April 27, 2007

Daniel McQuade Deathwatch: No 'PW' Sale

Well, that was anticlimactic. The word inside the PW offices is whatever possible deal was on the table is now dead.

"There's nothing happening," PW owner Anthony Clifton said when asked about rumors of a potential PW sale. Clifton was largely absent from the office for several weeks after rumors of a possible sale were first reported, but has returned to his normal schedule.

Michael Klein first reported the paper might be sold in an Inquirer article in late March. The Daily News' Dan Gross followed that up by reporting Philadelphia Media Holdings' Brian Tierney was interested in purchasing the paper, and Klein reported again Village Voice Media (née New Times) appeared to be the frontrunner a week after his original report.

Steve Volk handled the actual reporting of the possible sale for PW, writing about another possible buyer, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader owner Richard Connor.

I continued to do my duty to report things in the stupidest way possible, reporting the sale by making up a mock Tierney-owned Philadelphia Will Do page, writing about the possibility of VVM purchasing the paper, applying to ridiculous jobs on Craigslist. Then I actually went out and did a little reporting of my own, shooting down a report VVM had purchased the paper.

Now I report this, but I hope I did it in a stupid enough way to keep my lack of credibility intact. So what does PW do now? Well, for one, there will be fewer photos of my face on the website, so you female readers can breathe easy. People smarter than I am (i.e. everyone here) will figure out the next step and I will follow along. It's odd, of course, to hear you're possibly going to be sold and then hear you're not, but, to be honest, I just tried not to think about it much. It's business, right?

Oh, and this: Yay!

Archives: Daniel McQuade Deathwatch
Steve Volk contributed to this report.

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April 04, 2007

Daniel McQuade Deathwatch: Oh Man Are We Being Sold To Village Voice? Oh Wait Maybe Not! Oh Wait Maybe! Oh Wait No! DAMMIT, THIS IS CONFUSING AND SAD!

Oh my God I'm sitting in the staff meeting right now and Village Voice Media executive editor Mike Lacey is right here and he's about to fire me right now holy shit and oh my God and what do we do and AAAAAAAAAH!

Er, no, wait. Despite the reports from Philebrity saying Philadelphia Weekly had been bought by Village Voice Media, that's not true.

A source -- perhaps not an exclusive top-level source, but one nonetheless -- says that Review Publishing (PW, South Philly Review, AC Weekly) is most likely being sold, but not to Village Voice Media.

So Mike Lacey isn't in our office right now, he wasn't at our meeting this morning and he certainly hasn't fired me. Huzzah!

BREAKING/PHILEBRITY EXCLUSIVE: PW BOUGHT BY VILLAGE VOICE! [Philebrity]

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April 03, 2007

Daniel McQuade Deathwatch: The Hunt Is On

If you missed the first edition of the Daniel McQuade Deathwatch, then you are missing out. To recap: Philadelphia Weekly is being sold. We don't know to who yet, but right now the frontrunner appears to be Village Voice Media (née New Times Media).

VVM reportedly doesn't want the other papers PW's parent company, Review Publishing, owns -- South Philly Review, Southwest Philly Review, Atlantic City Weekly. Perhaps Brian Tierney will snap those ones up instead; I don't know. But, for now, things are in some sort of holding pattern. Or not. We don't know here at PW!

But back on point: There is an outside -- read: definite -- chance that, under a new owner, I will be fired, or at least Philadelphia Will Do will be shut down. Some newspapers don't like the idea of a blog without much original reporting commenting on the news, as these blogs tend to be popular no matter how bad they are (e.g., Philadelphia Will Do) and newspaper companies can't have that.

Of course, I don't know if I'm going to be fired; it's mere conjecture on my part. Some of you might be saying, "But Dan" -- or, possibly, "D-Mac" -- "are you just doing this to perhaps shame your new bosses into not firing you?"

No... but... hmm. That's a good idea.

Continue reading "Daniel McQuade Deathwatch: The Hunt Is On"

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April 01, 2007

Daniel McQuade Deathwatch: Because If You're Going To Go Out, You Might As Well Have Some Fun With It

Have you heard the news? We here at Philadelphia Weekly certainly didn't!

Well, okay. If you haven't been following, Philadelphia Weekly is up for sale. All the bids are secret and apparently everyone involved signed nondisclosure agreements, which means we serfs here don't get to know who our future bosses will be.

Fortunately, the dailies have a bit of experience with newspaper sales, and so have reported on the deals anyway. Last week the Daily News' Dan Gross reported Philadelphia Media Holdings, the parent company of the Inquirer and DN, was one of the companies interested in bidding for the Weekly.

(Like caffeine or meth, media properties can be an addiction. PMH head honcho Brian Tierney apparently got one taste and had to go back for a second.)

Today, though, the Inquirer's Michael Klein reports Tierney might have to find another dealer:

Continue reading "Daniel McQuade Deathwatch: Because If You're Going To Go Out, You Might As Well Have Some Fun With It"

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