PRESS FOR SALE: The New York Post's Keith Kelly reported on Friday that New York Press, my favorite publication in the city, has been sold by founder Russ "Mugger" Smith for $5 million to a syndicate led by media veterans Charles Coletti and Doug Meadow. The new owners' first act was to fire longtime editor John Strausbaugh (author of "Rock 'Til You Drop") and promote erstwhile Managing Editor Lisa Kearns.
Smith, who will continue to write the "Mugger" column, had reportedly been facing family pressure to get out ever since the 9/11 attacks, and had previously rebuffed an advance from noted right-wing hedonist and former NYPress columnist Taki Theodoracopulos, who went on to co-found The American Conservative magazine along with Pat Buchanan. The new owners promise that the paper's editorial content will remain unchanged, and I sincerely hope that some of the paper's more unconventional writers (Christopher Caldwell, Jim Knipfel, and especially Armond White) escape the transition with their jobs intact.