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JURY FINDS NEW VILLAGE VOICE OWNERS MORE LIKE CLASSIC CORPORADOS THAN
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
SF CHRONICLE - The war between the San Francisco alternative weekly
newspapers came to a head Wednesday when a jury decided the SF Weekly
must pay $6.3 million in damages to the San Francisco Bay Guardian for
undercutting its rival with below-cost ads. Damages could swell to as
much as $15.6 million, because San Francisco Superior Court Judge Marla
Miller has the discretion to triple portions of the jury award.
After a five-week trial, jurors agreed with Guardian Publisher Bruce
Brugmann's claims that the SF Weekly purposely undercut the Guardian
with bargain display-ad rates, then used cash infusions from its
Phoenix-based parent company, Village Voice Media, to stay afloat.
Brugmann said the battle was a classic case of a national chain trying
to squeeze out the little guy, and the competition was so unfair it
could have pushed his paper, which he founded with his wife in 1966, out
of business.
Although offering a lower price is the golden rule of good business, it
can be illegal in California if a company purposely undercuts a rival
with the specific intention of bankrupting the competition.
Jurors thought the SF Weekly's actions were predatory, said Guardian
Executive Editor Tim Redmond. "We are thrilled," Redmond said. "It's a
victory not just for the Guardian, but for small business and
independent publishers in California and everywhere because it shows
that a small business has a right to a level playing field when
competing with a big national chain."
Throughout the trial, Redmond and a writer for the SF Weekly have been
trading barbs in daily blogs from the courtroom. The Weekly blogger,
Andy Van De Voorde, has painted the Guardian and its enigmatic publisher
as out-of-touch "typewriter journalists" who haven't learned to compete
in the electronic age. Redmond has made hay of Van De Voorde's
out-of-town address, referring to him as a suit-and-tie corporate lackey
forced to swallow his soul to write hit pieces on an innocent, locally
owned alternative weekly. . .
In a statement about the verdict on the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch,"
Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey compared Brugmann to
environmentalist and erstwhile presidential candidate Ralph Nader, a man
"out of touch with reality" whose "obsession manipulated the system."
"Brugmann thus earned in court more than he ever earned in 40 years of
publishing," Lacey wrote. "Instead of competing in the marketplace,
Brugmann sought a court-ordered price-fixing scheme."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/06/
MNSHVEBUQ.DTL&hw=bay+guardian&sn=001&sc=1000
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JURY FINDS NEW VILLAGE VOICE OWNERS MORE LIKE CLASSIC CORPORADOS THAN
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
SF CHRONICLE - The war between the San Francisco alternative weekly
newspapers came to a head Wednesday when a jury decided the SF Weekly
must pay $6.3 million in damages to the San Francisco Bay Guardian for
undercutting its rival with below-cost ads. Damages could swell to as
much as $15.6 million, because San Francisco Superior Court Judge Marla
Miller has the discretion to triple portions of the jury award.
After a five-week trial, jurors agreed with Guardian Publisher Bruce
Brugmann's claims that the SF Weekly purposely undercut the Guardian
with bargain display-ad rates, then used cash infusions from its
Phoenix-based parent company, Village Voice Media, to stay afloat.
Brugmann said the battle was a classic case of a national chain trying
to squeeze out the little guy, and the competition was so unfair it
could have pushed his paper, which he founded with his wife in 1966, out
of business.
Although offering a lower price is the golden rule of good business, it
can be illegal in California if a company purposely undercuts a rival
with the specific intention of bankrupting the competition.
Jurors thought the SF Weekly's actions were predatory, said Guardian
Executive Editor Tim Redmond. "We are thrilled," Redmond said. "It's a
victory not just for the Guardian, but for small business and
independent publishers in California and everywhere because it shows
that a small business has a right to a level playing field when
competing with a big national chain."
Throughout the trial, Redmond and a writer for the SF Weekly have been
trading barbs in daily blogs from the courtroom. The Weekly blogger,
Andy Van De Voorde, has painted the Guardian and its enigmatic publisher
as out-of-touch "typewriter journalists" who haven't learned to compete
in the electronic age. Redmond has made hay of Van De Voorde's
out-of-town address, referring to him as a suit-and-tie corporate lackey
forced to swallow his soul to write hit pieces on an innocent, locally
owned alternative weekly. . .
In a statement about the verdict on the SF Weekly blog, "The Snitch,"
Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey compared Brugmann to
environmentalist and erstwhile presidential candidate Ralph Nader, a man
"out of touch with reality" whose "obsession manipulated the system."
"Brugmann thus earned in court more than he ever earned in 40 years of
publishing," Lacey wrote. "Instead of competing in the marketplace,
Brugmann sought a court-ordered price-fixing scheme."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/06/
MNSHVEBUQ.DTL&hw=bay+guardian&sn=001&sc=1000
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