Thanks to ProjectQAtlanta–who have been closely following the Window Media bankruptcy–there’s news that former employees of Southern Voice in Atlanta and the Washington Blade in DC could become the owners of their former papers, at bargain-basement prices.
The Window Media assets could sell for as low as $26,200 if no other buyers come forward by Feb. 25, when the sale of assets are expected to be approved during a hearing before the federal bankruptcy court in Atlanta. In November, ProjectQAtlanta reported Window Media owed $15 million to creditors, including over $1 million in unpaid salaries and taxes.
Here’s the details from PQA:
The bids by the potential suitors include $8,000 for the assets of Southern Voice and David, $15,000 for the Washington Blade and $3,200 for the South Florida Blade and 411 magazine. The offers include property located in the offices of the former Window Media and Unite Media publications, URLs related to the publications and the right to use the names of the publications
The bidders for SoVo, PQA reports, are Southern Voice founder Chris Cash and Laura Douglas-Brown, the paper’s editor when it closed. The bid for the Blade came from Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia, Inc., a company that launched the D.C. Agenda and is owned by Kevin Naff, the Blade’s former editor, former Publisher Lynne Brown and sales executive Brian Pitts. In Florida, Peter Clark, who is the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based publisher of Hotspots magazine, has bid on the former properties, including the Genre website.
According to the report, Window Media saw an almost complete collapse of its revenue, falling from $1.69 million in revenue in 2007 to $1.21 million in 2008 to $587,320 in 2009. The Blade, considered the most profitable publications in the chain, saw revenue go from $3.74 million in revenue in 2007 to $1.80 million in 2009.