News of the sale of Window Media assets means the never-ending saga in Atlanta’s LGBT media world is likely to continue. Patrick Saunders at Atlanta’s Creative Loafing points out that the new owners of the Southern Voice assets are considering rebranding their publications under the SoVo and David names.
The new owners of the assets currently run the Atlanta Free Press and Gaydar. Earlier this month, Saunders reported that AFP was losing staff because the paper was unable to pay its staff. Despite being cash-strapped, the company was able to come up with the $9,000 necessary to buy the Atlanta-based assets.
The asset purchase is a surprise considering the many claims that Atlanta Free Press couldn’t pay their bills. Former AFP editor Xanna Don’t and art director Loren Hoffman both told CL earlier this month that the publication ceased because no one was getting paid. Neumann claimed the stoppage was due to the changeover in staff over creative differences.
O’Kelley said that purchasing the assets had been in the works for awhile. ”We kept very quiet about it,” he said. He says that the reason Atlanta Free Press has not published anything in the last month was because they were, “waiting to see what would happen today.” He would not elaborate on what that meant and if the paper stopped publishing so they could raise money to buy the SoVo/David assets.
The former SoVo employees who were outbid still plan to launch their own, competing LGBT publication–known as Georgia Voice–in mid-March.
