Baltimore Sun – Baltimore Magazine

Can City Paper maintain its independence?

Jess Mayhugh — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 08:30:00 +0000

When The Sun announced its purchase of the alt-weekly City Paper in February, it felt like when a major label scoops up your favorite indie band.

Launched as City Squeeze in 1977 by Russ Smith, who grew up on Long Island reading the Village Voice, and Alan Hirsch, who worked with Smith at the Johns Hopkins News-Letter, the paper’s mission initially was to stay afloat. But it was also personal and City Paper’s modus operandi—harsh critiques of politicians, vigorous arts coverage, narrative storytelling—grew out of Smith’s contrarian nature. “I didn’t want my stories cut by editors who didn’t know what I was doing,” says Smith, who sold City Paper for about $4 million in 1987 and also launched the Washington City Paper and New York Press. “[I] wanted control of how a paper looked.”

Now that control is up in the air, as City Paper editor Evan Serpick (a former Baltimore senior editor) admits, “We don’t know exactly how this will play out.” The early signs are mixed. Staffers were at least buoyed by the fact that Jennifer Marsh—a Sun niche products director, who worked for decades at City Paper—has been named the publication’s general manager.

But, the first changes came a week after the deal’s announcement, as eight City Paper employees were fired, including creative director Joe MacLeod, who worked at the paper for 25 years. Then came a censorship blowup that played out in the national media after City Paper’s previous owners, Times-Shamrock, spiked several stories. Still, Tiffany Shackelford, executive director of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, says all is not necessarily lost with the purchase of an alt-weekly by a city’s major daily. She points to the Chicago Reader, which was purchased by the Chicago Sun-Times and is thriving thanks to additional resources.

Smith, however, true to form, remains skeptical: “There’s no best-case scenario, save for the people who at least get to keep their jobs.”

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City Paper Bought by the Baltimore Sun

Ron Cassie — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 13:27:00 +0000

The Baltimore Sun Media Group announced Thursday that it is purchasing the 37-year-old, alternative weekly City Paper.

Jennifer Marsh, a Baltimore Sun Media Group niche products director, was named City Paper’s general manager. Previously, the City Paper noted,
Marsh worked for more than 20 years at the alternative weekly, serving
as publisher from 2011 to 2013 before leaving for the Baltimore Sun
Media Group.

Distributed for free, the City Paper has a circulation of just over 50,000 a week, according to the Baltimore Sun, and receives about 200,000 monthly unique visitors via its Web and mobile apps.

The City Paper has often presented a differing
editorial voice to Baltimore’s mainstream daily, both in its reporting
and opinion pieces. Timothy Ryan, publisher, president, and CEO of the
Baltimore Sun Media Group, said that independent voice will be valued.

“This acquisition will allow us to build upon the existing success of the City Paper,”
Ryan said in making the announcement. “We want the paper to remain a
valued alternative, independent voice in Baltimore. That’s what made it
attractive to us—it’s adding a unique population of readers to our
overall audience.”

According to the City Paper, their Mount Vernon offices on Park Avenue operations will move to the Sun building on North Calvert Street in March.

In an email, CityPaper
editor Evan Serpick, a former Baltimore magazine senior editor, said
he’s not sure what impact, if any, the paper’s purchase by the Sun will have on editorial content.

“The truth is we really don’t know exactly how it will play out, in terms of our editorial work,” Serpick said. “We’re just in the first hours of getting our heads around this.”

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Canton comes together after tragedy

Jess Mayhugh — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 11:30:00 +0000

Tonight local bars and restaurants will be doing their part for the
community by donating a portion of their proceeds to Jon Fogg, a sports
editor at The Sun, who was robbed and assaulted in the neighborhood last month.

The “Count on Canton” event was organized by Stephanie Moore and Jasmine Touton, creators of neighborhood blog Stay Classy Canton.
This fundraiser was a “natural extension” of last summer’s Stoop
Nights, which were meant to encourage neighborhood familiarity and
fellowship, Grocott said.

“Canton was shocked when Jon Fogg was so
brutally attacked and, through our participation in online communities,
we realized that neighbors needed a way to collectively acknowledge the
injustice, support Fogg, and move forward,” she said. “We wanted to be
the voice for that effort and decided to spearhead getting local
businesses involved. The Canton community is full of passionate and
caring people who want to look out for each other.”

“Count on
Canton” is encouraging residents to leave their porch lights on, gather
together, and visit one of the participating locations to help Jon Fogg
and his family.

Just some examples of tonight’s specials include Smaltimore offering a free sushi roll with the purchase of a bottle of wine, Shiso Tavern offering $15 fishbowls all night, Sauté featuring a burger and a beer for $10, and Nacho Mama’s boasting $1 off margaritas all night. Those going out with their kids might want to stop by Verde, where children under 10 can get a free Margherita pizza.

See Stay Classy Canton’s blog for a complete list of participating bars and restaurants, and if you can’t make it out tonight, you can donate to Fogg’s recovery fund.

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