Implications of the City Paper sale

http://blogs.nashvillescene.com/pitw/2008/04/more_details_on_the_city_paper.php

Former Metro Council member and former Nashville Scene publisher Chris Ferrell is buying the City Paper. His company also owns Nashville Post. The plan is to beef up the web presence of the City Paper and publish a print edition on Mondays and Fridays. The obvious questions about whether the new model can make money have been raised. The Scene's piece in Pith in the Wind also raises important political coverage questions. The City Paper and Nashville Post provide some of the best political coverage in the state (along with the Chattanooga Times Free Press). There are no plans to axe the editors of either who are highly focused on state and local political news.

The City Paper has been a reliable source for coverage of publicly relevant GLBT stories over the last few years. Their editorials have also been generally supportive of our community seeing negative legislation for what it is--a diversion and divisiveness.

Nashville's GLBT community will remember Ferrell as one of the champions of the failed non-discrimination ordinance that would have protected Metro employees on the basis of sexual orientation, though not gender identity. Chris has been a reliable friend to the community and his support goes back at least to the early nineties during his days at Vanderbilt Divinity School where he and I were both students at the same time.

I admit that I will miss picking up my copy of the City Paper every week day, but a heftier version on Mondays and Fridays will certainly be welcome. Best of luck, Chris!

A hat tip to Jerry Jones for making me aware of the story.