Wednesday, December 27, 2017

[BREAKING NEWS] Creative Loafing Shrinks Workforce

Earlier today, Creative Loafing informed a significant portion of their workforce that they are now jobless. The news, which was reportedly shared with employees mid-day, comes just months after the popular publication ended its weekly print edition in favor of a monthly publication with an increased emphasis on its digital offerings.  
The current issue of Creative Loafing


The final weekly edition came out July 17.  Carlton Hargro, editor in chief, wrote this online:  

[W]e’ve beefed up our page count, switched to a fancy cover stock and rolled out a brand-spanking-new logo. Once you flip deeper into this edition, you’ll see we’ve extended the redesign vibe through the entire issue. On top of that, this month we’re bringing back some sorely missed editorial elements from back in the day (our Arts Agenda and Soundboard listings, for example) and rolling out some newness as well (such as a revamped News & Culture Briefs).

Founded in 1972 by Deborah Eason, Creative Loafing once had sibling publications in Charlotte,  Sarasota, and Tampa, among other cities.  Following some aggressive acquisitions in 2007, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2008, and began to slowly sell off its regional papers.  

Nashville-based SouthComm purchased Creative Loafing in 2012.  In 2017, SouthComm sold the paper to Ben Eason, son of original founder Deborah Eason.   

Creative Loafing's current logo 

In an era of abundant free news, often at one's fingertips, it seems Creative Loafing is merely the latest casualty of the internet era.  Sources say there are no immediate plans to end the paper entirely, but with a "ghost staff," the bell may toll for The Loaf sooner rather than later.  

Unlike The Atlanta Business Chronicle, which often hides their "premium" information behind a paywall, Creative Loafing provided its rich, thoughtful and often exclusive content free of charge both in print and online.  With advertising revenue the main source of income for the paper, and so many options where to spend advertising dollars, the shrinking "slice" that Creative Loafing was able to garner clearly added to its struggles.  

While Creative Loafing officials have made no public comment since we first tweeted word of the layoffs just after 2PM today, whoever is managing the the @CL_Atlanta twitter handle "liked" our tweet.  
Are you surprised by the recent moves at Creative Loafing?  When was the last time you read a physical Creative Loafing?  What one thing could the owners of Creative Loafing do to improve their paper?

Please share your thoughts below.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad they're out of business. Really, how much of a market is there for the left-wing bedwetting drivel that they published? Their death is proof of Atlantans' good taste. Sayonara!

Anonymous said...

Oh a new logo and branding. That's never been tried before it may just save this iconic institution.

RayAtL said...

The end of an Atlanta institution for sure...
another death by internet!

Anonymous said...

Its sad when someone becomes jobless. Unfortunately, the editors at CL insisted on a hard left point of view and their readership shrank in portion. Its the same thing as happening over at AJC. But AJC's parent, Cox, has much more money than CL ever dreamed. (BTW, Cox once owned part of CL). Cox makes truckloads of money from their non-print businesses, so they can (for now) afford to support AJC to keep their lefty opinions in front of their shrinking audience. AJC has drastically cut staff and pages over the last few years. AJC does not even update their web site on weekends, except for outline coverage of very major events. And they leave some local stories up as headlines sometimes for 3-4 days. Those are not traits of a thriving publication. Death watch?

Ham said...

I think if they did take a little bit of a more mainstream view it might help, but not sure that was their only problem. First, I never see their papers anymore it seems at one time ever restaurant in Atlanta had a stack by the door. Also, they need to focus more on music, art, entertainment, etc. and less on political topics. Again, the slant might be to the left, but beyond that no one really looks to Creative Loafing for their news. They have to find a niche and give people something that isn’t readily available other places.

Anonymous said...

Should have gone alt-right, apparently

Anonymous said...

We need alt weeklies like Creative Loafing to survive. Otherwise, we're just left with racist right wing conservative propaganda from the AJC, from local TV news, from local radio and from FOX Noise to continue brainwashing morons to vote against their economic interests by continuing to vote for the racist 1 percenter Republican traitors.

Anonymous said...

Are you people serious? You all most be OTP'ers. CL appealed to those of us that live in the city...you know, progressive people that aren't stuck in the Trump world of privilege.

Anonymous said...

CL appealed to plenty of us OTP'ers and was widely read when they had copies around, but over the past several years they removed nearly all boxes from Alpharetta down.

Anonymous said...

How sad that someone is HAPPY that they're out of business. Whether left, right, middle, etc. there's information out there for everyone. There are plenty of publications or websites that I don't have interest in. I don't wish them to go out of business and thus have more unemployed people. How do people get so jaded that because there's a publication that doesn't jive with their hardened views, that they are thrilled with failure. SMH...

Anonymous said...

"We need alt weeklies like Creative Loafing to survive. Otherwise, we're just left with racist right wing conservative propaganda from the AJC, from local TV news, from local radio and from FOX Noise to continue brainwashing morons to vote against their economic interests by continuing to vote for the racist 1 percenter Republican traitors."

What drugs are you on? Right wing AJC? All media even FOX contributed loads of money to the DNC and HRC. The 1 percenters are people like Soros, paying for worldwide anarchy. It's delusional moon bats like you that elected Trump.

My 3 children grew up in a liberal household, both my spouse and I Democrats. Those three millineals I raised listened to crazed people like you (alt left) and voted for Trump. The psychological warfare is NOT working. Keep up the good fight though.

Anonymous said...

I forgot Creative Loafing was still around. Haven't picked up a copy in years.

Coolio said...

OMG you people... left, right, there is more to life than politics. Some of you same people who bash the "other side" are the same ones that for decades watched politicians lie to you over and over again and you do NOTHING DIFFERENT. Newsflash: they are ALL crooks.

What does any of this have to do with a newspaper? If all you can say is the left this and the right that, YOU are what's wrong with the world. Take your head out of your wazoo and for once stop going to your easy, go-to answer which is almost always political. Besides, maybe, just maybe if the person managing the CL Twitter account thought enough to retweet the info, maybe more of those people actually read THIS site, and maybe they could get some truly CONSTRUCTIVE criticism from thoughtful readers instead of drivel from rejects of the high school debate team.

Anonymous said...

Coolio nailed it.

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