New Times LA

New Times LA is a now-defunct alternative weekly newspaper that was published in Los Angeles, California by the New Times Media corporation from 1996 until 2002. ^[1] The editor-in-chief for its entire run was Rick Barrs. Writer Jill Stewart was the paper's controversial political columnist.

In 2002, New Times Media entered into a non-competition agreement with Village Voice Media, another national publisher of alternative weeklies, whereby the two companies agreed to stop publishing New Times LA (a product of New Times Media) and Cleveland Free Times (a product of Village Voice Media), so that the companies would not publish two competing newspapers in any single city. The competing paper in Los Angeles was the LA Weekly. New Times Media continues to publish other New Times-titled publications, including Miami New Times, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, and Phoenix New Times.

This agreement and phasing out of the two newspapers led to an antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. The investigation resulted in a settlement, requiring the companies to sell off assets and the old newspapers' titles to any potential competitors.

The assets included such things as "office furniture, telephone systems", "all rights to the print and electronic archives of New Times LA publications", "permits and licenses for individual distribution racks and boxes", and "all customer lists, contracts, accounts, and credit records". ^[2]

New Times LA's assets were bought by Southland Publishing, Inc., who publish various local newsweeklies. Among the assets included news racks, which allowed Southland to start two new papers: Los Angeles CityBeat and ValleyBeat. ^[3]

References

1. ^ End of an Era at the LA Weekly, Jon Wiener June 27, 2007, The Nation
2. ^ Hold Separate Stipulation and Order : U.S. v. Village Voice Media, LLC and NT Media, LLC from US DOJ.
3. ^ Southland Won't Compete Head-to-Head With LA Weekly from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies's website, by John Ferri, July 1, 2003 (Accessed June 1, 2008)

• Howard Blume, The End of New Times, LA Weekly, October 4, 2002[1]
• Savannah Blackwell, New Times Nailed: SF Weekly's Parent Company Charged with Violating Antitrust Law, San Francisco Bay Guardian, January 29, 2003[2]