News :: GLBT
Blade publisher disputes rumors of financial trouble by Ethan Jacobs
associate editorThursday Oct 2, 2008 UPDATE: The New England Blade’s print edition is now on hiatus, according to its website.
Last week the New England Blade became the subject of rumors on the LGBT blogosphere after local blogger Sam Baltrusis wrote Sept. 24 on his Loaded Gun blog that the paper was facing a financial crisis and had received an eviction notice from its landlord. Blade publisher James Patterson said reports of the paper’s financial difficulties were inaccurate, although he did not deny some of the specific claims made on Baltrusis’s blog.
Baltrusis wrote that an inside source had told him the Blade had been served an eviction notice from its offices at 450 Harrison Avenue in the South End. Baltrusis also alleged that staff had been told to wait to deposit their paychecks, that the company was two months behind on paying its distribution company, and that its parent company, HX Media in New York, had been working to find investors to put money into the company.
Patterson said the Blade’s landlord, GTI Properties, has not sent them an eviction notice.
"No, we haven’t gotten an eviction notice," said Patterson. "We’re at the end of our lease and we’re actually renegotiating. ... Our intention is to stay here but we haven’t completed [negotiations]."
John Kiger, leasing director for GTI Properties’s commercial properties, declined to comment when asked whether GTI had sent theBlade an eviction notice.
Patterson declined to comment on the claim that some staff were asked not to cash their paychecks, saying, "I really can’t go into detail about individual people’s pay situations."
He confirmed Baltrusis’s report that the paper is searching for new investors. He said they have already found some new investors, but he declined to name them.
"At this time we are currently going through a round of investor financing, which was just recently successfully completed," said Patterson. The Blade is owned by HX in Boston, LLC, which in turn is owned by the New York-based HX Media, publisher of HX magazine and the New York Blade. Patterson said he has found both individual and corporate investors that are investing in HX in Boston, but he said HX Media would continue to have a controlling share of the company.
Patterson also confirmed Baltrusis’s report that the paper fell behind on paying its distributor, although he described the delayed payment as a short-term, temporary situation. He said the crisis in the country’s financial markets prevented them from paying their distributor on time. He said the company does its banking through New York, and he claimed the panic on Wall Street temporarily reduced the liquidity of their funds. Patterson said the company has since paid the distributor and that last week’s issue arrived on stands a day late, on Sept. 26.
An informal survey of Blade distribution points in Boston and Somerville found that most if not all sites began receiving new issues sometime between late in the day on Sept. 27 and early Sept. 28.
Patterson said the country’s financial crisis has impacted the Blade.
"Things are tight. I’m not going to kid you," said Patterson. "What’s happening in the country’s financial markets is very much affecting us. We’re still very much solvent ... but things are tight."
TheNew England Blade, formerly known as In News Weekly, is owned by the New York-based HX Media. One of HX’s other satellite publications, HX Philadelphia, folded this past March.
Ethan Jacobs can be reached at ejacobs@baywindows.com
|
|
|
Email
Print
Share
