Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Breaking News / Media / Silverman Yep, It's True. SouthComm to Purchase the Scene from Village Voice Media
Posted by Jack Silverman on Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 4:15 PM
Few people read the whole daily paper; they read sections that appeal to them. We essentially are unbundling the daily," he added. "The City Paper is our brand for news and sports, the Nashville Post and BusinessTN are our business news brands and the Scene gives us the strongest brand in the market for coverage of arts and culture. With this acquisition, we've built out our Nashville model. Over time, we will look to replicate our work here in other cities.The terms of the sale have not been disclosed, but a source familiar with the deal's finances said that a sale price of $4 million had been mentioned early in negotiations. Rumors about such a deal began swirling through the Scene offices a couple of months ago, then more rumors surfaced that the deal was off. A couple of weeks ago, the grapevine chatter indicated that the deal was in fact a likelihood. Needless to say, there's been a bit of apprehension in both newsrooms as folks speculate on their job security. In fact, even though pretty much everyone here knew the news was coming, we've been a bit overwhelmed with a variety of emotions here at Pith. Stay tuned....
Comments (24)
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First article I've read in a month without an "F bomb" in it.
You guys are losing your swerve.
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Actually, I will welcome any changes that the new owners wish to institute.
How about having writers that don't call anyone they disagree with "crazy", "hayseeds" or "douche bags" as you folks are prone to do.
Constantly.
Welcome my son, Welcome, to the Machine.
Chris Ferrell said: "We essentially are unbundling the daily.The City Paper is our brand for news and sports.... and the Scene gives us the strongest brand in the market for coverage of arts and culture."
I worry about the impliction that the Scene could lose what remains of its local news section and become nothing more than an entertainment paper. That would be a serious mistake, and the end of the Scene as an alt weekly. On the other hand, one hears that Liz Garrigan may be returning as editor, something I don't believe she would agree to do if the paper were to lose the "front of the book."
And, by the way, congratulations for finally posting this story. Please tell Mike Lacey that I don't think we'll miss him. (And convey my sympathies to editor Pete Kotz who moved here from Cleveland just last summer, a decent guy who has had two VVM papers sold out from under him in less than two years.)
For all of Ferrell's talk about "delivering" readers to advertisers, no where was anything mentioned about the vital role each paper could/should play in the community. No where was there any mention of the actual news, just a bunch of bizspeak gobbledygook.
Here is a story that will never be written: How many working journalists have been put out on the street by the Southcomm roll up? How many people that once covered the city and state - government, sports, community, culture - are no longer doing their job and contributing to the collective dialogue because of this "unbundling" and the positions eliminated? And for what?
Has the advent of Southcomm and "local" ownership (Where does Solidus' money come from, anyway?) for some of these products been good or bad for the city? If the Scene becomes All The Rage, then local ownership sucks. Local ownership is a meme, something that is stated as if it were good on its face. That is not always the case when it comes to media.
Glad to see Henry finally found some compassion for the folks working at the Scene and the trauma their families are feeling tonight. Given Ferrell's ties to the Scene staff, it might be the existing Southcomm/City Paper people that should be worried in the long run. He's been killing them off like flies since the day he walked in the door.
Corporate media. Indeed.
Please, please don't turn into something like metromix. that would be so depressing.
Although I did find it funny that you sister paper is Nfocus. Oh, your sister is a snobby ass bitch.
With the fewest of exceptions, the SCENE in the Village Voice Media era has done little local media coverage and investigative reporting.
The return of both during the SCENE's new Southcomm regime is a must, if readers are to take the paper seriously.
Since we can't count on Southcomm's existing property to cover Music Row as a business, not to mention without conflict of interest (as indicated in the observation associated with this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/arts/09alsmail-MENSVIEWOFNE_LETTERS.html ), why not use increased corporate leverage to do just that? I was once a publicist and continue to have good working relationships with those in the field in my capacity as a publisher and editor, but let's lose the stranglehold that publicists and out-of-control 501 (C) 3s like the Country Music Association and the Country Music Foundation have over music journalists. (There's a reason that The New York Times published the thoughts cited above as a matter of course. Can you imagine this viewpoint ever being represented in, let alone by, The Tennessean?)
Stacy (Make Me an Offer, Chris Ferrell) Harris
Publisher/Editor
Stacy's Music Row Report
http://www.geocities.com/stacy.harris/report.html
^5 to Harry Steele
The Scene -- and, to be honest, the CityPaper and even lordhelpme The Tenneseean -- are almost parodies of what they once were. Nashville has long been quality-newspaper-poor, but the Scene has fallen the farthest by far. We all know it's hard times in the newspaper biz, but the current incarnation of this paper is a cheap, mean-spirited reflection of what it used to be. You can be hip and funny and even snarky and win my heart, but not if abuse your readership with coarse invective, insist on posting videos about Cleveland, and acting like you're too good to be slumming in RedneckLandia.
There are potential bright spots. Mr. Ferrell says that he is unbundling the paper and that there will be real newspapers surviving the mix. The writers from the Scene could be moved to the City Paper/Nashville Post and do real news, instead of whatever it is the City Paper has become.
I'm sure the new Republican Scene will be a pleasing addition to any fine home, and a bastion of taste in the decorative arts.
*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*
Don't know about falling farthest, but it's been pretty far.
"The Scene -- and, to be honest, the CityPaper and even lordhelpme The Tenneseean -- are almost parodies of what they once were. Nashville has long been quality-newspaper-poor, but the Scene has fallen the farthest by far. We all know it's hard times in the newspaper biz, but the current incarnation of this paper is a cheap, mean-spirited reflection of what it used to be. You can be hip and funny and even snarky and win my heart, but not if abuse your readership with coarse invective, insist on posting videos about Cleveland, and acting like you're too good to be slumming in RedneckLandia."
Please, please keep Woods - tell him to tone down the insults and get him to report on the hard news of what's going on in state government and politics, along with Whitehouse. Frankly, we need media who will hold up the General Assembly and Metro Council to the mockery they richly deserve - media who will continue to ask tough questions about public priorities like the boondoggle convention center project.
Please, please keep the paper and blogs relevant.
Please don't turn the political reporting over to a bunch of right-wing shills.
Say it ain't so. Knoxville's Metropulse was bought up by the Knoxville News Sentinel and it has morphed from an alternative news source into an events calendar for concerts and exhibits. Please tell me the Scene will continue to cover politics. It is the only connection we have to the truth.
Good for you guys. I wasn't ever happy in the direction NT took the Scene. Having worked at both the Scene and New Times papers, I really did not like the way New Times handled the Scene. Their cookie cutter philosophy, that “what works in one city should work in all” was absurd, especially in a fiercely independent vehicle like the Scene, and in a place like Nashville. Their system does work in other cities, ones where they established themselves as New Times from the very beginning. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other original Village Voice papers cast away from New Times as the merger is just not working.
I’m not sure what Ferrell has in mind, and I appreciate the worries about job cuts, but I think some connection to your editorial roots and some common sense in the marketing/sales departments will make for a happier office.
I heard the news today, oh boy...
I've enjoyed my very, very brief stint writing some Pith articles for the Scene and getting hammered in the threads. I hope the Scene doesn't change much. I hope people get to keep their jobs. And I hope that the articles will continue to reveal to us the thought processes and values of our friends on the left side of the street. I think it is vital that we know what each other is thinking, and the Scene is a great place for that. Good Luck to all of you at the Nashville Scene.
I read these comments regarding the half-ass hope and "deep concern" for the people who might or might not keep their jobs after this change of hands, and I can honestly tell you that many have been wam-bam-jam laid off, overnight. I already know of three people, personally, who worked their asses off for the Scene and truly were committed to their jobs, who were thrown aside last week at the drop of a hat. Yes, I'm ranting over my friends' personal situations, but I am more so repulsed at the face of Corporate Media coming in disguised as a local business, who lay off people in this economy. How do you sleep at night? Additionally, regarding the remainder of our beloved paper, I have heard from other close media and public relations sources that the new face of the Nashville Scene will only be skin deep, forecasting which desperate band is playing at the dive bar tomorrow night. So let me end my banter with this: I am pleading from the bottom of my Nashville-born-and-raised heart, keep the soul of the Scene in the paper. Keep the quirky east Nashville columns. Keep the conflicted, smarty-pant writers in their desk chairs. Locals don't need an unbundled listing of line ups across town; we as Nashvillians crave the wise-ass, snarky, grueling, I can't believe they wrote that, local paper.
maybe now the scene will turn into a piece of shit like the rage did,
Visit my site, http://nashvillesuxxx.blogspot.com, to share your problems with this God-forsaken hell hole...
I definitely feel for those who are ass-out at the hands of Citizen Ferrell, but from what I hear he's made some pretty good decisions about the paper initially. If hands aren't tied too tightly it could be better than you all are imagining.
Not sure how I feel about this. Hope things don't change that much.
http://tomoveanation.blogspot.com
You need think about it. Despite the emails, the overwhelming evidence showing global warming is happening hasn't changed.
"The e-mails do nothing to undermine the very strong scientific consensus . . . that tells us the Earth is warming, that warming is largely a result of human activity," Jane Lubchenco, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told a House committee. She said that the e-mails don't cover data from NOAA and NASA, whose independent climate records show dramatic warming.
