Stop The Presses: 'E&P' Gets New Owner

Editor & Publisher

After a fortnight in purgatory, Editor & Publisher has been resurrected and will resume both its print and online editions under new ownership.

Following a popular outcry by readers and advertisers, the temporarily defunct trade publication has been bought from Nielsen Co. by Duncan McIntosh Co., a newspaper and magazine publisher based in Irvine, California. The terms of the deal (which also include E&P's trade shows) were not disclosed.

Duncan McIntosh, the eponymous owner, stated that he is a long-time reader of the trade title and believes it provides an urgently needed service to the ailing newspaper industry. McIntosh is bringing back publisher Charles McKeown, and Mark Fitzgerald has been promoted to editor from his previous role as editor at large, replacing former editor Greg Mitchell. Neither Mitchell or senior editor Joe Strupp is returning.

advertisement

advertisement

So far there are no details as to other staffing decisions; with the still-defunct Kirkus Reviews, Editor & Publisher employed about 18 people in various capacities.

The 126-year-old trade publication's return was widely applauded by readers who depended on the trade title's comprehensive coverage of the newspaper business, especially as the medium has undergone traumatic changes in the last couple of years.

Although many digital prophets have written the epitaph for the print newspaper business, newspapers of all sizes continue to report and advertise activity online. More immediately, the upheaval in the newspaper business makes for interesting (if not always pleasant) reading.

Last month, Nielsen's abrupt announcement that it planned to shutter the well-regarded trade came as a surprise to many. Nielsen made the decision after failing to sell Editor & Publisher as part of a larger divestiture of trade titles, which also included the sale of Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek and The Hollywood Reporter to a new company, e5 Global Media LLC, formed by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners. (e5 recently recruited Richard Beckman, former boss of Conde Nast's Fairchild trade publisher, as CEO.)

Nielsen's closing of E&P generated remarkable controversy and a good deal of criticism from readers and indeed the publication's own editorial staff, focusing on Nielsen's lack of commitment and strategic insight.

The newspaper business E&P covers continued to produce unhappy news, with the disclosure that Village Voice Media could be forced to declare bankruptcy after losing a court decision over allegations of price-fixing, according to a Bloomberg News report. One of Village Voice Media's Bay Area affiliates was ordered to pay $15 million to the Bay Guardian Co. but has failed to do so (with interest, the amount owed now stands at $21 million). The Bay Guardian now has a lien on Village Voice Media's newspaper properties, including the New York alt mainstay, The Village Voice.

1 comment about "Stop The Presses: 'E&P' Gets New Owner".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Jonathan Mirow from BroadbandVideo, Inc., January 18, 2010 at 12:37 p.m.

    And they're changing the name to "Editor & Bankruptcy"...but first they're going to an online-only pay model. Happy Monday.

Next story loading loading..