Tim Redmond: Cleveland Merger Marks a 'Curious New Chapter'
By AAN Staff
june 27, 2008 08:33 am
The
San Francisco Bay Guardian executive editor offers his take on
the deal announced last week that will merge the
Cleveland Free Times and Cleveland
Scene under new owners Times Shamrock. He wonders why "VVM couldn't create a monopoly, [but] another newspaper outfit apparently can." He's referring to when the Justice Department nixed
a similar 2002 deal between New Times and Village Voice Media (then two separate companies) that shuttered the
Free Times. Justice forced the sale of
Free Times to a group of investors, and the paper
reopened in May 2003. "I'll leave it to you to speculate on why we couldn't do this deal, but Times Shamrock could," VVM executive editor Andy Van De Voorde says. Redmond says the Justice Department has yet to respond to his request for comment.