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“We never thought it would come to pass. We’ve received so many overtures over the years and they’ve never come to pass,” Bob Roth, a founder of the Reader in 1971 and president of Chicago Reader, Inc., told me. But when Creative Loafing made its overture in March, “we got a better offer than I expected. And I guess it was time. We’ve been here for 36 years.” Roth, who turned 60 this spring, said all ten people with an ownership stake in the company supported a sale. “I’m looking forward to a younger, energetic management,” he said. “Maybe it’ll be an improvement over us guys.”
“We have built our Creative Loafing brand by offering valuable content to people who influence public opinion and public tastes in culturally vibrant markets,” says Creative Loafing’s CEO, Ben Eason, in a prepared statement heavier on jargon than I wish it were. “The addition of two top-ten markets–and two of the industry’s most respected alternative news products–offers us a pivotal gateway of connectivity with the young adult audience.” He went on, “While others may be looking at publishing companies through the lens of old print media, we are pioneering the opportunities offered by convergent print, web, and new media applications.”
