Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Media / News Bites The Free Press — Still in Business!
Posted by Michael Miner on Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 5:26 PM
Minus three top staffers, the Chicago Free Press lives. Publisher David Costanzo, making one of his occasional appearances in the gay weekly's offices, told me Wednesday afternoon the next edition will come out on schedule Thursday.
The future of the Free Press was in question Tuesday, with word that editor in chief Matt Simonette, art director Vincent Lane, and senior writer Amy Wooten had walked out, and several freelance contributors were leaving with them. But Costanzo said he and general managers Jeff McBride and Bill Feld have been contacting those contributors, and everyone they've reached has agreed to stick with the paper.
It obviously helps matters that they're finally getting paid. Checks are either in the mail or they were handed out Tuesday night to anyone who dropped by the paper, said Costanzo. "Like everyone else, we've had cash flow problems," he told me, "and we've worked really really hard to manage expenses as well as revenues. We've done as good a job as anyone in the business. Throughout the entire 18 months [of the recession] we've never laid off a single employee. Other than me and a couple of other senior people still here, we never had to cut anybody's salaries. But over the last few months we had to delay some checks. We're not talking weeks or months — we're talking days."
He went on, "I'm not really upset with anybody, people have bills to pay," and then made it clear who he's upset with. "The three people who really were catalysts for the whole situation [Simonette, Lane, and Wooten] had no problem when my drivers' checks were held a few days, or when my contributors' checks were held a few days. When I didn't get paid, they had no problem. Basically, when they got paid they were happy — they didn't care about anybody else. We finally had to delay some salary paychecks — maybe we should have laid some salaried people off. That idea was floated and you'd think somebody was trying to kill them, so the idea wasn't pursued. It probably should have been."
He went on some more, "They're not coming back. They've resigned. I wish them the best of luck. I was a little disappointed the way they left, but that's their decision. But because it was the three of them all at once, we've been scrambling to get out the paper. We don't publish next week because it's the end of the year, so we have a two-week window to interview and find people. We probably won't fill all the slots but we'll probably have everything we need within a week to continue as if nothing had changed. But they're very talented people so I'm sure they'll land on their feet. But so will we. If we'd been given proper notice there'd be no problem at all. Clearly something happened yesterday because it seemed to be a coordinated effort where Bill and Jeff were talking to longstanding contributors Monday and everbody was OK and by Tuesday afternoon everyone was upset."
Staffers should have been paid last week. Contributors tell me they hadn't been paid since some time in November. A factor in the delay, Costanzo told me, was a legal claim against the Free Press that required the paper to maintain a balance of about $20,000 in its checking account. Costanzo said he found out about the problem on December 14, the day before payday — which he then missed. "I knew it was something I couldn’t resolve in a day," he told me. "I needed three days to get personal funds available."
Comments (7)
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Chicago Free Press, with or without David Costanzo, has one thing going for it: no one in their right mind wants to see Tracy Baim's trashy WINDY CITY TIMES remain as Chicago's only LGBT newspaper. That would be a genuine media travesty. So here's hoping Free Press gets its act together!
This is really sad news. Chicago Free Press has been the paper of record of Chicago's gay and lesbian community. The founders of the Free Press came from the original and real Windy City Times and continued the original WCT's reputation for professional, ethical and hard hitting news.
Tracy Baim, the publisher of the third rate Outlines, was shrewd when she bought (or by some accounts stole) the Windy City Times name from its then very ill publisher.
I pray that someone rescues Chicago Free Press. It would be a travesty if the only gay newspaper in town was published by Baim who has no journalistic ethics and who will print anthing that those who donate to her egomaniacal venture want her to print.
This is a sad day for not only for Chicago's gay community but a sad day for those who believe in a strong, truthful and independent press.
David costanzo is a liar. He would not show up to the paper for a week at a time. He never sat down with us to tell us anything about there having to be a delay in paychecks. It is sad that someone In our own community is letting us down. The general managers even said that he was the scum of the earth, but then would buddy up to him once he did show up, mysteriously. They had no way of contacting him, and had to resort to calling his moms house to find him. They said he was a coward and a baby in a little mans body. Its going to be amazing to see how this methlab, er, newspaper turns out.
David Costanzo's problem with the paper started years ago. He had repeatedly not show up for weeks. Staff was not getting paid and bills were not getting paid, most of the time for several weeks. Checks were getting bounced, he had a formula for disaster. Costanzo ran the paper down. He not only let down the gay community but his loyal employees. He walked away from the business back in April along with the money and would not answer anyone's calls. He owes staff as much as 3 pay periods of pay. He has been taken to court and has not responded to the court either. An owner of a paper like the CFP owes his staff and consumers an explanation. For someone who held high ranking executive positions in the business industry has no business ethic in his bones. What a shame!!!
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