City Pages’ parent sells off editor’s old paper to fund lawsuit appeal

In a San Francisco courtroom early this month, a question came up about the financial health of Village Voice Media — parent company of City Pages and 15 other altweeklies — and specifically, its ability to find nearly $16 million that it must pony up before it can appeal the company’s loss in a predatory pricing lawsuit there. The lawyer for VVM’s SF Weekly told the judge he was unsure that VVM’s lenders would OK the release of "collateral" necessary to fund a bond that VVM must post in order to appeal the verdict. Apparently, they’ve made progress on that front: The chain is selling its Cleveland paper, the one where City Pages’ Kevin Hoffman worked prior to coming on as CP’s top editor.

On Friday, Times-Shamrock Communications announced it’s buying Hoffman’s old paper, the Cleveland Scene, as well as the Cleveland Free Times (not owned by VVM), and eventually merging them into one publication. Terms of the deal, which closes today, weren’t released, but the papers will continue publishing individual editions for the next three issues, before being relaunched as the new, consolidated Scene.

Meanwhile, VVM’s financial woes might get a bit worse in coming days: Union members at its flagship paper, the NYC-based Village Voice, are threatening to strike over diminished healthcare and retirement benefits. This, as the New York Press notes, comes after "a dramatic series of layoffs nationwide, and specifically at The Village Voice," which has gone through five editors-in-chief in the last three years.