No more Bartels at City Pages?
The Star Tribune’s David Shaffer gets the scoop, writing that publisher Mark Bartel left by “absolutely mutual” decision Wednesday. (That quote came from the Village Voice Media exec in charge, Kurtis Bardon — not from Bartel, who could not be reached. Bardon says he will run CP until a replacement is found.)
Bartel’s brother Tom founded City Pages three decades ago. Mark started there as a receptionist but swooped in as publisher after Village Voice Media purchased the alt-weekly in 1997 and fired Tom. That began an entertaining feud that saw Tom Bartel create The Rake, a rival publication (though one more aimed at the glossy-monthly market).
Village Voice sold out to Phoenix-based alt-chain New Times in 2005, but Mark Bartel survived that, too. (New Times took VVM’s name.)
Something bigger may be up at VVM, whose officials did not return emails for comment. Mark Bartel is the second VVM publisher to depart within a month; Michael Cohen, who published New York’s Village Voice since 2006, left Jan. 26.
Like many formerly print-only companies, VVM and its alt-weekly publishers have been navigating the choppy waters of digital conversion. It’s possible VVM wants someone who is more of a digital native than Bartel.
Through November 2010, VVM digital revenues grew 45 percent from a year earlier, according to new media director Bill Jensen. That includes revenue from its Craigslist competitor, Backpage.com and national and local ad networks.
But print — which still provides the majority of revenues for most legacy publishers — is on the wane. So far in 2011, City Pages’ page count is down 9 percent from 2010, even though page sizes recently shrank. Over the years, the paper has moved more listings to citypages.com; Bartel noted in December that the paper was devoting more space to food, music and concerts.
