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Published on Wednesday, 09 May 2012 16:07
According to a
report by Lynne Marek on the Crain's Chicago Business website today, alternative weekly newspaper the Chicago Reader is close to being purchased by Wrapports, LLC, the organization of investors that recently
purchased Sun-Times Media Holdings, the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times. Reportedly, the sale will be for $3 million and could be announced as soon as next week.
Back in March, Lynne Marek originally
reported in Crain's Chicago Business that the Chicago Reader is being shopped around by an agency hired by its owner, Creative Loafing. Among the organizations that was reportedly approached was Wrapports, LLC. Half-hearted
denials by Reader media columnist Michael Miner and other Reader executives were quickly issued, despite having facts and sources of the story appearing to be solid. The article's writer, Lynne Marek, is the same person who revealed last December's sale of the Chicago Sun-Times to Wrapports, LLC weeks before it happened. At that time, the Sun-Times issued similar half-hearted denials.
In August 2009, the bankruptcy court allowed Creative Loafing's chief creditor, Atalaya Capital Management to take over the company and its properties, but the New York-based private equity firm had no desire to be a long-term publishing company. Since taking over, Atalaya has been slowly selling off properties and cutting expenses. It would appear that the Chicago Reader is next on its list to unload -- and that unloading could be just days away.
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