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In a memo to Village Voice Media staff, VVM CEO David Schneiderman announced that, under a deal reached with New Times, that New Times will cease to publish New Times LA. Under the terms of the deal, VVM will cease publishing the Cleveland Free Times (giving NT control of the Cleveland market with its paper, the Cleveland Scene), in exchange for NT's withdrawal from the Los Angeles market.
CEO Schniederman called the deal "too attractive to pass up" and said "this transaction is consistent with the strategic direction of the company. We feel strongly about the markets we are in and will continue to grow the company, both internally and through acquisitions."
The deal gives VVM effective hegemony over the Los Angeles alt-weekly market. Five years ago New Times LA displaced two revered local weeklies, the LA reader and the Village View. Now, with New Times exit, Angelenos with an appetite for a local weekly "alternative" will have nowhere to turn but to a bottom-line oriented, union-busting paper owned by a media company based in New York.
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