Free Times staff for positions on their Cleveland paper.

Feh. Someone is going to have to think of a new word to describe these types of newspapers (weeklies that exist to offer differing viewpoints that those offered by dailies). How “alternative” can a newspaper be when it is owners are just as crass and the big boys, and just as willing to wheel and deal at the expense of real journalism. I bow to no one in my defense of capitalism but it makes me sick to see newspapers bought and sold like porkbellies, and even sicker to see newspaper companies reach agreements that call for newspapers to be closed down.

In a perfect world, someone will begin new alt weeklies in both cities that will eat the Cleveland Scene’s and LA Weekly’s respective lunches.

UPDATE: Brian Doherty, associate editor of the libertarian-minded Reason Magazine praised the doomed New Times:

I’ll miss the New Times. It was generally zestier in tone and less bogged down in a tedious “progressive” leftist mindset than its Voice-owned rival L.A. Weekly. It also, despite being owned by out-of-towners (as is L.A.’s major daily, the Los Angeles Times), felt more locally engaged than its rival, and featured some great writers I’ll miss, like Jill Stewart on local and state politics and Kate Sullivan on the local music scene.
Believing that the law (which ultimately means force) shouldn’t have much to say about market competition doesn’t mean you can’t acknowledge that the waves of change unleashed by free decisions in free markets often leave in their wake results that make people — including me — unhappy. Yes, media consolidation can cost individuals and communities things that they value?even if it isn’t, as some complain, successfully choking off any alternative sources of news.

Kate Sullivan has a blog and her article about the situation is here.

cleveland free times,libertarian