The City Paper

The City Paper

Type	Weekly Newspaper (Monday)
Format	Tabloid
Owner	SouthComm Inc.
Editor	Stephen George
Managing editors	Vincent Troia
Founded	November 1, 2000
Language	English
Headquarters	624 Grassmere Park, Suite 28; Nashville, Tennessee 37211
Circulation	78,000
Official website	www.nashvillecitypaper.com

The City Paper is a free weekly newspaper serving Nashville, Tennessee. The City Paper began publication as a daily (Monday through Friday) paper on November 1, 2000, providing competition to The Tennessean, which was the only daily in town after the Nashville Banner closed in 1998. The City Paper started with a daily circulation of about 40,000 copies and was being delivered to homes. Within a month, home delivery was cut back to only paid subscribers and circulation was cut to 20,000. Initially The City Paper was projecting a 90,000 circulation.

On March 2, 2004, City Paper founder Brian Brown announced he was replacing himself as publisher with Tom Larimer, who was previously publisher of the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro. A few months later, Larimer resigned and Jim Ezzell was named interim publisher on July 16, 2004. Ezzell, who has served on The City Paper’s operating committee for three years, is the chief financial officer of Thompson Machinery Commerce Corp., whose owners are investors in the newspaper. On June 2, 2006, The City Paper announced that it had hired Albie Del Favero, publisher of the Nashville Scene, as its publisher. For three years, the executive editor was Clint Brewer, formerly managing editor of the Lebanon Democrat and a past national president of the U.S. Society of Professional Journalists.

As of June 2007, The City Paper reached an average of more than 250,000 unique readers each week, according to a media audit reported in the Nashville Scene. For comparison, the same article reported, the A-section of The Tennessean had at that time reached 365,700 readers weekly.

It was announced April 9, 2008, that Nashville-based SouthComm Communications purchased The City Paper. Members of the Thompson family -- of Thompson Machinery fame -- retain a significant minority stake in the paper. On April 28, 2008, The City Paper began publishing and distributing print editions only two days each week, though it continued daily updates to its website. SouthComm, headed up by former Nashville Scene publisher Chris Ferrell, also owns the Nashville Post and Business Tennessee magazine, as well as other media products.

In late 2009, the City Paper started publishing only on Mondays, and the Thursday edition was merged with the Nashville Scene.

Stephen George, who had previously been editor of LEO Weekly, another SouthComm-owned publication, became editor of The City Paper in January 2010.

External links

• The City Paper's Official Web Site
• Nashville Business Journal: Brown sees next fortune in media with The City Paper
• Story on founding publisher Brian Brown firing himself
• City Paper names Larimer as Publisher
• Ezzell takes interim publisher post
• Nashville Scene: City Paper is in the publisher hunt
• The City Paper hires Del Favero as publisher
• Virtual Variation
• SouthComm signs letter of intent to purchase 'The City Paper'
• Publications' roles outlined